Volatile hierarchies: the institution cattle-raising among the Macushi in northern Amazonia

Abstract (English)

This paper aims to discuss the political effects of cattle-raising among an Amerindian population in Northern Amazonia. It focuses on a wide range of hired labour modalities and correlate differentiation in the role of vaquero, a full-time task, strange to a hunter/agriculturalist traditional division of labour. The specialization of such task came together with the notion of a “communal” and private livestock, equally strange to a political economy based on the large and undisputable autonomy of domestic groups. While the vaqueiros were requested to dedicate themselves to the demands of cattle raising, these men had to be paid, or supported by the community, in order to compensate for the gardens they could no longer tend.
This specific set of relationships challenges the traditional egalitarianism of the Guianas and must be pondered in the context of the capitalist expansion over the rural and traditional Brazil.