The Perverse Child: Desire in a Native Amazonian Subsistence Economy Author(s): Peter Gow Source: Man, New Series,

Vol. 24, No. 4 (Dec., 1989), pp. 567-582 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2804288 . Accessed: 03/02/2014 12:47
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THE PERVERSE DESIRE IN A NATIVE SUBSISTENCE

CHILD: AMAZONIAN

ECONOMY

PETER Gow University ofEast Anglia

fromthe prominence of discussionsof food and sex in the daily lives of Native Amazonian Starting peoples, the articleanalysesthe place of sexual desireand the desireforfood in the subsistenceeconomy of the native people of Bajo Urubamba river in Peru. It describes the production, circulation and ofgendercategories, consumptionoffood and exploresthelinksbetween thissystem and theconstruction sexual identitiesand relationsof marriage,affinity and kinship.Through an analysisof the use of food items as joking metaphorsof male and female genitals,it is argued that sexualityand food are made analogous at the level of desire. Finally, the analysisof forbiddenoral desire in childrenleads to the conclusion thatit is the constructionof persons as subjects of particularoral and sexual desireswhich structures Amazoman subsistenceeconomies.

The present article is an analysis oftherole ofdesirein a Native Amazoniansubsistence of the Bajo Urubamba riverin economy.1With reference to the nativecommunities westernAmazonia, it explores the importantplace in the economy of particular thecodingsofdifferent formulations ofsexualdesireand desireforfood. Itis arguedthat on the other, typesoffood on the one hand and of different genderand age categories constitute the heartof the subsistence economy. Concern withfood and sex dominatesthe dailylives of Native Amazonian people. The production,circulation and consumptionof food is the centraldramaof village life and sexual relationships are the primarytopic of everydayconversation.This concernwithfoodand sex hasbeen notedbymanyethnographers ofNativeAmazonian An earlyexample of thisthemeis foundin Holmberg'sstudyof the Siriono cultures. thenwith of Bolivia (1950), which is a portrait of a people obsessedwith food first, the same themehas been explored sex, and apparently verylittleelse. More recently, in ethnographies ofthenorthwest Amazon byReichel-Dolmatoff (1971) and Christine Hugh-Jones(1979), of the Mehinacu and Bororo of CentralBrazil by Gregor(1985) and Crocker (1986) respectively, and manyothers. These more recentanalyseshave not followed Holmberg in takingthisobsession shown at itsfacevalue, but have insteadstressed the symbolicqualitiesof thisinterest is a focal idiom in these in food and sex. Seeger et al. have argued thatcorporeality about corporeality constitute the only societiesand thatNative Amazonian discourses theirconcretesocialpraxis mode ofunderstanding (1979: 16). Siminon-ethnocentric has criticised ofAmazonia forpaying larly, Christine Hugh-Jones manyethnographers the littleattention to the conceptualcontentof domesticlife(1979: 279). It is largely
Man (N.S.) 24, 567-82

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influenceof Levi-Strauss's Mythologiques (1970; 1978), which begins with a seriesof Amazonian mythsabout food and sex, that has directedserious attentionto these problemsand has revealed how Native Amazonian cosmologies and discourseson societyare permeatedby metaphors of bodilyprocesses. little attention hasbeen paid to therelation betweenthis concern However, relatively with food and sex and the subsistence economies of Native Amazonian societies.An exception to this tendencyis JanetSiskind,in her analysisof the economy of the 'The hunting in eastern Peru. In an article entitled Sharanahua people ofthePurusriver economy of sex' (1973b) and in her longer monographon the Sharanahua(1973a), oftherelation betweenthesexual divisionoflabour Siskindprovidesan interpretation in this society and gender relations.She argues that the Sharanahua economy is structured around the exchange between men and women of forest game forsexual is naturally to the favours. scarcerelative Game, the productof male hunting activity, female-produced garden foods, while women are culturally scarce relativeto men because thelatter are allowed and expectedto have more thanone wife.This 'hunting economy of sex', as Siskind termsit, receives culturalexpressionin the jokes of ofa luckless hunter withthecomment Sharanahua women, when theygreetthereturn 'There is no game. Let's eat penises!'.The same economyis also expressed in theritual ofthecollectivehunt,when women send men who are their sexualpartners, potential but not actual husbands,to hunt for them. Siskindfurther mentionsmany cases of similarrituals and jokes fromotherpartsof Amazonia and suggests thatthe 'hunting economy of sex' is generalto the aboriginalculturesof the tropicalforest region.2 Where I would take issue with Siskindis over her representation of the 'hunting economy of sex' as an exchangeof goods betweenproprietors. Siskindtreats the flow of game and sexual favoursbetween Sharanahuamen and women as an exchange relationship between the owners of two different objects: men give game to women in return forsexbecause men aretheproprietors ofgameandwpmen aretheproprietors of theirsexuality. As Strathern has pointed out, such unstated of a comimportation modity-based property logic can seriously hamperthe analysis of social systems where suchidiomsare quite alien (1984). In thepresent case, theimportation ofthisWestern logic of proprietorship into the contextof Native Amazonian subsistence economies obscurestheoriginal issue:people arenot talking about the 'ratesofexchange'between different commoditiessuch as game and sexual favours,nor about theirrespective over productsor theirown bodies. In Native Amazonian daily life property rights about hungerand sexual desire,and the satisfaction of thesedesires people are talking by otherpeople. It is the natureof desirein these kinds of economies thatthe presentarticlewill to show thatthe desires explore.I will try feltand expressed forcertain kindsof foods is systematically relatedto certaintypesof social relations.In particular, I will argue thatthe desiresforfood expressedby people in these econonies are not abstracted desiresthancan be satisfied in a variety of different ways,but rather thatthesedesires link people inevitably to certainotherpeople. In these economies, relationships are of particular desiresexperiencedby the partners predicatedon the satisfaction in the I will explore these issues as part of an extended analysisof a Native relationship. Amazonian subsistence to thatof the Sharanahuadiscussed economy which is similar of production,circulation and consumptionof by Siskind.I explore the totalsystem food in thiseconomy,in searchof the codes which governit. Centralto the present

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articleis the question of how this economy functionsaround the construction of particular subjectsof sexual desire and desireforfood and how these constructions necessitate the existenceof othersubjectswhich standin different relationsto these desires. The subsistence communities economy ofthenative oftheBajo Urubamba The Bajo Urubamba is a major tributary of the Ucayali, which is in turna major oftheAmazon itselfThe areaitselfis tributary partoflowlandAmazonia and is covered in dense humidtropicalrainforest. I'he Bajo Urubamba is a largeriverby Amazonian of the local population is to riverinelife and standards and the primary orientation in size from ecology. The nativepopulationof the area lives in communities ranging 50 to 800 people. These communitiestend to be focused on core kin clustersof Piro-speakers, but with many affines and other co-residentassociatesof non-Piro in origin.The main languagesof the area are Spanish,Piro and Campa-Ashaninka, that order. Most people in the area are fullybilingual,many trilingual. The major exceptionis among young people under 25 yearsold, who tend to be monolingual in Spanish.I use the term'native people' here as a translation of theirown term,los I will use termsfromthe local dialect of Spanish,which has been heavily nativos. influenced by Quechua, in preference to Piro or Campa terms. The Bajo Urubambaareahas been intensively integrated intotheworldcommodity systemsince the expansion of the rubberindustry into the upper Ucayali region in about 1880, and all nativepeople are engaged in one way or anotherin commodity production and exchange.Duringtheperiodoffieldwork, lumbering was thedominant ofcommodity in thearea,althoughtherewas a smallcashcropsector. form production The present articlewill not addressthe issuesof wage labour nor of the circulation of no food items money in the local economy. With the exceptionof alcohol, virtually are purchased withmoney,nor can subsistence into cash. productseasilybe converted a systemof boss/worker the entirelogic of the local systemof habilitacion, Further, relationsbased on extended indebtedness,is predicated on the insulationof the subsistence sectorfromthe commoditysector.The local bosses,patrones, depend on being able to find theirlabourerswhen productionis possible (i.e. when creditis to prevent themachieving subsistence availableto them),butmakeno attempt security. mustbe: what constitutes The first food forthe question forthe presentanalysis nativepeople of the Bajo Urubamba?All varietiesof food available to nativepeople are organisedaround a centralcombinationof two typesof good. This is la comida, the meal, and refers to a combinationof a type of game (forest animal meat or fish) 'I have alreadyeaten', and boiled or roastedplantains. When people say 'Ya hecomido', mean thattheyhave eaten a meal of thistype.While plantains can be theyinvariably replacedby manioc and each typeof game by everyother,thereis no otherpossible combination.Even beans and rice,a popularAmazonian meal, does not rateas comida a real meal. While manyotheritemsare eaten; such as fruit, legitima, peanuts,maize, fungiand a varietyof insectlarvae, these never enterthe meal except as adjuncts. Normallytheyare eaten as snacks. 'rawwater') People on theBajo Urubambaconsiderdrinking plainwater(aguacruda, water must be transformed. One to be dangerous.Beforebeing drunk transformation to create chapo.Far more popular is to mix it with boiled and mashed ripe plantains fermented manioc beer. This beer is made by boilingand pounding howeveris masato,

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red sweet potato. The resulting massis left up manioc and mixingit with masticated to ferment fortwo or threedays.To be drunk,wateris poured on the mass,mixed a sieve. This producesa slightly in and thenextracted through pinkish liquid that varies fromthe initialsweet stagesto the very strongand bitterlast stages.Native people thisstrong form.When available,manioc beer ends everymeal. prefer This culinarysystem is locked into a circuitof production,circulationand consumption. I will show how the meal is locked into this circuit,beginningwith production.Vegetable crops are grown in gardenscleared in the forest.The initial or work-party. The man clearingof the gardenis collectivein the formof the minga to whom the gardenwill belong invitesall the othermen of the community to help. On one level, thislabour is paid forwith food and especiallymanioc beer provided by the host,but it will also be reciprocatedas labour since the host will attendthe of all his guests.Further, native people say thattheyhave some rightto the mingas cropsgrownin the gardenswhich theyhave helped to make: at least,theycannotbe denied iftheyshould ask forpartof the crop. The work of planting, lightly weeding and harvesting the gardenis done by the marriedcouple who own the garden,with theirchildren help from and close kiniftheyneed it. The work ofharvesting plantains women's work and mustbe done everytwo to and manioc forcooking is primarily three days. Harvestingmanioc for manioc beer is also women's work and is more arduous given thatmore is harvestedat any 9ne time than is the case for cooking. of plantainsand manioc, they and transport While men may help in the harvesting will not cook eitherand most certainly will not make manioc beer. men's work. It is an almostdaily affair The productionof game is primarily and thecommunity ofmore thana fewhours.The major seldominvolvesan absencefrom is finding the preyrather thankillingit. The problemboth in huntingand in fishing easiestprey to findare fishtrappedin pools in the forest waterlevel, by the falling which are killed by poisoning the pool with a varietyof vegetablepiscicides,while the most difficult are verylarge catfish feedingin the deep riverpools, taken with harpoons. Hunting forestanimalsfollows a similarprogression:the easiestprey to rodents and monkeys locate arethosesmallbirds, whichfeedin and aroundold gardens, while the hardestto hunt are tapirand spidermonkeywhich are extremely waryof as formsof people and live farfrominhabitedareas. Central to huntingand fishing is skillin locatingthe production,and to nativepeople's models of these activities, the extentto which prey.3 The ease with which game can be located determines in production.Fish-poisoning women and childrenparticipate expeditionsare open to all, as is hook-and-linecapture-of smallerfish.Women do not participate in other forms of fishing with a cast-net. Women except to steerthe canoe while a man fishes will accompanyhunting and reload the guns and will occasionallyhunt men to carry but thisis only when thereare no able men about. themselves, The sexual divisionof labour in productionis most intensein such strongly gender-identified tasksas manioc beer productionand the clearingof forest forgardens, in varying food production.However, when the but it is present degreesthroughout circulationof food productsis analysed,the gender-identification of foods begins a subtle change. While native people consider that anything that a person produces thisis not separablefromthe proper destination of that belongs to him- or herself, This destination is determined productas it is circulated. by the natureof theproduct which I will now discuss. and by the statusof the producerin relationto others,

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Plantainsand manioc are almost never given away in raw form.Someone who the needs thesestaplesmay requestthem of a co-residentand will be told to harvest is thatsuch requestswill seldom be standingcrop in the garden.The presumption since the structure of labour-sharing in gardenproductionmeans thatall necessary marriedpeople in the communityhave gardens.Cooked plantainsand manioc are onlyevergivenaway as partofmeals,eatenin thedonor'shouse. Manioc beeris given in thehouse or during festivals. The fermented away,butonlywhen itis servedto guests massis nevergiven to anyone. Manioc beer is the first to visitors thingoffered and if a woman has none she will apologise,forit is a seriousinsultnot to offer beer ifit is available.Manioc beer is essential to all parties,fiestas, whethergivenby an individual The fiesta or by the community. is judged by the quantity of beer provided and any hintthatthehostsare holdingback anyfortheirown consumption is a common cause of complaint.At mostfiestas meals are also provided,but only once. Partlybecause the supply of game fluctuates so greatly, it is a source of intense interest to nativepeople. The only timewhen nativepeople are casual about game is when it is abundant:in one case, when huge quantities of fishwere being caughtby a man cast-netting themigrating shoalsofbottom-feeders which ascend therivereach dryseason,his mothershoutedacrossthe villagein a high whooping voice
come runmngwith your basket. Such quantitiesof fishlike you never saw! Quick, sister-in-law,

This is in stark contrast to the rainy seasonwhen the fishare spreadout in thevastness of the floodedriverand forest; thenmen hide theirsmallcatchesin theirnetsand tell inquirers'There are no fish, just nothing'.Such carefulconcealmentof game is not a of since the game is oftengive to those fromwhom it has simply sign meanness, been so assiduously hidden. It is an attempt to controlwho receivesgame, forgame will be givento whoever actually sees it. A good catch,sufficient to feed everyone,is carriedthroughthe village. openlyand dramatically Presentsof game should be given to anyone who is hungry, i.e. everyone.The most important conventionis thatthe game a man produces should be given to his as with a quantity wife. If the catchis easilydivisible, of smallfish, he may give some to his close femalekin on the way back to his house, but she will receive the bulk of thecatch.The woman will clean thegame and sendpresents ofvarying sizesto women she names.Such presents are often carried and maybe directly by children reciprocated flow in the names of women, even when carriedby a by the receiver.The presents child or by the man who produced it: the name used is usuallya kin termand the withstatements like 'Your auntsentyou thisfish'.Men do not send game is presented is thatall men can obtaingame everyday and game to each other,forthe assumption a man's failure to produce game is a reflection of his lazinessor lack of skill.Men will ofteneat the meals servedby theirwives withoutenquiringwho caughtthe game. This has the curious but highlysignificant resultthatwhile women do not actually in the circulation produce much game manymealseatenby a married couple originate of game among women rather thanthe directproductionof game by the man. The cycles of productivelabour in food productionhave theirend-pointin the consumptionof meals composed of game and plantainsand of manioc beer. This in strongor weak forms. But at the level of productivelabour is gender-identified, circulationthe gender-identity of a product is transformed. The relationsin which thesetransformations occur and in which food itemscirculatecannotbe understood of marriage but requirean analysis and kinship. simplyin genderterms,

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Relations and respect ofdemand The natureofmarriage in thenativecommunities oftheBajo Urubambais inseparable fromthe natureof food production.The house in which the couple lives and the gardenon which theydepend forvegetablestaplesare made only in the contextof a man mustmake forhiswife.There is no otherrelationship marriage: theyare things in which either or garden-making takesplace. Unmarriedmen do not house-building build houses or clear gardensforthemselves. One old man put it as follows:
When a man wants a wife, he builds a house and clears a garden to show thathe is hardworking.

thisis not strictly men do neither Admittedly, forseveral true,formostnewlymarried years.Further, thisprescription obscuresa crucialaspect of the maritalrelationship. An unmarried man could only build a house or clear a gardenalone: withouta wife to make manioc beer, he could not hold a collectivework partyand thus no-one would help him. No otherwoman would make beer forhim. Similarly, while young in cooking,gardenwork or in manioc beer unmarried women mayhelp their mothers fortheyhave no husbands preparation, theyneverown houses or gardensthemselves to make theseforthem. which make productionpossible Only married people controlthe crucialresources and theydo so through itselfBut, equally,all adultsshouldbe married. There marriage for unmarried adults. isno place inproduction Unmarried adults areunderno obligation to do much work in the houses of theirparents or otherkin and oftendo verylittle, ofcrucialimportance but theyareexpectedand constantly This is a fact urgedto marry. in understanding the economy offood productionin thesecommunities. The unmarned adult does not produce, or produces verylittleand sporadically, because he or she has no-one forwhom to produce. The unmarried are fedbecause theyare kin to others who are producing, but theseproviders cannotdemandanyreturn, fordemand is prohibitedin relationsbetween adult kin. The unmarried consume because they have kin, but do not produce because they have-no spouses. The food they eat is and thusworkingforeach other.Unlike kin, produced because theirkin are married spouses can and do make demandson each other. There is a fundamental in thesocialuniverse split aroundthisrelationship ofdemand. This is indicatedin the term respetar 'to respect'. Relationshipsof (Piro: gishinika), on alljoking about the one respectedand by respectare characterised by prohibition an absence of explicitdemand. The mostthatis permitted is a polite request,oftenin the high-pitched register denotingrespect.The mostintensely respectful relationship is thatbetween a woman and her son-in-law,which is characterised by a complete on all but essential which is carriedon in an extremely prohibition conversation, high and softtone. Other relations of respect,of decreasingdegreesof intensity, are those between a man and his son-in-law,a woman and herparents-in-law, betweenparents and adult children, between siblings, between parents'siblings and siblings'children, and to a lesserdegree stillbetween more distant kin such as cousins or grandparents and grandchildren. The relationship between spouses is not characterised by respect: fromeach otheropenly. spousesjoke about each otherand demand things Theplaceofsexuality The relationship and demandis foundin thefieldoffood production, betweenrespect but is most strongly markedin the area of sexuality. are People whom one respects

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people with whom sexual relationsare prohibited.Since mostjoking is of a sexual Relationsofdemandbetween nature, joking abouta respected personisalso prohibited. The relations between spousesare constituted by adultsare inevitably sexual relations. ofdemands.On theone hand thereare demands thereciprocal satisfaction oftwo types and on the otherdemandsforfood. Men demand of theirwives forsexual satisfaction thattheyharvest and manioc, thattheycook, thattheymake manioc beer plantains and thattheysatisfy their sexualdesire.Women demandofmen thattheycleargardens, theirsexual desire.Failureon thepartof one partner to satisfy huntand fish and satisfy Men who do not huntor fishforsome the demandsof the otherleads to retaliation. facedwith a wife who refuses to cook. She will eat with her kin daysare frequently a man will not huntor fishfora wifewho is and provide nothingforhim. Similarly, in cooking. Serious negligenceleads to abandonment, which is tantamount negligent in thisarea thatthe to divorce in thissociety.So common is abandonment/divorce refuse on the groundsthatnative local Doninican missionaries to celebratemarriages Admittedly, theyare seldom asked people have insufficient respectforthissacrament. to do so. The characterof the relationsbetween demand and sexualityon one hand and Conventionally, respect on theotheris seen more clearly in thecase ofsiblings-in-law. these relations are characterised are by extremelack of respect,since siblings-in-law expected to joke about each other at all times.This joking, among men especially, takes the formof the attribution of homosexuality to the other. One day, as I was husband,he leantforward and said in a serious sitting talking to a man and his sister's voice, pointingat his brother-in-law:
I am a big man, a chief,for I have two wives. I have one over therein my house and I have this one here.

one of the opposite sex are expected to engage in simnilar bantering: Siblings-in-law woman paid a visitto her sickbrother-in-law and whiled away the timedebatingthe tu effects of his seriousillnesson his sexual potency,saying'De repente ya se ha podrido pico','Perhapsyourpenis has rotted'. The relationof oppositionbetween sexualityand respectfunctions to divide the world into one of a rangeof potentialsexual partners who can be spousesand a set of anotherrelationship as spouses.But thissexualprohibition establishes people forbidden which can be translated into which refers to food. The Piro termkshinikanu, directly also carriesthe meanings 'one who loves, thinks Spanish as respetuoso, 'respectful', about, remembersanother'. It is in relationsof respectthat food, especiallygame, circulates. The productionof game and itsinitialmovementfromtheproducerto his of demand. But beyond this,it is circulatedin the spouse occurs in a relationship of caringwhich existbetween thosewho respecteach other.The expression relations me and managesto give me something' 'he/sheloves me a lot, and alwaysremembers of distribution. Thus thereis a close connexionbetweentwo is frequently heard game food products and two modes of relationship: modes of circulating sexualityand circulationthroughdemand on one hand and respectand circulationthroughcaron the other. ing/memory because incestis proThe circulation throughmemoryand respectis established hibited,but, equally, the circulationthroughdemand and sexualityis established This is an extremely important point, althoughone often throughheterosexuality. ignoredin anthropology (cf.Rubin 1975). It is a point one cannotignoreon theBajo

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because ifpeople are silentabout incest,which is almostnever discussed, Urubanmba As I noted above, homo-erotic theyhave a greatdeal to say about homosexuality. of joking is the orderof the day between brothers-in-law. But it is homo-eroticism is not the idea of choosing a partner an interesting kind,forwhat people findfunny of the same sex but the choice of organ.The receptivemale homosexual,the maricon, is treated with ridiculebecause 'le han hecho como mujer', 'theyhave screwedhim like a woman'. That thisis not simplymisogyny is attested by the ridiculewhich attaches to the penetrating 'to pound plantainsin an lesbian, the tacachera (fromtachachear, to theirgenitals: one treats upright mortar').Both are ridiculedfortheirfalserelations the anus as a male vagina,while the otherpretends to have a penis. Their respective partners are not ridiculedat all, fortheypreservea truerelationship to theirgenitals. The connexion between sexuality and food productionand circulation can clearly be seen in thesecases of genderidentity associatedwithsexual deviation.The maricon to a man, but he can neverbe a wife,nor can the tacachera may be a sexual partner be a husband.In local popular belief,all are forcedeitherto conformto the sexual and productivestereotypes or to leave the subsistence economy. Maricones leave forthe towns and citiesof Amazonia, where theybecome prostitutes and homosexual cooks I knew was unique in running and waiters, while the only active tacachera a successful and in actually shop in her community buyinggame formoneyfromher neighbours. Oral and sexualdesire connexions between sexual desire and the Having shown thatthereare systematic construction of thepersonas a producerin the subsistence economy of thissociety,it is now possible to link thissystem to the otherside of the obsessionof thesepeople with food and sex. This is the fieldof oral desire.By oral desireI mean the desirefor of hungerbut as sourcesof pleasure.Through particular foods,not simplyas satisfiers an analysisof the connexions between sexual and oral desire, particularly in the relations between food itemsand sexual substances, I will show how this metaphoric lies at the core of the subsistence relationship economy. In terms oforaldesire, arenothighly plantains marked; people mayhave preferences forone variety over another, but seldomremark on thevariety being servedin a meal. In the absence of game,plantains al estomago, may be eaten alone, but only to enganiar the stomach'(satisfy 'to trick immediatehungerpangs).But ifplantains are not highly in two ways. First, markedas a source of oral pleasure,theyare essential game cannot be eaten in theirabsence since thiswould cause sickness.Secondly,as I noted above, his consternation at thewell-being theyare whatpeople really eat; one man expressed of the missionschoolteachers, who eat neithermanioc nor plantains. does satisfy to game that Game, by contrast, hunger.Indeed, it is with reference mentionhunger.Times when game is scarce,such as the heightof people generally therainy to as cuando de hambre, casimurrimos 'when we almostdied season,are referred of hunger'.This is a characteristic but significant fordeathby starvation exaggeration, is unknown to local people. What such statements refer to is a world lackingin oral pleasure,as day followsday eatingonly plantainsand beans. The hungerforgame is a hungerfororalpleasureand everymeal is accompaniedby comments on the relative merits ofthefood being eaten. These include the speciesof game,fromthe extremely desirablesuch as spidermonkeyand macaw to the slightly such as anteater nauseating Each individualcaughtis further evaluatedin terms of age, smell,colour and alligator.

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and especially itsfatness. Further, each personhas his or herown particular preferences forgame speciesand oftenpersonalprohibitions on eatingcertainanimals.The desire expressedfor game is intense,as it is forparticular species. People not infrequently make statements of the order 'I would give my life to eat collared peccary',or 'To forthenshe is happy'. my mother,eatingcapybarais like a festival, The link between sexual and oral desirecan first be exploredby notingthatboth plantains and game are metaphoric ofthe male genitals. The termmitayo means game, but it is also a metaphorforthe penis. This is partof a sustainedseriesof metaphors which linkgame productionto male sexuality. For example,animalsare said to 'want' the hunter, just as women are attracted to him, and so make themselves available to be killed. Indeed, all the formsof huntingmagic, such as herbalbathsand tree frog in attracting women as in attracting poison, are said to be equally as effective game. This is seen as a liability of theseformsof magic, fortheyattract all women. Proper love magic,pushanga, attracts onlythedesired partner herself (or himself, forlove magic is also used by women). isalsoa metaphor for thepenis,whichis easily Platano, 'plantain', enoughunderstood. But the only food metaphorused forthe vagina is huayo,'fruit'.Why should both forms of realfood be metaphoric of the penis,while a food which is peripheral to the culinary system is metaphoric of the vagina?I thinkthe reasonis thatthesemetaphors are not structured simply by directreference to the objectsthemselves, whetherfoods or genitalorgans,but at the level of desire. The use of foods as metaphorsforthe genitals occursonlyinjoking,fornativepeople have standard, names non-euphemistic, forthegenitalia. The use ofthefoodmetaphors injoking, I would agree,continuously drawsattention to the metaphoric between oral and sexual desire,rather relationship thanthatbetween food itemsand genitals as objects. The scarcity and desirability of game forall people is analogous to the scarcity and ofwomen formen. For men on theBajo Urubamba,as forthe Sharanahua desirability men describedby Siskind,women are scarce. This is less a demographicfactthan a about a certaineconomy of sexuality. statement Women are scarcenot because there are fewerof them than of men, nor because men are polygynous, but because they controlwho theirsexual partners are. The scarce women are young women, those fromaroundpuberty to theirearlytwenties. Such women are the focusof the intense sexual interest of all men who are not theirkin. They can afford to pick and choose whom theywill sleep with and it is they,not young men, who are most criticalof theirsexualpartners. thisselectivity because theyknow thattheirkin They can afford will defendthemfromany unwelcome advance. By contrast, young men receiveno to secure sexual partners and mustrelyon theirown supportfromtheirkin in trying resources.Indeed, a major motivationfor young men's entryinto wage labour in lumberingis theirneed to generatecash to supply theirlovers with store-bought presents. But where young men do receive support, and young girlsdo not, is in the issue of marriage.The parentsof a young woman ally themselves with one of her lovers and oblige them to marry and work foreach other.While I never heard of a a man who was not also herlover,therewere many young girlbeing forcedto marry casesin which thegirlrefused to getmarried lies not in thesexual at all. The difference of the man and woman, but in theirproductiverelationships. As a lover, relationship a woman receivespresents forsexualaccessshe herselfinitiated. from theman in return As a wife,a woman mustwork forher husbandand satisfy his desireforfood.4

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It is at thislevel thattheanalogiesbetweengenitalia and food are operative. Women froma dearthof male sexuality, but theycan make finediscriminations never suffer between the respective men. Thus, forwomen, male genitaliaare values of different like plantains,and also open to infinite simultaneously super-abundant, varietyin desirability, like game. For men, women are scarce, like the fruits which appear seasonally and arefrequently stolenby otherpeople. Further, suchmetaphors arejokes: they elicit laughterwhen they are used. Siskindarguesthatit is because game and women circulate each otherin theseeconomiesthatsuchmetaphoric against equations are possible. In contrast, I would argue that no such exchange takes place. These on the natureof desire,not economic metaphoric equationsare humorousreflections balance sheets. Maniocbeer This point will become clearerif we considerthe othermajor termin the culinary system,manioc beer. Technically, the process of making manioc beer transforms low-value food (bothmanioc and sweetpotato)intosomething whichis highly valued. People on the Bajo Urubamba have a strongdesireformanioc beer: a mild stateof drunkenness is consideredgood in itselfBut thisdrunkenness is only good ifshared withothers, in drinking or duringcollectiveworkparties. It makespeople both parties more livelyand more willingto work. But thereare contradictions between drinking manioc beer and otherareasoflife.The consumption of manioc beer precludesgame huntnor fishwhen theyare drunk.Conversely, ifmen production:men will neither are seriously intenton hunting, theywill sneak out of the villageto avoid invitations to drinkmanioc beer. Male consumption of manioc beer is a source ofseriousmarital tension.Husbands and wives oftendrinkmanioc beer separately and frequently the wife wil not see her husbandfordays.Because men do not hunt or fishwhile they are drunktheir wives and children Women frequently husbands go hungry. sayoftheir 'That one isjust a drunk.He goes off looking formanioc beer insteadof looking for food forus'. There is a surprising contradiction here,forthe thingwhich takesmen away fromtheirwives is a femaleproduct.But it is a femaleproductwhich circulates among men in the names of men: men inviteothermen to drinktheirwives' beer. There is a crucialpointhere. The circulation ofmanioc beer,a femaleproduct,sets and up two formsof sociality.One is the collectivework partyforgarden-clearing house-building,and the otheris the drinking party.Both are essentialformarriage: the first in the set of exchangeswhich constitute and the second in bringing marriage together young men and women as lovers.Yet the circulationof manioc beer is in contradiction with the circulation of game. The gifts of game thata man givesto his wife are centralto the relationship between them,just as the gifts of male-produced to the relations of respectand caringwhich sustain game between women are central kin ties. Given itsimportance withintheserelationships, does manioc beer operateas a metaphor, like game, plantains and fruit? Masato,'manioc beer', is not, to my knowledge,used as a metaphorof any sexual or corporealsubstance.5However, the actual process of making manioc beer, and variousritualusages,suggests thatthissubstanceis a sustainedanalogyto the process of the conceptionand birthofa child.The poundingof thelargemassofwhiteboiled manioc and the constant additionof chewed red sweetpotatoas it is spatinto themass is similarto native people's accounts of copulation,in which white semen and red

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blood mix to formthe foetus.The pounding of the massin an aluminiumpot causes thepot to swell out and is said to make the pot 'pregnant'(barrigona). The fermenting mass is storedin a paintedceramicpot which is explicitly likened to a femalebody. Further, the last dregsof manioc beer, thinand strongsmelling, are likened to ishpa, 'urine', but especiallythe amnioticfluidreleasedat birth. When the lastdregsof manioc beer have been drunk,the remaining massof fibres is thrownaway to be eaten by domesticanimals.When a childis born,it is of course in therituals kept.However, theanalogybetweenmanioc beer and childis maintained ofbirth: the childis born,thefather immediately after ofthe childis expectedto tomar la ishpa,'drinkthe amnioticfluid'. He actuallyconsumes aguardiente, cane alcohol, which is treated by nativepeople as a highlyrefined versionof manioc beer.6 The analogygoes deeper still,forjust as manioc beer disrupts the flowsof game fromhusband to wife, a newborn child disrupts the maritalrelationsof its parents. This disruption takes the formof the couvade prohibitions, which have been much discussed forAmazoniansocieties.7In the case of the Bajo Urubamba,a crucialpoint about theseprohibitions is thattheyprohibitmost of the physicalbehaviourwhich refers to marriage. Thus a man cannot hunt,fishor clear gardens, while the woman cannot cook, wash clothesor make manioc beer. Nor can eitherpartnerengage in sexualintercourse, witheach otheror anyoneelse. Performing actions theseprohibited causestheactivity to reboundon the child.The object oftheaction (theanimalkilled, the tree felled,the clotheswashed) will communicateits essence to the child. Thus the night,for jaguars cause the child to cryconstantly through jaguars have powerful nocturnal vision. The clothescause the childto writhein pain,just as theyare wrung in washing. Sexual intercoursecauses coughing, as the man's semen lodges in the child's throat.Food eaten turnsthe child into thatfood, while sexual activity turns sexual fluids into the child's food. Around the birthof a child, food and sex cease to be metaphorically relatedand transform one intothe otherin thebody ofthe child.Gender-identified food products threatento transform the child into a game species or a forest plant, while sexual intercourse to lodge semen in the child's throat.Childbirththus effects threatens a transformation in the relationsbetween sexual and oral desire,notable also in the father's of the 'amnioticfluid'.This is because the productionof children in drinking thissocietyis about the transformation of flowsfromone sphereinto another.It is as theparents of children thata newlymarried with couple become fulladultproducers, theirown house and garden.Equally, it is throughthese childrenthatthe demand relationsbetween members of one generationbecome relationsof respect across the demand relations between spouses and thejoking relations between generations: are transformed of respectand caringbetween into uniform relations siblings-in-law ascendentand descendentkin. It is thiswhich establishes the analogyof the child and manioc beer. Both are the summation ofalltheflowsin their domainsofsexuality and foodproduction, respective but both cruciallyaffect the relationswithinthose domains. Without manioc beer, therewould be no parties whereyoung men and women meet,get drunkand initiate thesexualrelations whichlead to marriage. would Equally,withoutmaniocbeer,there be no work partiesand hence no houses or gardens, no plantains to make a meal and no house to eat in. But the cycle of conviviality and work surrounding manioc beer leads to the temporary cessationof game production, which is central to marriage and

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withoutchildrentherewould be no young the relations between spouses. Similarly, men or women, no kin or affines, nobody to get marriedand to produce. But the of oral and sexual desire. production of childrentemporarily stops the satisfaction arethusboth crucialto thesubsistence Manioc beerand children economyby effecting the transformations between flows.The analogybetween manioc beer and children is not established at the level ofjoking, but at the level of productionand of ritual practice. do in thesubsistence Hhat children economy Unlike manioc beer, childrenare not objects of desire,they are subjectsof desire. Where then do they stand in this subsistenceeconomy of desires?Sub-adolescent children Theirparents arenotgender-identified seldomaddress themexcept producers. to demand thattheydo something. The taskstheyare assignedare invariably simply an adjunctto adultactivity: the canoe while a man fishes, steering fetching waterfor and especiallythe endlesstaskof looking cooking,washingdishes,peeling plantains, after The labour of these childrendoes not circulatein theirnames youngersiblings. oftheirparents fortheyare treated as extensions in terms ofproduction.Further, they on theirparentsforfood: even older boys, who are encouraged to depend entirely forplantains. huntand fish, depend on theirparents Not onlyare children not gender-identified producers, theyare not sexualsubjects. It is onlywhen the child enters adolescence thatthe parents cease to orderhim or her around and stopjoking at the child's expense. Simnilarly, the derogatory nicknames which parentsor other kin give childrenin infancyare dropped when they reach adolescence, only to be replacedlaterwith nicknamesgiven by siblings-in-law. This is because adolescents have begun to acquire 'blood', identified herewithsexualodour, and theymustcease to sleep withtheirparents or siblings and shouldsleep alone. This is thepreludeto activesexuality, thesearchfor women byyoungmen and thereception ofloversbyyoungwomen. Pre-adolescent children, lackingsexuality, sleepwiththeir are laughed at and orderedaround. This revealsthatthe reciprocalnatureof parents, relationsof demand, ofjoking or of respectis exclusiveto relations between adults, while relations between adultsand childrenare asymmetrical. thatis of Lacking as theyare in sexual desire,it is the oral desireof young children most concernto theirparents. Both men and women findthe sound of theirchildren fromhungerextremely Men would oftensay thattheyhad gone crying disturbing. fishing even when theyheld out little me to hear prospectof successbecause 'it hurts from mychildren crying hunger'.Childrencannotcontroltheir hungerpangsand can withfood. But thereis anotherform of oral desireshown by children, onlybe satisfied which does not hurttheirparents so much as infuriate them. When I first heardpeople on the Bajo Urubamba say thatchildreneat earth,I was not greatly It seemed to me entirely surprised. possible thattheydid so in order to alleviatethesymptoms oftheir or to gaincertain infestations minerals deficient parasitic in theirdiets.One day, as I talkedto the old man whose house I lived in, the subject cropped up and I mentionedthatI had dim memoriesof eatingearthmyself, by way in tasteand texture. of youthful interest He looked at me in horrorand slowlystated 'For all thatI am now an old man,neveronce in mylifehave I eatenearth'.Somewhat and now more waryin my questioning,I began to investigate startled, earth-eating more carefully. Childrenwho eat earthare called viciosos, 'vicious ones', but literally

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perhapsbettertranslated as 'perverts'. When I suggestedto people thatpossiblythe childrendid thisbecause of intestinal worms,theylooked incredulousand suggested I had the causal link the wrong way around. The discoverythata child is perverse causes immense fearand alarm. One woman forceddog excrementinto her son's mouthin an exasperated effort to cure him of thishabit.More orthodoxis a drinkof theplantpirosanango, which causesviolentand prolongedvomiting. Perversion of this kind is alarming because the earthcollectsin the child'sstomach,leading to a general swellingof the body and then to death. From an adult perspective, it is a formof suicide. One woman shoutedloudly at a boy believed to eat earth'Why do you do this?Do you want to die? Do you want to go to the cemetery and cryon your own all nightlong?' on theBajo Urubamba should eat earth, and indeed whetheror not Why children a sortof bizarreinitiative theyactuallydo, is hardto say. It possiblyrepresents on the child. Childrenare at a seriousdisadvantage partof the, in thissubsistence economy. for Unlike adults,theyare not independent producersand so depend on theirparents the satisfaction of theiroral desire.But because theycannot demand anything from theirparents, Given these circumstances, it theycan only crywhen theyare hungry. does not seem totally intensehungerby improbablethatchildrenwill seek to satisfy theirown labour and eat the only substanceclose-to-handin any quantity: earth. However thatmightbe fromthe child'sperspective, thisis not how parents see it. Froman adultperspective, thechild'shunger forrealfoodis legitimate. The satisfaction of thishungerevokes love in the child and therebygeneratesthe respectwhich is kinship.This real food is produced in relationsof demand between adult men and women relatedas sexual partners. Given to the child,it makesthe child'sbody strong and fullof blood. It is thisblood which will eventually allow the child to have sexual work hard and create more kinspeople. Of viciosos, relationships, it is said no tienen sangre, 'theyhave no blood'. Blood, as the emblem of kin ties and as the source of and sexualprowess,defines thebody ofthehealthy, physical strength actively productive adult. In its lonely consumptionof a non-food,the perversechild destroys that withinitself which has the potentialto turnit into a healthyadult with relationships with others.Thus froman adultperspective, the eatingof earthis a sortof attackby thechildon thefuture ofthesubsistence economy.Earthis producedbylabourwhich in a relationship is not gender-identified, whichis not one ofdemandand is consumed of real food, is produced and directly by the producers.Earth,the supremeantithesis 8 consumedin a perversecaricature of the subsistence economy. On the Bajo Urubamba, it is childrenwho make the whole subsistence economy but only because they are the passive recipientsof the productsof adult function, on the labour and are not sexuallyactive.What seemed to me an innocuous activity to the the eatingof earth,is experiencedby adultsas a threat partof certainchildren, in theeyesofadults, entire subsistence aremovingoutside economy.Perverse children, the subsistenceeconomy which gives life to people, and by destroying themselves to destroythat economy as well. For this,and out of parentallove, their threaten out the earthinside them. The subsistence parentsforcethem to vormit economy of of sexual the nativepeople of the Bajo Urubamba worksbecause only certainforms and the desireto eat earthis not one of them. and oral desireare legitimate,

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Conclusion In summary, in thisarticleI have arguedthatin the subsistence economy of the native limitednumberand classesof foodsare linked people of theBajo Urubamba a certain I have not arguedthatthesystem to a certain ofsocial relations. offoodsreflects system ofsocialrelations, northat thesystem theprocesses thesefoodsdetermines ofproducing the systemof social relations.Instead,I have argued that each particular person is attributed with a particular genderidentity, both as a producerof specificfoods and as a sexual subject,and is providedwith the routeby which to satisfy both sexual and oral desiresthrough relations with otherpeople. Relations of marriage between men and women, based on mutualdemandforfood and sexual gratification, are the central but theyare both createdfromand create in turnrelationsof productiverelations, caringbetweenkin. In thissubsistence economy,people are made dependenton each otherbecause theycannotpossess,as individuals, the totality ofproductive, sexualand but childrenare not; men produce consumptive positions.Adultsare sexual subjects, some foods,women produceotherfoods;sexualdesires can be satisfied bysomepeople, but not by others;the satisfaction of oral desirescan be demanded fromspouses,but in a dense networkof only awaited fromkin. Sex and food are thuslinked together relationsof mutual desire, and thus constitutea fertile field for both serious and humorousmetaphoric expansion. The concern of Native Amazonian peoples with food and sex can thusbe seen as in which corporealprocessesare partof generalsocial concern. partof a larger system such a propositionhas received attention As I noted in the introduction, frommany of Native Amazonian societies.However, such analyses ethnographers leave opaque to Native Amazonian societies,rather why corporealidioms should be so important than any otheridioms. I would argue,fromthe data presentedhere, t1hat the power of corporeal idioms in such societies derives from the importanceof the sexual, of the subsistence productiveand consumingbody and itspleasuresin the structuring economy. This pointcan be relatedto Collier and Rosaldo's analyses of'brideservice societies' which includesNative Amazonian societies,and to the discussion (1981), a category of thiswork by Strathern (1985). As Strathern pointsout, in such societies'itemsdo not come to standforlabour and do not come to standforpersons' (1985: 197). I would suggest, at least forNative Amazonian societies,thatthe body and its desires lies at the heartof the economy,serving as a point of attachment forsocial concerns. These economies do not operate around the formulation of particular subjects as of particular proprietors goods and by extensionthe exchangesfounded upon such nor around the giftexchange idioms of 'bridewealthsocieties',but proprietorship, rathertheyfunctionthroughthe relationsestablished between people by means of theirdifferent bodies and corporealdesires. The idiom is notproprietorial sincepeople are not seen as subjectswho possess theirbodies or labour power. The idioms are rather thoseofcorporeal andintegrity and how theseareproducedor destroyed identity social relations.Concern with the body in shamaniccuringand sorcery, in through what is eaten and what is not, in the endlessseriesof prohibitions of sexual and other in theimagery ofkinship and affinity and in theritual construction activities, ofidentity, discussedin the ethnographic so frequently can thusbe seen as intimately literature, linkedto the particular economies of Native Amazonian peoples. and hearingthe endlesstalkof food and Livingin a Native Amazonian community

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of simplebiological need. to expressions sex, it is easy to imaginethatone is listening where bodily functionlies outside Western formulation But this is a distinctively thebody Societyin the realmof Nature and Necessity.In Native Amazonian cultures of corporeal and the satisfaction and its desiresare of immediatesocial significance Where Westem people benignly thecreation ofsocialrelations. desireissimultaneously of an view a child's eatingof earthas a naive explorationof the pleasuresand pitfalls much more unfamiliar world,the nativepeople of theBajo Urubamba see something project is to build a world in In theireyes, the perversechild's horrifying sinister. only to itself. which its desiresmatter
NOTES

in Peru between1980 and on the Bajo Urubambariver The present article is based on fieldwork and by the by the Social ScienceResearchCouncil of GreatBritain was funded 1982. This research brief dunrng was collected of London.Additional information Central ResearchFundof theUniversity PeterGose, Overing, in 1984 and 1987. 1 should liketo thankJoanna to theBajo Urubamba return visits on helpand comments and Chnrstina Torenfortheir Jones Andrew CeciliaMcCallum, MariaPhylactou, earlier versions. withthemeaning that it has recendy come article usestheterrn 'subsistence economy' The present has and Subarctic. As Fienup-Riordhan on theCanadianand Alaskan Arctic to acquirein theliterature is not economy EskimoofAlaska(1984), thesubsistence of theNelsonIsland pointed out in herstudy socialrelations specific of culturally aboutthesatisfaction of 'basichumanneeds'butaboutthecreation theenvironment. of culturaly specific items from circulation and consumption theproduction, through of labourand economy, the circulation on onlyone partof thesubsistence The present article focuses landandpeople. thewidercontext ofcirculations between ignores people,andlargely goodsbetween 2 A rather in hisstudy oftheMakunaoftheNorthwest byKaj Arhem simlilar is putforward argument relation set up betweenfood and sex encodesthe thatthe metaphoric Amazon(1981). Arhemargues of game in the form He arguesthatprotein relationship betweenthe Makuna and theirecosystem. factor in limiting in their just as womenare thecritical factor animals is thecritical limiting ecosystem, their socialreproduction (1981: 196-206). 3 It is significant and feeding arelocatedin terms ofwhatis knownabouttheir that thegameanimals is likely to be species andfishermen knowwhenand wherea particular sexualbehaviour. Good hunters thegamebyimitating their vocalisations. People explicitly andalso,in somecases, how to attract feeding gamespecies. to theparticular state that these callsaresexually attractive 4 Thispointsupports in bnrde-service societies offers marriage Collierand Rosaldo'sclaim(1981) that havefailed to distinguish between deal to men,butI feelthat they little to women,buta great advantage and fully adultstatus. Unlesstheyareveryold and to adulthood, whicharea transition early mamrages, to find womenon theUrubamba do everything possible to die soon,widowedor abandoned expecting This hasa oftheavailable stock thantheir adolescent counterparts. a new husband and arefar lesscrintical in a later ofthis article. for their whichI discuss section children, dealto do withproviding great metade la madre, 'mother's caUedleche 5Manoc beeris occasionally jokingly milk',butthereverse the comuse of 'maniocbeer' occursin shamanism: metaphoric phoris neverused.The onlystandard forthecuring is mimaatito, 'mylittle maniocbeer'. hallucinogens monest usedbyshamans euphemism 6 Piro girl'sinitiation as the people drinkthe strongly ceremony, the traditional Similarly, during out of her initiation skirt into a adultwoman'sskirt. fermented of thebeer,the girlis changed dregs As the skirt is 'mouthclothing', and are metaphoric of women'sgenitals. Skirts are calledmkalnamchi, theguests sing: changed, numeta konchoga Konchoga, makes me drunk. Maniocbeerofthedregs 8 Thereareadultviciosos. wivesor young tendto be oldermenwho havelosttheir they Signiificantly, areabsent in lumbenrng: bothhavelosttheir sexualandproducmarried womenwhosehusbands newly do not,I was told,eatearth, butrather tivePartner and arefully on kin.Suchperverse adults dependent in theeconomy whicharegoodswhichcirculate ofmoney. andcamphor, aspinrn ash,matches, cigarette
7 Cf Riviere 1974; Butt Colson 1974; Menget 1979.

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Arhem, Kaj 1981. Makuna socialorganization: a studyin descent, alliance and theformation ofcorporate groupsin thenorth-west Amazon. Uppsala: Universitetsforlaget. Beattie,J.M. & R.G. Lienhardt (eds) 1975. Studiesin socialanthropology in memory ofE.E. Evans-Pritchard. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Butt Colson, AudreyJ. 1975. Birth customsof the Akawaio. In Beattie & Lienhardt1975. Collier, J. & M. Rosaldo 1981. Politics and gender in simple societies. In Ortner & Whitehead 1981. natural Crocker, ChristopherJ.1985. Vitalsouls: Bororo cosmology, symbolism and shamanism. Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press. structure and ritual Fienup-Riordan, Ann 1984. The NelsonIslandEskimo:social distribution. Anchorage: Univ. of Alaska Press. thesexual livesofan Amazonianpeople.Chicago: Univ. Press. Gregor, Thomas 1985. Anxiouspleasures: New York: Doubleclay & Natural History SouthAmerica. Gross,D. (ed.) 1973. Peoplesand cultures ofnative Press. as property. Hirschon, R.R. (ed.) 1984. Womenandproperty, women London: Croom Helm. Holmberg, Allen 1969. Nomadsofthelongbow:theSiriono Bolivia.Garden City, NY: Govt Printing ofeastem Office [originally published 1950]. Hugh-Jones,Christine1979. FromtheMilk river: in Amazonia. Cambridge: Univ. spatialand temporal processes Press. Izard, M. & P. Smith 1979. Lafonction essaisd'anthropologie. Paris: Gallimard. symbolique: London: JonathanCape. Levi-Strauss,Claude 1970. The rawand thecooked. . 1978. The origin oftablemanners. London: JonathanCape. Menget, Patrick 1979. Temps de naltre,tempsd'etre: la couvade. In Izard & Smith 1979. Ortner,S. & H. Whitehead (eds) 1981. Sexual meanings. Cambridge: Univ. Press. thesexualand religious Reichel-Dolmatoff,Geraldo 1971. Amazoniancosmos: symbolism oftheTukanoIndians. Chicago: Univ. Press. an anthropology New York, London: Reiter, Rayna (ed.) 1975. Towards ofwomen. Riviere, Peter 1974. The couvade: a problem reborn. Man (N.S.) 9, 423-35. in women: notes on the 'political economy' of sex. In Reiter 1975. Rubin, Gayle 1975. The traffic Seeger, Anthony,Roberto da Matta & E.B. Viveiros de Castro 1979. A construcaoda pessoa nas sociedades Bol. Mus. nac. 32. indigenasbrasileiras. London: Oxford Univ. Press. Siskind,Janet1973a. To huntin themorning. huntersand the economy of sex. In Gross 1973. . 1973b. Tropical forest Strathern, Marilyn 1984. Subject or object? Women and the circulation of valuables in Highland New Guinea. In Hirschon 1984. 1985. Kinship and economy: constitutive ordersof a provisionalkind. Am. Ethnol.12, 191-209. -

L'enfant pervers: le desir dans une economie de subsistance Amazonienne IndigZene

Resume Partantde l'importancedes discussionssurla nourriture et le sexe dans la vie quotidienne des populations Amazoniennes Indigenes,l'articleanalysela place du desirsexuel et le desirde nourriture dansl'economie de subsistancede la population indigene de la riviereBago Urubamba au Perou. II decritla production, la circulation,la consommation de la nourriture et explore le lien entrece systemeet la construction des categoriessexuelles, les identitessexuelles et les relationsde mariage, d'affinite et de parente. A travers une analysede l'utilisation d'articlesde nourriture comme metaphoresde plaisanterie des organesgenitaux males et femelles,il est argumenteque la sexualite et la nourriture sont rendus analogues au niveau du desir. En dernierlieu, l'analyse de ce desir oral qui est interditchez les enfants, mene a la conclusion, que c'est la constructionde personnescomme sujets de desirsparticuliers oraux et sexuels qui structure les economies de subsistanceAmazoniennes.

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