Memory, Remembering and Recollecting in an Amazonian Village.

Memory, Remembering and Recol lect ion in an Amazonian Vi l lage Oral hi s tory of Ocaina people in a Nat ive Communi ty Nueva Esper anza in Peruvian Amazon The Ocainas are not a very numerous t r ibe ( thei r populat ion i s no more than 300 per sons) in the Amazonian region of Peru and Colombia. Since the t ime of the f i r st contact s in the 80' s, they were forced to work as rubber picker s , fal l ing pr ey to the peon sys tem of being gradual ly indebted. They were gradual ly enslaved and murder ed by the employees of the Peruvian Amazon Rubber Company which became the sel f - proclaimed ruler of the Putumayo r egion, the Ocainas ' or iginal home . Fol lowing the discovery and invest igat ion of the genocide ( later known as the Putumayo scandal ) and the ter r i tor ial confl icts between Peru and Colombia, the Ocainas and the cul tur al ly related Hui totos, Bor as and Andoques, wer e al l for ced by thei r pat rons to move to the Peruvian ter r i tory. Dur ing the mul t iple t r ans fer s in the year s to come, many died of hunger , exhaust ion and as a resul t of epidemies of impor ted di seases, most ly measles and var iola. My aim was to f ind out how the Ocainas remember thei r pas t and what i t tel l s of thei r r elat ion to i t . I t is not surpr is ing that they ar e not par t..