Marta Krokoszyńska | Independent Researcher (original) (raw)

Theses by Marta Krokoszyńska

Research paper thumbnail of The Infliction of Descent:  An Overview of  the Capanahua Descendants’  Explanations of the Generative Process (PhD thesis)

This thesis traces the ways of explaining the generative process by the eastern Peruvian descenda... more This thesis traces the ways of explaining the generative process by the eastern Peruvian descendants of the Capanahua. These predominately Spanish-speaking people tend to emphasize the discontinuity with their ancestors, a little known Panoan-speaking indigenous population of the Western Amazon. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and transcriptions of recorded conversations, this presentation follows and reconstructs a salient frustrative-generative dynamic in a wide range of representations, wherein alterations of self-containment or perceptibility incept the processes of differentiation and discontinuity. These processes guide a local conception of “descent” as infliction.
Implications of this dynamic are examined for the formulations of kinship. The familial relations, explicitly based on notions of consanguinity and filiation – are cast in an ambiguous, if not predominately negative light. Procreation is formulated in predatory, parasitic terms, and shares dynamics with pathogenic causality and aetiology. As such, it does not naturally contribute to reproduction and continuity, but rather frustrates it by introducing difference into the vertical axis. Such results also produce horizontal differences and hierarchies, encoded as the person’s divergent, hidden “descent” in the always “mixed” social life.
This image of the generative process is instrumental to understanding the villagers’ explanations of the acculturative processes. Because representations of acculturation focuses on the idiom of procreation and its frustrative results, it appears as the very function of procreative dynamics. This produces a series of associations between the progeny and sociality, focusing on their inherently “third” or external position and perpetual dividuality of belonging/containing. Such ambiguity might be tamed and everted, to produce cleansing or encompassment that counteracts the divisive continuity of time (qua descent, history, or kinship). In a contemporary context, these formulations are seen reflected in the villagers’ construal of the Peruvian state as the urban environment that is hierarchically closer to the ideal originality and beautiful imperishability than the smaller, isolated unities of rural ancestors.

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnic Names and Affiliations in the Western Amazonia. An Inquiry into Ethnohistory of the Sierra del Divisor, Eastern Peru (MA Thesis)

Papers by Marta Krokoszyńska

Research paper thumbnail of Between Cocama and Modernity in the Ucamara (Peruvian Amazon)

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland, 2023

Combining a contemporary ethnographic perspective with a review of historical records, the articl... more Combining a contemporary ethnographic perspective with a review of historical records, the article extends Peter Gow’s re-reading of the ex-Cocama phenomenon in the Western Amazon. It argues that the foundation of the Amazonian Peruvian town of Requena at the beginning of the 20th century took place during an important historical moment in the region. Within the post-rubber boom context, schools became a particularly important idiom that enabled Requena’s growth as the centre of education and modernity. The paper investigates relations between the widespread desire for education in the Ucamara region, and Cocama descendants’ and other “ribereño” ex-Mainas peoples’ specific notions of towns, identity, descent, and social aspirations.

Research paper thumbnail of Las promesas alentadoras: La colonización polaca en la Amazonía peruana (1925-1935)

Amazonía Peruana Nº 32, 2019

Resumen El trabajo a continuación presenta el material histórico producido de 1925 a 1935 por di... more Resumen
El trabajo a continuación presenta el material histórico producido de 1925 a 1935 por distintos participantes de la colonización polaca en la Amazonía peruana (cuenca del Ucayali), en las colonias San Francisco de Satipo (en los ríos Satipo y Pangoa), el Sepa (en el río Urubamba) y Cumaría (en el río Alto Ucayali). A la vez que esbozo la historia de estos experimentos colonizadores, pretendo demostrar que las trayectorias y materiales producidos por los participantes de este proyecto componen una significativa contribución a la historiografía de la montaña peruana y a las iniciativas de modernización en la región, producción documental que, por la barrera lingüística, ha sido mayormente desconocida hasta nuestros días.
Summary
The following paper presents historical material produced between 1925 and 1935 by various participants of Polish colonizations in the Peruvian Amazon (the Ucayali basin), Camp San Francisco of Satipo (in the Satipo and Pangoa rivers), the Sepa (in the Urubamba river) and Cumaria (in the upper Ucayali River). To sketch the history of these colonizers’ experiments, I show trajectories and the materials produced by the participants of this project to make a significant contribution to the historiography of the Peruvian Amazon and the initiatives of modernization in the region, documentary production, which, due to the language barrier, has been largely unknown to the present day.

Research paper thumbnail of Robak zjada jaguara: procesy tworzenia relacji z perspektywy Amazonii zachodniej

Etnografia. Praktyki, Teorie, Doświadczenia, 2017

Robak zjada jaguara: procesy tworzenia relacji z perspektywy Amazonii zachodniej 1 Robak zjada ja... more Robak zjada jaguara: procesy tworzenia relacji z perspektywy Amazonii zachodniej 1 Robak zjada jaguara: procesy tworzenia relacji Mini (14 lat), opierająca głowę na brzuchu Kingi (mojej żony):-Ale ci hałasuje w brzuchu! Dżdżownica [quica] chce jeść! Żona:-Ale ja nie mam robaków-usuwam je tabletkami. Mini:-Haha! [Niemożliwe!] Każdy ma robaka! (Requena, Peru, 22.09.2017 r.) Wstęp A ntropologia amazonistyczna podkreśla kosmologiczną ważkość postaci jaguara, jako największego drapieżnika, dla idei relacji między bytami w życiu tubylczych mieszkańców Amazonii. Drapieżność jaguara wiąże się z biegunem "powinowactwa" (affinité) i "drapieżności" (fr. prédation) czy różnicy (fr. alterité)

Research paper thumbnail of The Historical and Linguistic Identity of the Remos

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America, 2016

This article explores all of the available historic, ethnographic, and linguistic evidence concer... more This article explores all of the available historic, ethnographic, and linguistic evidence concerning interfluvial Panoans known as Remo, one of the most important ethnic categories in Ucayali basin historiography. A review of the historical references to Remos from the late 1600s to the present led to the hypothesis that the term Remo has been used to refer to different peoples at different times. A careful evaluation of the available Remo word lists correlated with recent linguistic research corroborates that these word lists must have come from at least three different Panoan languages. Languages of two modern indigenous groups that have been considered Remo descendants (Iskonawas and Nukinis) were also found to be distinct from the available Remo word lists. The article illustrates the ways in which colonial historiography, influenced by riverine Panoans' and mestizos' views of their interfluvial neighbors constructed the Remos as a bounded and continuous ethnic unit.

Research paper thumbnail of Drunken speech: A glimpse into the backstage of sociality in Western Amazonia (With commentary by Peter Gow)

This paper engages notions on sociality by Spanish speaking descendants of Panoan Capanahua from ... more This paper engages notions on sociality by Spanish speaking descendants of Panoan Capanahua from Peru, as revealed in one aspect of social practice. Speaking while inebriated, members of this small Western Amazonian population draw from locally specific set of ideas about the nature of social life. Therefore, an overview of various standardized themes and attitudes or modalities of such speeches presented in this paper reflects different, often conflicting layers of ideas and practice of social life. Because of both their content and notions about the very inebriation, drunken speeches are shown to offer a privileged vantage point for understanding the Capanahua descendants’ notions and realizations of sociality. Indeed, they reveal one of the important problems fuelling the dynamics of their sociality, which is the tension between, on the one hand, perceptible dimension of village sociality governed by ideals of equality and neighbourly conviviality, and on the other, the inherent difference and hierarchy encoded in contested personal histories of origins. The latter are conceived as normally concealed layer of social life, but at the same time they condition local ideas about what might be understood as kinship and descent.

Research paper thumbnail of The Remo Denomination. An Inquiry into the Ethnohistory of the Ucayali Basin

written sources, the fast attributable to penetration of the upper Ucayali by the Jesuits. The ea... more written sources, the fast attributable to penetration of the upper Ucayali by the Jesuits. The earliest mentían ofthe name Remo is to be found in a genera] description of then ]itt]e known terñtories of Ucaya/e in ] 682. That

Research paper thumbnail of Indígenas aislados en la Sierra del Divisor (Zona fronteriza Perú-Brasil). Informe sobre la presencia de los grupos de indígenas en situación de aislamiento voluntario en los afluentes derechos del Bajo Ucayali...

I n f o r m e s o b r e l o s I n d i g e n a s e n a i s l am i e n t o v o l u n t a r i o e n ... more I n f o r m e s o b r e l o s I n d i g e n a s e n a i s l am i e n t o v o l u n t a r i o e n l a S i e r r a d e C o n t am a n a 2 Informe sobre la presencia de los grupos indígenas en la situación de aislamiento voluntario en los afluentes derechos del bajo Ucayali, desde el río Callería hasta el alto Maquía (Sierra del Divisor occidental) ESTUDIO ANTROPOLÓGICO AIDESEP Y UAM Iquitos, Lima, Poznań 2006-2007 I n f o r m e s o b r e l o s I n d i g e n a s e n a i s l am i e n t o v o l u n t a r i o e n l a S i e r r a d e C o n t am a n a 3 Citar como: Krokoszyński, Łukasz, Stoińska-Kairska I., Martyniak A. 2007. Indígenas aislados en la Sierra del Divisor (Zona fronteriza Perú-Brasil). Informe sobre la presencia de los grupos indígenas en la situación de aislamiento voluntario en los afluentes derechos del bajo Ucayali, desde el río Callería hasta el alto Maquía (Sierra del Divisor occidental). Iquitos-Lima-Poznań: UAM-AIDESEP. I n f o r m e s o b r e l o s I n d i g e n a s e n a i s l am i e n t o v o l u n t a r i o e n l a S i e r r a d e C o n t am a n a 4 AGRADECIMIENTOS Antes de presentar los resultados del trabajo de campo efectuado, desearíamos expresar nuestra gratitud a la Asociación Interétnica del Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana AIDESEP por habernos invitado a participar en el proyecto: en la primera etapa al Ing. Msc. Casiano Aguirre Escalante -Director del Centro de Información y Planificación Territorial AIDESEP en Iquitos (2005-06), y en la segunda etapa (2007) al Señor Jorge Payabacoordinador del Programa Nacional de Pueblos Indígenas en Aislamiento Voluntario y Contacto Inicial de AIDESEP, como también al Señor Alberto Pisango -Presidente de AIDESEP. Nuestro agradecimiento a la Escuela de Etnología y Antropología Cultural (IEAK) de la Universidad Adam Mickiewicz en Poznań (Polonia), en particular al Profesor Dr. Aleksander Posern-Zieliński, por habernos permitido participar en esta investigación, llevada a cabo en la Amazonía peruana.

Research paper thumbnail of Algunas observaciones referentes a los estudios sobre la presencia de las poblaciones aisladas en la zona fronteriza peruano-ecuatoriana

Los indicios de la presencia de las poblaciones aisladas en la zona fronteriza peruano-ecuatorian... more Los indicios de la presencia de las poblaciones aisladas en la zona fronteriza peruano-ecuatoriana,entre los ríos Napo y Tigre, han sido señalados desde hace más de diez años, por varios autores,tanto en el Perú como Ecuador (Cabodevilla 2004; Defensoría del Pueblo 2001; Lou 2003; RepsolExploración Perú 2005; Lucas s/f; Vriesendorp et al. 2007). Del lado ecuatoriano, entre 1999 y 2007fue creada para esa población la Zona Intangible Tagaeri-Taromenani, mientras que en febrero de2003, en el Perú, fueron emprendidos trámites para crear una zona protegida parecida: la Reserva Napo-Tigre. En octubre de 2003, en la cuenca del Napo, cerca de la frontera con el Ecuador, por iniciativa de AIDESEP comenzaron los primeros estudios

Book Reviews by Marta Krokoszyńska

Research paper thumbnail of The Owners of Kinship: Asymmetrical Relations in Indigenous Amazonia by Luiz Costa, Chicago, Hau Books, 2016

Ethnos Journal of Anthropology Volume 85 - Issue 4, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of La reducción imposible: las expediciones del Padre Negrete a los Pacaguaras (1795-1800) – By Diego Villar, Lorena Córdoba & Isabelle Combès

Conference Presentations by Marta Krokoszyńska

Research paper thumbnail of Broken pipe on the Junín Street: the business of making progress in an Amazonian town (Peru)

"Materializations of the Political" conference at University of Warsaw, 2018

One morning, the word got out: sewer pipe had broken. Nothing spilled out at the spot, since it w... more One morning, the word got out: sewer pipe had broken. Nothing spilled out at the spot, since it was new and freshly put in the trench. It cracked even before it got to be properly covered with dirt. Still, something else burst out of the construction site contracted by the local municipality. For a few days, the fermented components of politics and of progress showered all over the small town in media and talks. However, the case was not an exception for the inhabitants of this small Amazonian town. In fact, it seemed just business as usual, which could be compared to the tropical precipitation – unavoidable and ubiquitous.
The phenomenon of obra (“the authorities’ works”) could quite literally be taken as the local expression for “materialization of the political”. Constructions are actually the side-product of politics, one that reveals the construction of politics. In a country where corruption can be seen as the structural element of the state institutions (Quiroz 2008), there is no “state” against “informality”. Similar acts of “revelation” of corruption – which are ubiquitous in practice – construe an ideal, remote “state” without informality as the mythic “progress”. In the well-rehearsed, yet intense interplay of concealments and revelations, facades and the actual relations at work – the effect of “the state” (and its lack) makes and remakes itself. What is left – to demonstrate and to conceal behind the sponsor plaques – are the finished “obras” and their histories.

Research paper thumbnail of Stone heart: the Eastern Peruvian concrete

"Concrete Anthropology" at Aarhus University, 2018

Riverine Eastern Peruvians assume that there are no stones in this tropical region, and that conc... more Riverine Eastern Peruvians assume that there are no stones in this tropical region, and that concrete is brought from the Andes as ground stone (piedra chanqueada) and a ‘chemistry’ (quimica). It is the ‘noble material’ (material noble). But what makes up the local ‘concreteness’ of concrete, or ‘concrete mythology’?
In contemporary local construals, this material emerges as an attempted answer to the Amazonian problem with life. From regional ethnographic perspective, generations of Amazonians have been constructing sociality without the cement, with what is conventionally referred to as hard and beautiful, ‘vital’ goods. Yet looking closely, they appear to be literally the reverse – answers to the human predicament structuring worldviews: the default deleterious differentiation that is the life process. Such noble goods stand for that which is lacking in life, the ‘generic’ which promises to elude natural erosion. Similarly, modern concrete appears to be a solution acquired from the temporal or spatial ‘beyond’ (modernity, State). How do the forms assumed by concrete allow sensing the invisible shapes of ‘nobility’, or a hyper-tangible sublime that is modernity in an Amazonian town?

Research paper thumbnail of Owning the lack in Western Peru

"Art, Materiality and Representation" conference Royal Anthropological Institute/The British Museum/SOAS, 2018

Reflecting from contemporary Western Amazon, permanence is a limited good, antithetical to the fa... more Reflecting from contemporary Western Amazon, permanence is a limited good, antithetical to the fatal principles of life processes. What we call containers and containment amount to engineered moments in the process of living-as-dying. These moments are created by attempts at: maintaining the naturally depleting life value; control of the nesting positions that result from ineluctable transferences of these vital values (reproduction, life maintenence and perishing).
This paper overviews some of the means with which such glimpses of permanence are locally construed through sources (i.e. historicized knowledge-substance) understood as hard, impermeable and imperishable. Modern ethnographic examples range from strengthening of the new-born's body, through toughening of the shaman's bodily shell, to urban constructions made of concrete, strong surnames and laws, the word of God, or the 'modernizing' process. These spatialized moments focus a much broader reflection on the living process, since they deal with the production, maintenence and destruction of life.
The ethnographic imagery of containing (principle of the 'classical' Native American 'Mastery/owning' relations) calls for attention to topological and mereological relations/positions, as well as to their inevitable interplay of negotiations and inversions. Traduced into anthropological perspective, such potent spatialized and materialized moments allow a glimpse into some Euro-American givens pervading long-standing understandings of the processes of life production and death, sociality and kinship, modernity and tradition.

Research paper thumbnail of Un infierno en el paraíso: Una mirada a las fuentes sobre las colonias polacas en el río Ucayali (1927-35)

“Lima en el Seminario Internacional de Historia de la Amazonía Peruana. Una necesaria reflexión Bicentenaria” Conference, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), Lima, 2017

En 1925, con la visita en Peru de un representante de Oficio de Emigración polaco, empezó un mome... more En 1925, con la visita en Peru de un representante de Oficio de Emigración polaco, empezó un momento internamente turbulento de la intermezcla de las historias amazonicas polacas y peruanas. En 1927 el gobierno peruano ha otorgado 2 o 3 concesiones territoriales para el asentamiento de los colonos polacos en la "Montaña" en (Alto Ucayali y en el Urubamba). En 1928, la pomposa gran expedicion polaca marchó el río Ucayali como un vendaval con la tremenda bandera polaca para investigar las posibilidades del proyecto de asentamiento. Sus resultados eran positivos, y fueron recibidos con gran entusiasmo por muchos Polacos, emocionados por los sueños de una Polonia imperial y un paraíso exotico - o por su propia aventura y el porvenir mejorado. Hasta 1930, los primeros colonos han llegado al Ucayali. Otros quedaban scepticos desde principio y muy pronto despues de la llegada de los primeros colonos, los periodicos empezaron un llanto de indignación. De un día al otro, el "paraíso," empezó hacerse un "infierno". Los sueños volvieron "tragedias" y "martirologías". Hasta el año 1935, los últimos colonos han abandonado el Ucayali huyendo. Es una historia fascinante donde chocan y entremezclan las multidimensionales expectaciones, sueños, realidades, ambiciones, acusaciones, frustraciones y resentimientos. En esta ponencia corta presento una mirada al material que ha quedado de aquel proyecto en archivos polacos, limeños, ukranios, en archivos privados, en publicaciones y en la prensa de la epoca. Está mayormente desconocido hasta en Polonia, y siendo en su mayoría en polaco, queda aún mayormente desconocido y inacesible para los estudiantes de la Amazonía que no dominan el idioma del Grzegorz Lato.

Research paper thumbnail of Sociality as the outside among the mestizo descendants of the Capanahua in the Peruvian Amazon

“Eleventh Sesquiannual Conference of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America”. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, 2017

The paper explores the idea that Panoan sociality depends on its own construction as the foreig... more The paper explores the idea that Panoan sociality depends on its own construction as the foreign milieu which enables the coexistence of formative ‘kinds’ of people (Panoan or not) to the point of an actual historical ‘acculturation’ or ‘ethnogenesis.’
In representations of the prevailingly Spanish-speaking descendants of the Capanahua, as well as of their Panoan ancestors, local sociality is construed as an inherently foreign, external milieu - whether in the ontogenic, historic, mythic, politic or economic terms. The space is composed by the organising knowledge or laws, as well as by the materials and ways which compose the living milieu (such as concrete, calamine, clothes, food or surnames). The resulting qualities of an ideal ‘outside’ are clarity, homogeneity, permanence, nobility. Sociality is enabled by relations which transcend the hierarchies, fragmentation and problems inherent to local notions of kinship. An external intervention is of central importance - especially by the foreign, containing ‘owner’ or ‘absolute’ figures who provide the containing and protective space of unity.
From a historical perspective, the local Panoan substrate practically spills out of itself, both by partially incorporating alterity, as by penetrating into Others - not only across the varied formative Panoan groups, but also with the outsiders such as Cocama, or mestizos. As such, it opens to the widespread mestizo ideological and practical milieu, an ‘outside’ shared by descendants of various historical ethnic categories. The resulting frontiers become contestable, inherently relational and mutually nested in this part of Eastern Peru.

Research paper thumbnail of Predation and parasitism in the Capanahua-mestizo (Peruvian Amazon) representations of the conjugal relation

“Eleventh Sesquiannual Conference of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America”. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, 2017

The presentation points to an under-analyzed aspect of the Amazonian conjugal relations which ap... more The presentation points to an under-analyzed aspect of the Amazonian conjugal relations which approximates it to generalized predation or parasitism. Eastern Peruvian Capanahua descendants (sharing the Loreto Region’s Spanish-speaking mestizo cultural milieu) subscribe to an inherently ambivalent view of sexual relations and the resulting procreation. The sexual acts are themselves represented in violent, predatory terms, and the resulting insemination takes on the characteristics of a parasitic infection. These representations share imagery with the local notions on aetiology, witchcraft, omens, hunting and war, shedding light on conjugality as an instantiation of a more general modality of relation and the generative process. As such, the conjugal relation demonstrates the aspects common to other locally conceived relations: ambivalence, hierarchy, and vengeance. Furthermore, whereas both parents contribute to the production of the child, the respective contributions and the ‘ownership’ of children are judged hierarchically and are a matter of controversy.

Research paper thumbnail of „Szlachetny materiał” jako materialno-fantastyczny budulec nowoczesności i państwa w amazońskim mieście (Requena, Peru)

“Antropologia dziś” Seminar, org. University of Warsaw, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of El parentesco y sus remediaciones en las comunidades post-pano (capanahua) de la Provincia de Requena  (Región Loreto, Amazonía peruana)

Grupo de Antropología Amazónica (GAA) Seminar, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, 2016

Haciendo un ejercicio de teoría etnográfica, esta presentación plantea un análisis en conjunto de... more Haciendo un ejercicio de teoría etnográfica, esta presentación plantea un análisis en conjunto de las representaciones de la procreación y del tiempo de los descendientes de los panos capanahua con la apertura a la sociedad dicha “moderna”. En ese sentido, el punto central de mi presentación será el análisis de los elementos que subyacen y estructuran esas representaciones haciendo uso de sus nociones de parentesco y descendencia para yuxtaponerlas con el anhelo del estado original e ideal de pureza y permanencia que la modernización cree ver en ellos. En vez de insistir en profundizar la distancia entre “modernos” y “tradicionales”, planteo que quizá vale la pena pensar a la “modernidad” y sus promesas universales de mejoría para la humanidad, como una apropiación localmente diversificadas.

Research paper thumbnail of The Infliction of Descent:  An Overview of  the Capanahua Descendants’  Explanations of the Generative Process (PhD thesis)

This thesis traces the ways of explaining the generative process by the eastern Peruvian descenda... more This thesis traces the ways of explaining the generative process by the eastern Peruvian descendants of the Capanahua. These predominately Spanish-speaking people tend to emphasize the discontinuity with their ancestors, a little known Panoan-speaking indigenous population of the Western Amazon. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and transcriptions of recorded conversations, this presentation follows and reconstructs a salient frustrative-generative dynamic in a wide range of representations, wherein alterations of self-containment or perceptibility incept the processes of differentiation and discontinuity. These processes guide a local conception of “descent” as infliction.
Implications of this dynamic are examined for the formulations of kinship. The familial relations, explicitly based on notions of consanguinity and filiation – are cast in an ambiguous, if not predominately negative light. Procreation is formulated in predatory, parasitic terms, and shares dynamics with pathogenic causality and aetiology. As such, it does not naturally contribute to reproduction and continuity, but rather frustrates it by introducing difference into the vertical axis. Such results also produce horizontal differences and hierarchies, encoded as the person’s divergent, hidden “descent” in the always “mixed” social life.
This image of the generative process is instrumental to understanding the villagers’ explanations of the acculturative processes. Because representations of acculturation focuses on the idiom of procreation and its frustrative results, it appears as the very function of procreative dynamics. This produces a series of associations between the progeny and sociality, focusing on their inherently “third” or external position and perpetual dividuality of belonging/containing. Such ambiguity might be tamed and everted, to produce cleansing or encompassment that counteracts the divisive continuity of time (qua descent, history, or kinship). In a contemporary context, these formulations are seen reflected in the villagers’ construal of the Peruvian state as the urban environment that is hierarchically closer to the ideal originality and beautiful imperishability than the smaller, isolated unities of rural ancestors.

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnic Names and Affiliations in the Western Amazonia. An Inquiry into Ethnohistory of the Sierra del Divisor, Eastern Peru (MA Thesis)

Research paper thumbnail of Between Cocama and Modernity in the Ucamara (Peruvian Amazon)

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland, 2023

Combining a contemporary ethnographic perspective with a review of historical records, the articl... more Combining a contemporary ethnographic perspective with a review of historical records, the article extends Peter Gow’s re-reading of the ex-Cocama phenomenon in the Western Amazon. It argues that the foundation of the Amazonian Peruvian town of Requena at the beginning of the 20th century took place during an important historical moment in the region. Within the post-rubber boom context, schools became a particularly important idiom that enabled Requena’s growth as the centre of education and modernity. The paper investigates relations between the widespread desire for education in the Ucamara region, and Cocama descendants’ and other “ribereño” ex-Mainas peoples’ specific notions of towns, identity, descent, and social aspirations.

Research paper thumbnail of Las promesas alentadoras: La colonización polaca en la Amazonía peruana (1925-1935)

Amazonía Peruana Nº 32, 2019

Resumen El trabajo a continuación presenta el material histórico producido de 1925 a 1935 por di... more Resumen
El trabajo a continuación presenta el material histórico producido de 1925 a 1935 por distintos participantes de la colonización polaca en la Amazonía peruana (cuenca del Ucayali), en las colonias San Francisco de Satipo (en los ríos Satipo y Pangoa), el Sepa (en el río Urubamba) y Cumaría (en el río Alto Ucayali). A la vez que esbozo la historia de estos experimentos colonizadores, pretendo demostrar que las trayectorias y materiales producidos por los participantes de este proyecto componen una significativa contribución a la historiografía de la montaña peruana y a las iniciativas de modernización en la región, producción documental que, por la barrera lingüística, ha sido mayormente desconocida hasta nuestros días.
Summary
The following paper presents historical material produced between 1925 and 1935 by various participants of Polish colonizations in the Peruvian Amazon (the Ucayali basin), Camp San Francisco of Satipo (in the Satipo and Pangoa rivers), the Sepa (in the Urubamba river) and Cumaria (in the upper Ucayali River). To sketch the history of these colonizers’ experiments, I show trajectories and the materials produced by the participants of this project to make a significant contribution to the historiography of the Peruvian Amazon and the initiatives of modernization in the region, documentary production, which, due to the language barrier, has been largely unknown to the present day.

Research paper thumbnail of Robak zjada jaguara: procesy tworzenia relacji z perspektywy Amazonii zachodniej

Etnografia. Praktyki, Teorie, Doświadczenia, 2017

Robak zjada jaguara: procesy tworzenia relacji z perspektywy Amazonii zachodniej 1 Robak zjada ja... more Robak zjada jaguara: procesy tworzenia relacji z perspektywy Amazonii zachodniej 1 Robak zjada jaguara: procesy tworzenia relacji Mini (14 lat), opierająca głowę na brzuchu Kingi (mojej żony):-Ale ci hałasuje w brzuchu! Dżdżownica [quica] chce jeść! Żona:-Ale ja nie mam robaków-usuwam je tabletkami. Mini:-Haha! [Niemożliwe!] Każdy ma robaka! (Requena, Peru, 22.09.2017 r.) Wstęp A ntropologia amazonistyczna podkreśla kosmologiczną ważkość postaci jaguara, jako największego drapieżnika, dla idei relacji między bytami w życiu tubylczych mieszkańców Amazonii. Drapieżność jaguara wiąże się z biegunem "powinowactwa" (affinité) i "drapieżności" (fr. prédation) czy różnicy (fr. alterité)

Research paper thumbnail of The Historical and Linguistic Identity of the Remos

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America, 2016

This article explores all of the available historic, ethnographic, and linguistic evidence concer... more This article explores all of the available historic, ethnographic, and linguistic evidence concerning interfluvial Panoans known as Remo, one of the most important ethnic categories in Ucayali basin historiography. A review of the historical references to Remos from the late 1600s to the present led to the hypothesis that the term Remo has been used to refer to different peoples at different times. A careful evaluation of the available Remo word lists correlated with recent linguistic research corroborates that these word lists must have come from at least three different Panoan languages. Languages of two modern indigenous groups that have been considered Remo descendants (Iskonawas and Nukinis) were also found to be distinct from the available Remo word lists. The article illustrates the ways in which colonial historiography, influenced by riverine Panoans' and mestizos' views of their interfluvial neighbors constructed the Remos as a bounded and continuous ethnic unit.

Research paper thumbnail of Drunken speech: A glimpse into the backstage of sociality in Western Amazonia (With commentary by Peter Gow)

This paper engages notions on sociality by Spanish speaking descendants of Panoan Capanahua from ... more This paper engages notions on sociality by Spanish speaking descendants of Panoan Capanahua from Peru, as revealed in one aspect of social practice. Speaking while inebriated, members of this small Western Amazonian population draw from locally specific set of ideas about the nature of social life. Therefore, an overview of various standardized themes and attitudes or modalities of such speeches presented in this paper reflects different, often conflicting layers of ideas and practice of social life. Because of both their content and notions about the very inebriation, drunken speeches are shown to offer a privileged vantage point for understanding the Capanahua descendants’ notions and realizations of sociality. Indeed, they reveal one of the important problems fuelling the dynamics of their sociality, which is the tension between, on the one hand, perceptible dimension of village sociality governed by ideals of equality and neighbourly conviviality, and on the other, the inherent difference and hierarchy encoded in contested personal histories of origins. The latter are conceived as normally concealed layer of social life, but at the same time they condition local ideas about what might be understood as kinship and descent.

Research paper thumbnail of The Remo Denomination. An Inquiry into the Ethnohistory of the Ucayali Basin

written sources, the fast attributable to penetration of the upper Ucayali by the Jesuits. The ea... more written sources, the fast attributable to penetration of the upper Ucayali by the Jesuits. The earliest mentían ofthe name Remo is to be found in a genera] description of then ]itt]e known terñtories of Ucaya/e in ] 682. That

Research paper thumbnail of Indígenas aislados en la Sierra del Divisor (Zona fronteriza Perú-Brasil). Informe sobre la presencia de los grupos de indígenas en situación de aislamiento voluntario en los afluentes derechos del Bajo Ucayali...

I n f o r m e s o b r e l o s I n d i g e n a s e n a i s l am i e n t o v o l u n t a r i o e n ... more I n f o r m e s o b r e l o s I n d i g e n a s e n a i s l am i e n t o v o l u n t a r i o e n l a S i e r r a d e C o n t am a n a 2 Informe sobre la presencia de los grupos indígenas en la situación de aislamiento voluntario en los afluentes derechos del bajo Ucayali, desde el río Callería hasta el alto Maquía (Sierra del Divisor occidental) ESTUDIO ANTROPOLÓGICO AIDESEP Y UAM Iquitos, Lima, Poznań 2006-2007 I n f o r m e s o b r e l o s I n d i g e n a s e n a i s l am i e n t o v o l u n t a r i o e n l a S i e r r a d e C o n t am a n a 3 Citar como: Krokoszyński, Łukasz, Stoińska-Kairska I., Martyniak A. 2007. Indígenas aislados en la Sierra del Divisor (Zona fronteriza Perú-Brasil). Informe sobre la presencia de los grupos indígenas en la situación de aislamiento voluntario en los afluentes derechos del bajo Ucayali, desde el río Callería hasta el alto Maquía (Sierra del Divisor occidental). Iquitos-Lima-Poznań: UAM-AIDESEP. I n f o r m e s o b r e l o s I n d i g e n a s e n a i s l am i e n t o v o l u n t a r i o e n l a S i e r r a d e C o n t am a n a 4 AGRADECIMIENTOS Antes de presentar los resultados del trabajo de campo efectuado, desearíamos expresar nuestra gratitud a la Asociación Interétnica del Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana AIDESEP por habernos invitado a participar en el proyecto: en la primera etapa al Ing. Msc. Casiano Aguirre Escalante -Director del Centro de Información y Planificación Territorial AIDESEP en Iquitos (2005-06), y en la segunda etapa (2007) al Señor Jorge Payabacoordinador del Programa Nacional de Pueblos Indígenas en Aislamiento Voluntario y Contacto Inicial de AIDESEP, como también al Señor Alberto Pisango -Presidente de AIDESEP. Nuestro agradecimiento a la Escuela de Etnología y Antropología Cultural (IEAK) de la Universidad Adam Mickiewicz en Poznań (Polonia), en particular al Profesor Dr. Aleksander Posern-Zieliński, por habernos permitido participar en esta investigación, llevada a cabo en la Amazonía peruana.

Research paper thumbnail of Algunas observaciones referentes a los estudios sobre la presencia de las poblaciones aisladas en la zona fronteriza peruano-ecuatoriana

Los indicios de la presencia de las poblaciones aisladas en la zona fronteriza peruano-ecuatorian... more Los indicios de la presencia de las poblaciones aisladas en la zona fronteriza peruano-ecuatoriana,entre los ríos Napo y Tigre, han sido señalados desde hace más de diez años, por varios autores,tanto en el Perú como Ecuador (Cabodevilla 2004; Defensoría del Pueblo 2001; Lou 2003; RepsolExploración Perú 2005; Lucas s/f; Vriesendorp et al. 2007). Del lado ecuatoriano, entre 1999 y 2007fue creada para esa población la Zona Intangible Tagaeri-Taromenani, mientras que en febrero de2003, en el Perú, fueron emprendidos trámites para crear una zona protegida parecida: la Reserva Napo-Tigre. En octubre de 2003, en la cuenca del Napo, cerca de la frontera con el Ecuador, por iniciativa de AIDESEP comenzaron los primeros estudios

Research paper thumbnail of Broken pipe on the Junín Street: the business of making progress in an Amazonian town (Peru)

"Materializations of the Political" conference at University of Warsaw, 2018

One morning, the word got out: sewer pipe had broken. Nothing spilled out at the spot, since it w... more One morning, the word got out: sewer pipe had broken. Nothing spilled out at the spot, since it was new and freshly put in the trench. It cracked even before it got to be properly covered with dirt. Still, something else burst out of the construction site contracted by the local municipality. For a few days, the fermented components of politics and of progress showered all over the small town in media and talks. However, the case was not an exception for the inhabitants of this small Amazonian town. In fact, it seemed just business as usual, which could be compared to the tropical precipitation – unavoidable and ubiquitous.
The phenomenon of obra (“the authorities’ works”) could quite literally be taken as the local expression for “materialization of the political”. Constructions are actually the side-product of politics, one that reveals the construction of politics. In a country where corruption can be seen as the structural element of the state institutions (Quiroz 2008), there is no “state” against “informality”. Similar acts of “revelation” of corruption – which are ubiquitous in practice – construe an ideal, remote “state” without informality as the mythic “progress”. In the well-rehearsed, yet intense interplay of concealments and revelations, facades and the actual relations at work – the effect of “the state” (and its lack) makes and remakes itself. What is left – to demonstrate and to conceal behind the sponsor plaques – are the finished “obras” and their histories.

Research paper thumbnail of Stone heart: the Eastern Peruvian concrete

"Concrete Anthropology" at Aarhus University, 2018

Riverine Eastern Peruvians assume that there are no stones in this tropical region, and that conc... more Riverine Eastern Peruvians assume that there are no stones in this tropical region, and that concrete is brought from the Andes as ground stone (piedra chanqueada) and a ‘chemistry’ (quimica). It is the ‘noble material’ (material noble). But what makes up the local ‘concreteness’ of concrete, or ‘concrete mythology’?
In contemporary local construals, this material emerges as an attempted answer to the Amazonian problem with life. From regional ethnographic perspective, generations of Amazonians have been constructing sociality without the cement, with what is conventionally referred to as hard and beautiful, ‘vital’ goods. Yet looking closely, they appear to be literally the reverse – answers to the human predicament structuring worldviews: the default deleterious differentiation that is the life process. Such noble goods stand for that which is lacking in life, the ‘generic’ which promises to elude natural erosion. Similarly, modern concrete appears to be a solution acquired from the temporal or spatial ‘beyond’ (modernity, State). How do the forms assumed by concrete allow sensing the invisible shapes of ‘nobility’, or a hyper-tangible sublime that is modernity in an Amazonian town?

Research paper thumbnail of Owning the lack in Western Peru

"Art, Materiality and Representation" conference Royal Anthropological Institute/The British Museum/SOAS, 2018

Reflecting from contemporary Western Amazon, permanence is a limited good, antithetical to the fa... more Reflecting from contemporary Western Amazon, permanence is a limited good, antithetical to the fatal principles of life processes. What we call containers and containment amount to engineered moments in the process of living-as-dying. These moments are created by attempts at: maintaining the naturally depleting life value; control of the nesting positions that result from ineluctable transferences of these vital values (reproduction, life maintenence and perishing).
This paper overviews some of the means with which such glimpses of permanence are locally construed through sources (i.e. historicized knowledge-substance) understood as hard, impermeable and imperishable. Modern ethnographic examples range from strengthening of the new-born's body, through toughening of the shaman's bodily shell, to urban constructions made of concrete, strong surnames and laws, the word of God, or the 'modernizing' process. These spatialized moments focus a much broader reflection on the living process, since they deal with the production, maintenence and destruction of life.
The ethnographic imagery of containing (principle of the 'classical' Native American 'Mastery/owning' relations) calls for attention to topological and mereological relations/positions, as well as to their inevitable interplay of negotiations and inversions. Traduced into anthropological perspective, such potent spatialized and materialized moments allow a glimpse into some Euro-American givens pervading long-standing understandings of the processes of life production and death, sociality and kinship, modernity and tradition.

Research paper thumbnail of Un infierno en el paraíso: Una mirada a las fuentes sobre las colonias polacas en el río Ucayali (1927-35)

“Lima en el Seminario Internacional de Historia de la Amazonía Peruana. Una necesaria reflexión Bicentenaria” Conference, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), Lima, 2017

En 1925, con la visita en Peru de un representante de Oficio de Emigración polaco, empezó un mome... more En 1925, con la visita en Peru de un representante de Oficio de Emigración polaco, empezó un momento internamente turbulento de la intermezcla de las historias amazonicas polacas y peruanas. En 1927 el gobierno peruano ha otorgado 2 o 3 concesiones territoriales para el asentamiento de los colonos polacos en la "Montaña" en (Alto Ucayali y en el Urubamba). En 1928, la pomposa gran expedicion polaca marchó el río Ucayali como un vendaval con la tremenda bandera polaca para investigar las posibilidades del proyecto de asentamiento. Sus resultados eran positivos, y fueron recibidos con gran entusiasmo por muchos Polacos, emocionados por los sueños de una Polonia imperial y un paraíso exotico - o por su propia aventura y el porvenir mejorado. Hasta 1930, los primeros colonos han llegado al Ucayali. Otros quedaban scepticos desde principio y muy pronto despues de la llegada de los primeros colonos, los periodicos empezaron un llanto de indignación. De un día al otro, el "paraíso," empezó hacerse un "infierno". Los sueños volvieron "tragedias" y "martirologías". Hasta el año 1935, los últimos colonos han abandonado el Ucayali huyendo. Es una historia fascinante donde chocan y entremezclan las multidimensionales expectaciones, sueños, realidades, ambiciones, acusaciones, frustraciones y resentimientos. En esta ponencia corta presento una mirada al material que ha quedado de aquel proyecto en archivos polacos, limeños, ukranios, en archivos privados, en publicaciones y en la prensa de la epoca. Está mayormente desconocido hasta en Polonia, y siendo en su mayoría en polaco, queda aún mayormente desconocido y inacesible para los estudiantes de la Amazonía que no dominan el idioma del Grzegorz Lato.

Research paper thumbnail of Sociality as the outside among the mestizo descendants of the Capanahua in the Peruvian Amazon

“Eleventh Sesquiannual Conference of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America”. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, 2017

The paper explores the idea that Panoan sociality depends on its own construction as the foreig... more The paper explores the idea that Panoan sociality depends on its own construction as the foreign milieu which enables the coexistence of formative ‘kinds’ of people (Panoan or not) to the point of an actual historical ‘acculturation’ or ‘ethnogenesis.’
In representations of the prevailingly Spanish-speaking descendants of the Capanahua, as well as of their Panoan ancestors, local sociality is construed as an inherently foreign, external milieu - whether in the ontogenic, historic, mythic, politic or economic terms. The space is composed by the organising knowledge or laws, as well as by the materials and ways which compose the living milieu (such as concrete, calamine, clothes, food or surnames). The resulting qualities of an ideal ‘outside’ are clarity, homogeneity, permanence, nobility. Sociality is enabled by relations which transcend the hierarchies, fragmentation and problems inherent to local notions of kinship. An external intervention is of central importance - especially by the foreign, containing ‘owner’ or ‘absolute’ figures who provide the containing and protective space of unity.
From a historical perspective, the local Panoan substrate practically spills out of itself, both by partially incorporating alterity, as by penetrating into Others - not only across the varied formative Panoan groups, but also with the outsiders such as Cocama, or mestizos. As such, it opens to the widespread mestizo ideological and practical milieu, an ‘outside’ shared by descendants of various historical ethnic categories. The resulting frontiers become contestable, inherently relational and mutually nested in this part of Eastern Peru.

Research paper thumbnail of Predation and parasitism in the Capanahua-mestizo (Peruvian Amazon) representations of the conjugal relation

“Eleventh Sesquiannual Conference of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America”. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, 2017

The presentation points to an under-analyzed aspect of the Amazonian conjugal relations which ap... more The presentation points to an under-analyzed aspect of the Amazonian conjugal relations which approximates it to generalized predation or parasitism. Eastern Peruvian Capanahua descendants (sharing the Loreto Region’s Spanish-speaking mestizo cultural milieu) subscribe to an inherently ambivalent view of sexual relations and the resulting procreation. The sexual acts are themselves represented in violent, predatory terms, and the resulting insemination takes on the characteristics of a parasitic infection. These representations share imagery with the local notions on aetiology, witchcraft, omens, hunting and war, shedding light on conjugality as an instantiation of a more general modality of relation and the generative process. As such, the conjugal relation demonstrates the aspects common to other locally conceived relations: ambivalence, hierarchy, and vengeance. Furthermore, whereas both parents contribute to the production of the child, the respective contributions and the ‘ownership’ of children are judged hierarchically and are a matter of controversy.

Research paper thumbnail of „Szlachetny materiał” jako materialno-fantastyczny budulec nowoczesności i państwa w amazońskim mieście (Requena, Peru)

“Antropologia dziś” Seminar, org. University of Warsaw, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of El parentesco y sus remediaciones en las comunidades post-pano (capanahua) de la Provincia de Requena  (Región Loreto, Amazonía peruana)

Grupo de Antropología Amazónica (GAA) Seminar, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, 2016

Haciendo un ejercicio de teoría etnográfica, esta presentación plantea un análisis en conjunto de... more Haciendo un ejercicio de teoría etnográfica, esta presentación plantea un análisis en conjunto de las representaciones de la procreación y del tiempo de los descendientes de los panos capanahua con la apertura a la sociedad dicha “moderna”. En ese sentido, el punto central de mi presentación será el análisis de los elementos que subyacen y estructuran esas representaciones haciendo uso de sus nociones de parentesco y descendencia para yuxtaponerlas con el anhelo del estado original e ideal de pureza y permanencia que la modernización cree ver en ellos. En vez de insistir en profundizar la distancia entre “modernos” y “tradicionales”, planteo que quizá vale la pena pensar a la “modernidad” y sus promesas universales de mejoría para la humanidad, como una apropiación localmente diversificadas.

Research paper thumbnail of Miara strat: Idea oderwania w pokrewieństwie i teraźniejszości we wschodnim Peru

Poznańskie Seminaria Amerykanistyczne. UAM, Poznań, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of  “Tell your countrymen not to run - I have come to conquer them”: Intersection of utopias in eastern Peru

"Anthropology and Enlightenment" - The ASA Decennial Conference, June 2014, Edinburgh

In 1955, a married couple of American missionaries arrived on the muddy banks of the Buncuya Rive... more In 1955, a married couple of American missionaries arrived on the muddy banks of the Buncuya River, affuent of the Lower Ucayali. The family was invited to build a house and ended up living among the Panoan speaking Capanahua people for the next three decades.
Histories on the Lower Ucayali are filled with tales of conquest of the wildness and taming of the savage by a strong outsider. It could be argued that they structure the default relation for local indigenous populations of establishing contacts with newly arriving strangers. This paper will explore the powerful outsider utopia's terms and their historical, social and personal depths on the Tapiche and Buncuya Rivers, home to descendants of the social project known as the Capanahua people.
Now that stationed missionaries have been gone for another three decades, the position of the wealthy, powerful and knowledgeable fatherly figure seems to be an empty seat waiting to be filled. This absence is indicated as the reason of resurfacing problems regarding Capanahua people's incapacity to maintain satisfying social life in villages. I will probe the notion that acceptance of the 1955 couple in this location has been embedded in historical trajectories and the powerful, locally specific utopian imagery of the social space, and that it initiated a long-lasting negotiation of working misunderstandings produced by missionary and local social thought.

Research paper thumbnail of Niemoralność różnicy na rzece Tapiche w Zachodniej Amazonii

„W poszukiwaniu tożsamości. Synkretyzm Nowego Świata” - Ogólnopolska studencko-doktorancko-ekspercka konferencja naukowa, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Kraków, 2014

Językiem historii na rzece Tapiche we wschodnim Peru jest pokrewieństwo. Zawieranie nowych sojusz... more Językiem historii na rzece Tapiche we wschodnim Peru jest pokrewieństwo. Zawieranie nowych sojuszy stanowi treść historii, a rozpad i mieszanie kategorii ludzi jest rozumiane jako warunek życia społecznego. Zebranie ludzi w jednym miejscu jest pokonaniem ich inności oraz wrodzonej skłonności do izolacji lub konfliktu może być nazwane podbojem (conquistar). Odbywa się ono w przestrzeniach społecznych, na które składają się miejsce, język, sposób życia (costumbre). O momencie tworzenia nowej przestrzeni społecznej (wioski) mówi się jako o momencie zejścia się osób z „różnych stron”. Ich spotkanie i połączenie odbywa się w dzieciach, które są potwierdzeniem i produktem danej przestrzeni społecznej. Nowe przymierza pokonują izolację i niwelują różnicę. Dlatego w zbiorowym życiu społecznym obowiązuje estetyka i etyka uniformizacji.
Po wieku współżycia Capanahua ze społeczeństwem metyskim na Tapiche, ideał unifikacji można by uznać za prawie osiągnięty. Część z nich zdecydowała się go osiągnąć, stając się nieodróżnialnymi metysami w miastach. Ci, którzy pozostali, żyją z napięciami wywoływanymi obecnością różnicy pod warstwą wypracowywanej jedności. O ile myśl społeczna Capanahua wspiera uniformizację, to niewidoczne na co dzień pochodzenie konserwuje odmienność w przynależności do raza poprzez nazwisko i język rodziców. Różnica pochodzenia jest utrzymywana w pamięci i może służyć budowaniu nieformalnych hierarchii, które podważają jedność i nadają procesom społecznym Capanahua wyjątkowy ton.

Research paper thumbnail of Capanahua used to live here: Study of inter-generational relations in Western Amazonian kinship

Department of Social Anthropology pre-fieldwork class of 2010/11 presentations, St Andrews, 2011

Research paper thumbnail of What happened to the Remo tribe? Identifications and identities in the Sierra del Divisor (Eastern Peru)

Fifth Sesquiannual Conference of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America, Oxford University., 2008

Research paper thumbnail of Co stało sie z plemieniem Remo? - nazwy etniczne i tożsamosci indiańskie w Górach Sierra del Divisor (wschodnie Peru)

Gościnny wykład na SAID (Spotkania Antropologiczne – Interdyscyplinarne Dyskusje), Łódź, 2008

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnic Names and Affiliations in the Western Amazonia

Konferencja z okazji trzydziestolecia PTSL, Warszawa, 2008

Research paper thumbnail of W poszukiwaniu Kapanawa

„Polskie badania amerykanistyczne: doswiadczenia okresu 2003-2006,” Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiew... more „Polskie badania amerykanistyczne: doswiadczenia okresu 2003-2006,” Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza, Poznań.