julians-choice-of-jaguar-shamans-and-the-sacrifices-made-for-progreso-in-perus-extractive-frontier.pdf (251.06 kB)
Julián's choice: of Jaguar-Shamans and the sacrifices made for progreso in Peru's extractive frontier
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-10, 04:54 authored by Juan Pablo Sarmiento BarlettiIn May 2010, Julián Miranda, an Indigenous Asháninka shaman, died hours after killing a jaguar-shaman. Despite knowing that it could kill him, he killed a jaguar-shaman to protect his cows, an investment to support the much-desired progreso ('progress') of his children and grandchildren through education. Julián's choice was one of personal sacrifice driven by the hardships he experienced in the degraded forests of the Bajo Urubamba valley in the Peruvian Amazon. My examination of his decision to kill the jaguar-shaman engages with the multi-disciplinary literature on how local peoples engage with the expanding extractive frontier in Latin America. The emphasis most literature places on social movements and - to a lesser extent - on the ontological characteristics of these conflicts needs to be counterbalanced by individual experiences like Julián's for a deeper understanding of the multiple local experiences of large-scale resource extraction and the different strategies through which people pursue their desired futures.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Journal of Latin American StudiesISSN
0022-216XPublisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)External DOI
Issue
1Volume
54Page range
103-124Department affiliated with
- Anthropology Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes