A Transforming Landscape of Journeys: An Ethnohistorical Reconstruction of Southwestern Amazonia in the Nineteenth Century

Popular and scientific images of indigenous Amazonian peoples stress attachment to specific places and landscapes, seen as their traditional territories. This is the product of decades of activism that stressed the struggle for indigenous control over the land that they occupy. Unfortunately, this stress on settlement has tended to obscure the meanings of movement for such peoples. The present project seeks to balance these popular images with a study of the long distance trading expeditions of the Piro people. Abandoned by 1912, these journeys by canoe would carry Piro people over very large distances in the region in search of trade goods, often lasting many months and involving hundreds of people. These journeys were instrumental in connecting up distant places, and in moving resources around a vast region. They were also central to the mode by which outsiders were able to enter the region, such that many modern landscape features, such as the position of towns, national parks, and political frontiers continue to show the marks of Piro people's journeyings.