MAKING ARROWS, MAKING SELVES: MATERIALITY AND IDENTITY AMONG THE AWA HUNTER-GATHERERS OF THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON FOREST.

GONZÁLEZ RUIBAL, A.; POLITIS, G.; HERNANDO, A.; BESERRA COEHLO. B.

Dublin, Irlanda

Congreso; Sixth World Archaeological Congress; 2008

World Arcaheological Congress. University of Dublin

In this paper, we will show the relevance of arrow making and using among the Awá, not only as a hunting technology, but also as a technology of the self. Technologies of the self, according to Foucault (1988), “are those which permit individuals to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality”. For Foucault, writing in classical times was an essential technology of the self among the elites, through which awareness of one’s self (including one’s body) was attained. The way of building the self among hunter-gatherers is, obviously, very different from that of literate societies. Therefore, the technologies employed must be equally different. We would argue that making things, and particularly arrows, plays among the Awá a homologous role in relation to self-building to that of writing and reading in other cultural traditions.