Studi e ricerche

Cómo muere el hombre sin atributos: motocicletas, parentesco y relaciones interétnicas en la Amazonía boliviana

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Abstract

The ethnographic analysis of a recent incident –the death of an indigenous teacher in a road accident– reveals the everyday impact of the mechanization of indigenous life in Lowland South America and, in particular, the dilemmas involved by growing use and dissemination of motorcycles among the Chacobo (Panoan) of Bolivian Amazonia. The accident becomes a social drama that needs to be interpreted in terms of several contexts of Chacobo culture and, at the same time, reveals broader social, economic, technological, symbolic and environmental transformations that are currently shaping indigenous life in Lowland South America.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Feb. 3, 2025 | Accepted: March 17, 2025 | Published Sept. 30, 2025 | Language: es

Keywords Indigenous peoples • Motorcycles • Accidents • Mechanization • Amazonia

Copyright © 2025 Diego Villar. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-940-5/020


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