Game masters and Amazonian Indigenous views on sustainability

摘要

Throughout the Amazon, notions of ownership and mastership shape the use of natural resources among many Indigenous communities. These ideas are reflected in the figure of game masters (i.e. spiritual beings who own the animals), which are widespread among Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin. In this paper, we explore the diverse biocultural manifestations of this socio-cosmology, focusing on the game masters' dynamic roles, histories and functions. Our review highlights the breadth and depth of ideas, practices, and rituals used to regulate humans' relations with these non-human agencies. It illustrates how the relations established between Indigenous communities and animals reflect both reciprocity and other asymmetrical types of dependency. This complex and sophisticated socio-cosmology underpins Indigenous understandings of sustainability in the world's largest tropical rainforest.