acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation presents the results of research carried out on the political system of the Marubo, an indigenous society of the Javari River basin of northwestern Brazil. The objective was to determine if prevailing views concerning indigenous lowland South American political systems were applicable to the Marubo case. The principal view concerning these systems was that they were universally, even essentially, egalitarian. In this dissertation, that view is referred to as 'the hypothesis of pan-Amazonian egalitarianism'. Analysis of this hypothesis prior to fieldwork revealed flaws in the evidence and methods that produced it. The goal of this research was to examine the validity of the hypothesis against a specific case society, using different methods from those previously used in lowland political ethnography. To this end, information was gathered that permits an examination of the validity of previous models of lowland South American politics and to check the applicability of major definitions and models of egalitarian politics. The evidence obtained suggests that the Marubo political system alternates between egalitarian and non egalitarian forms in different contexts. There exist features of Marubo political life that preclude the system from being categorized as 'egalitarian'. There also exist significant deviations from major models of egalitarian lowland politics. Yet despite these deviations, clearly egalitarian modes of political organization existed in a number of Marubo villages, side-by-side with fundamentally non egalitarian modes in other villages. Marubo society is one where the political ethos---ideals of political action---permit and even encourage a search for unequal influence and unequal success in accumulation of political resources, and ultimately allow the possibility of power. But it is also one where no one is handed power just for entering a social status; power must be constructed in a process that is long and difficult. There is no guarantee of success and there exists the possibility that at any given moment no one person has succeeded; but the fact that power is possible and desired and the paths to it are known ultimately renders problematic definition of Marubo society as egalitarian / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

The conquest and colonization of Mexico was a catastrophic event for the Nahua; it profoundly disrupted family, community, society, and worldview. The Spanish instituted social, political, and religious changes that filtered into every aspect of daily life. Despite these sweeping changes, the Nahua were a literate society and those who were educated continued to document traditional history and traditional customs either at the request of Spaniards or for their own use. For the anthropologist and ethnohistorian, these manuscripts are the best resources available to study both Prehispanic and Colonial Nahua culture. These manuscripts are not without their drawbacks, however, when used to reconstruct Prehispanic beliefs and practices. What they do allow scholars to study is the process of culture change. This study focuses on manuscripts that treat the traditional Central Mexican calendar. Taken as a group these pictorial and prose manuscripts allow us to examine closely the ways in which particular aspects of the traditional calendar are influenced, adapted, changed, or abandoned as particular elements of the Western, Catholic calendar are introduced. These manuscripts reveal a long process of study, analysis, adoption and adaptation of the European calendar on the part of Nahua intellectuals. As do studies of other types of Nahua manuscripts and documents, this study of change in the Nahua calendrical system demonstrates a wide and often subtle variability in reactions to European introductions / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu