Strange Enemies: Indigenous Agency and Scenes of Encounters in Amazonia

The Cultures and Practices of Violence

by Aparecida Vilaça, David Rodgers (Translator)

In 1956, in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, a group of Wari’ Indians had their first peaceful contact with Protestant missionaries and officers from the national Indian Protection Service. On returning to their villages, the Wari’ announced, “We touched their bodies!” Meanwhile the whites reported to their own people that “the region’s most warlike tribe has entered the pacification phase!” Initially published in Brazil, Strange Enemies is an ethnographic narrative of the first encounters between these peoples with radically different worldviews. During the 1940s and 1950s, white rubber tappers invading the Wari’ lands raided the native villages, shooting and killing their victims as they slept. These massacres prompted the Wari’ to initiate a period of intense retaliatory warfare. The national government and religious organizations subsequently intervened, seeking to “pacify” the Indians. Aparecida Vilaça was able to interview both Wari’ and non-Wari’ participants in these encounters, and here she shares their firsthand narratives of the dramatic events. Taking the Wari’ perspective as its starting point, Strange Enemies combines a detailed examination of these cross-cultural encounters with analyses of classic ethnological themes such as kinship, shamanism, cannibalism, warfare, and mythology.

Genres: Anthropology

392 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Anna-Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very rich ethnographic study! Enjoyed that the book was mostly focused on the changing perception of “the other”. By introducing 4 Wari’ myths, Vilaça explains why whites are perceived as ‘enemies’. Later in the book, the term ‘Indian’ is being used and I did not catch an explanation whether it is due to the chapter being told from the position of whites, or whether it is just a translation issue, as the book is originally written in portuguese, but I would like if that was adressed.

[Tracy Duvall]

Not exactly a "narrative" nor especially "dramatic," this work suffered from wretched organization, omissions of basic ethnographic information, and a misleading translation of "enemies" into "whites." Nonetheless, it delivered scads of fascinating information and analysis. I think it would prove useful to readers who are interested in Native American perspectives on contact in the Americas, and I wish that I had slogged through it before teaching related topics.