THE MEANINGS OF KINSHIP AMONG THE ESE EJJA OF NORTHERN BOLIVIA

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the construction of relatedness among an Amazonian people of northern Bolivia. In analysing the Ese Ejja's kinship terminology and practices, it engages with the widespread stress on the processual nature of relatedness encountered in Amazonian studies. The article shows that, for the Ese Ejja, kinship relations are made through shared practices, although in some important respects kinship is considered to be given at birth. Given kinship is considered fixed, whereas processual kinship is open to contestation. The article argues that processual and given aspects of kinship must be considered together in order to account for local understandings of relatedness. The data presented invite further investigation into Amazonian ideas about the sharing of substance through filiation. This has important implications for the understanding of the conceptualization of cross- and parallel cousins. The article also suggests that in Amazonia otherness is not always given, as has been extensively argued, and that, in the context of Ese Ejja kinship relations, it is created through marriage and it is constantly made and undone.