Senior Research Seminar with Dr Natalia Buitron (University of Cambridge)

Dr Natalia Buitron (University of Cambridge)An Amazonian Subjunctive: How to Change the World by Playing Others

 

What is the role of the subjunctive for social change? For festive events in Shuar villages of Upper Amazonia, relatives send written invitations, teachers give lectures to the community, and villagers stage makeshift markets. The 'programme' (programa) of such events contrasts with everyday life: written text and public lectures rarely replace in-person visits, and Shuar villagers hardly sell anything to each other or to outsiders. However, the 'as if' mode of the festival allows for experimentation with new scripts and visions. In the subjunctive mood, people play along and act on a social possibility, but they reflect, in earnest and through humour, when moving in and out of this mood. That is, they consider how to design and revise the script of each event as a programme for social reform. The Amazonian subjunctive so described opens up a space of institutional plasticity, which is a third possibility between theories of continuity and rupture.