Beyond the Visible and the Material : The Amerindianization of Society in the Work of Peter Riviere

Explores the legacy of Peter Riviere, the retired Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford, in the development of the anthropology of Amazonia. The contributors demonstrate their conviction that the impact of Amazonian ethnology is comparable to that of African ethnology in the 1950s.

The contributors to this volume explore the legacy of Peter Rivière, recently-retired Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford, in the development of the anthropology of Amazonia. This international group of leading specialists contributes to the substantial and growing body of Amazonian ethnography, discussing topics which include kinship and genealogy, the village as a unit of ethnographic observation and analysis, the human body in political and social processes, and gender relationships as aspects of political cosmological thinking. In addition the ethnology of the Guianas receives particular emphasis, as do the themes of shamanism, history, and colonialism as they have affected this region. In showing how alive the field of Amazonian anthropology has become, whilst pointing to conceptual aspects in need of further elaboration, the contributors demonstrate their shared conviction that the impact of Amazonian ethnology is becoming comparable to that of African ethnology in the 1950s and Melanesian ethnology in the 1980s.