Revenge in the Cultures of Lowland South America

摘要

This volume reflects a revival of interest in matters that previously carried the risk of stereotyping lowland South American indigenous peoples as bloodthirsty. Although that caricature has long been dissolved, the new discourse, which is realist in its treating of what actually happens and suitably culturally relativistic in its con-textualising of forms of violence within complex webs of behaviour and culture logic, illustrates ways in which new themes in the social/human sciences can both open up perspectives (the prominence of evolutionary psychology, for example, underscores an interest in a 'red in tooth and claw' analysis that has an obvious bearing) as well as recalibrating the meaning of violence in the context of new social landscapes (indigenous peoples challenges to developmental onslaught, as in the case of Kayapo demonstrations against hydroelectric projects, have played - often heavily - on themes of violence).