In search of ritual: tradition, outer world and bad manners in the Amazon

Ritual is currently a central issue in Indian politics in the Amazon. Ritual implies tradition, and thus ethnic legitimacy. But to some groups, such as the Panoan-speaking Yaminawa, political and social looseness are handicaps to the invention of shared performances that are recognizable as rituals. Leadership is based both on an outward policy and an inward search for patterned, collective actions that can designate a gathering of kin and followers as an indigenous community. This article focuses on such ritual-making efforts, describing two otherwise informal parties held on a Brazilian Yaminawa reservation where fieldwork was carried out in 1993.