Full Description
Darrell A Posey died in March 2001 after a long and distinguished career in anthropology and ecology. Kayapó Ethnoecology and Culture presents a selection of his writings that result from 25 years of work with the Kayapó Indians of the Amazon Basin. These writings describe the dispersal of the Kayapó sub-groups and explain how with this diaspora useful biological species and natural resource management strategies also spread. However the Kayapó are threatened with extinction like many of the inhabitants of the Amazon basin. The author is adamant that it is no longer satisfactory for scientists to just do 'good science'. They are are increasingly asked and morally obliged to become involved in political action to protect the peoples they study.
Contents
PART I Kayapó history and culture 1 The science of the Mebêngôkre 2 Contact before contact: typology of post-Colombian interaction with the Northern Kayapó of the Amazon 3 Environmental and social implications of pre- and post-contact situations on Brazilian Indians 4 Time, space, and the interface of divergent cultures: the Kayapó Indians of the Amazon face the future 5 The Kayapó origin of night 6 The journey to become a shaman: a narrative of sacred transition of the Kayapó Indians of Brazil PART II Ethnobiology and the Kayapó Project 7 Report from Gorotire: will Kayapó traditions survive? 8 Indigenous knowledge and development: an ideological bridge to the future 9 Wasps, warriors and fearless men: ethnoentomology of the Kayapó Indians of Central Brazil 10 Hierarchy and utility in a folk biological taxonomic system: patterns in classification of arthropods by the Kayapó Indians of Brazil 11 Additional notes on the classification and knowledge of stingless bees (Meliponinae, Apidae, Hymenoptera) by the Kayapó Indians of Gorotire, Pará, Brazil 12 Keeping of stingless bees by the Kayapó Indians of Brazil 13 Ethnopharmacological search for antiviral compounds: treatment of gastrointestinal disorders by Kayapó medical specialists 14 Use of contraceptive and related plants by the Kayapó Indians (Brazil) PART III Kayapó land management 15 Preliminary results on soil management techniques of the Kayapó Indians 16 Indigenous soil management in the Latin American tropics: some implications of ethnopedology for the Amazon Basin 17 The keepers of the forest 18 Indigenous management of tropical forest ecosystems: the case of the Kayapó Indians of the Brazilian Amazon 19 The continuum of Kayapó resource management PART IV Continuing adaptation by the Kayapó 20 From warclubs to words 21 The Kayapó Indian protests against Amazonian dams: successes, alliances, and unending battles
