num_pages: 234
description: Intrigued by a slide showing a woman breast-feeding a monkey anthropologist Loretta A. Cormier spent 15 months living among the Guaja a foraging people in a remote area of Brazil. The result is this ethnographic study of the extraordinary relationship between the Guaja Indians and monkeys. While monkeys are a key food source for the Guaja certain pet monkeys have a quasi-human status. Some infant monkeys are adopted and nurtured as human children while others are consumed in ritual practices of symbolic cannibalism. central theme of Cormier's research: how can monkeys be both eaten as food and nurtured as children? Her research reveals that monkeys play a vital role in Guaja society ecology economy and religion. In Guaja animistic beliefs all forms of plant and animal life - especially monkeys - have souls and are woven into a comprehensive kinship system. Therefore all consumption can be considered a form of cannibalism. beyond Amazonia including a discussion of Western perceptions of primates.
language: English
title: Kinship with Monkeys: The Guaja Foragers of Eastern Amazonia
publisher: Columbia University Press