Urban Imaginaries in Native Amazonia

Tales of Alterity, Power, and Defiance

Fernando Santos-Granero (Editor), Emanuele Fabiano (Editor)
Hardcover ($65.00), Ebook ($35.00) Buy
Urban life has long intrigued Indigenous Amazonians, who regard cities as the locus of both extraordinary power and danger. Modern and ancient cities alike have thus become models for the representation of extreme alterity under the guise of supernatural enchanted cities. This volume seeks to analyze how these ambiguous urban imaginaries—complex representations that function as cognitive tools and blueprints for social action—express a singular view of cosmopolitical relations, how they inform and shape forest-city interactions, and the history of how they came into existence.

Featuring analysis from historical, ethnological, and philosophical perspectives, contributors seek to explain the imaginaries’ widespread diffusion, as well as their influence in present-day migration and urbanization. Above all, it underscores how these urban imaginaries allow Indigenous Amazonians to express their concerns about power, alterity, domination, and defiance.

Contributors
Natalia Buitron
Philippe Erikson
Emanuele Fabiano
Fabiana Maizza
Daniela Peluso
Fernando Santos-Granero
Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen
Robin M. Wright

***
Contents
Introduction. Amerindian Urban Imaginaries: A Double-Mirror Reality
Fernando Santos-Granero and Emanuele Fabiano

Part I. Enchanted Cities and Urban Cosmopolitics
1. Cities of Transformation and Power in the Baniwa and Kuripako Cosmos
Robin M. Wright
2. Arboreal City-States, Phyto-Warfare, and Dendritic Societies: An Urarina Metropolitan View of the World
Emanuele Fabiano
3. A Tale of Three Cities: Power Relations amid Ese Eja Urban Imaginaries
Daniela Peluso

Part II. Forest-City Tensions and Interactions
4. Cities of the Forest: Urbanization and Defiance Among the Shuar of Ecuadorian Amazonia
Natalia Buitron
5. Sublime Cities: Ethnographic Fabulations on Plant Beings Among the Jarawara of Brazil
Fabiana Maizza

Part III. Urban Imaginaries Through Time
6. “Originally, Riberalta Was Called Xëbiya and It Was Ruled by Mawa Maxokiri . . .”: Urban Imaginaries and Urban Migration Among the Chacobo of Beni, Bolivia
Philippe Erikson
7. Urbanity in Ancient and Present-Day Southwestern Amazonia: Human-Environment Collectives, Cycles of Generosity, and Their Ruptures
Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen
8. The Deep Roots of Southern Arawak Urban Imaginaries: Tales of Alterity in the Longue Durée
Fernando Santos-Granero

Contributors
Index

"This edited volume provides a nuanced approach to urban imaginaries in Amazonia and its implications for self-determination and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples. Drawing attention to the importance of considering Indigenous worldviews and livelihoods in the face of settler colonialism, this volume complicates what we understand by cityscapes in Latin America. This book is for anyone interested in better understanding urban ecologies and landscapes in Amazonia."--Laura Zanotti, author of Radical Territories in the Brazilian Amazon
Urban Imaginaries in Native Amazonia
276 Pages 6 x 9
Published: June 2023Hardcover ISBN: 9780816549672
Published: June 2023Ebook ISBN: 9780816549689

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