Of Mixed Blood: Kinship and History in Peruvian Amazonia

by Peter Gow

This book is an ethnography of the native people of the Bajo Urubamba river in Peruvian Amazonia. Gow attempts to account for the fact that the people of this region appear to be very acculturated when compared to better-known indigenous Amazonian peoples. He argues that when native people's claims are viewed from the perspective of their own values, and in the context of their creation of life through the productive transformation of the forest and the commodity economy, they can be seen to form a coherent part of kinship. Historical change is thus revealed as interior to the ongoing creation of kinship for native people, rather than alien to it.

Genres: Anthropology

344 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Laura French · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really really cool and I really appreciate the attention Gow pays even to the ‘acculturated’ aspects of Piro and Campa life in the Bajo Urubamba. I will say either Gow was somewhat reserved or the people of Santa Clara were because there’s a lot of moments where he mentions suspecting that certain things are happening behind the scenes but he never outright asks? Or he asked and was hedged around and didn’t mention, which frankly if that was the case I would like to know as well. I think he was trying to be sensitive about some subjects (for example, not pushing to learn to speak Piro because of the associations in the area of missionaries) but others I can’t really tell what the nature of his hesitation was. Also I wish he would’ve gone into a bit more detail about the scenery (landscape, ecology, weather, etc) and food because I was VERY curious and I don’t really feel like I ever got a great picture of that part of the operation.