Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos: Native
Perceptions of Capitalist Violence in
Peruvian Amazonia
By
Fernando Santos-Granero
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Frederica Barclay
Pontificia Universidad Cato?lica del Peru?
R e s u m e n
En este art??culo examinamos una serie de historias que han aparecido entre los Awaju?n,
Wampis yAshaninkade la amazon??a peruana, protagonizadas porunadiversidadde seres
sobrenaturales blancos que deambulan por sus comunidades para robarles su fuerza vital
o introducir en sus cuerpos sustancias pato?genas. Proponemos que estas historias cons-
tituyen una respuesta a la violencia capitalista que actualmente experimentan estos
pueblos como resultado de las agresivas pol??ticas gubernamentales de est??mulo a la inv-
ersio?n privada y de las intensas actividades de exploracio?n por parte de corporaciones
extractivas a?vidas de beneficiarse con los recursos naturales de la regio?n. Estas historias
esta?n basadas en nociones ind??genas sobre la persona y la enfermedad, pero tambie?n en
eco-cosmolog??as nativas que consideran la vida como un recurso escaso, objeto de una
intensa competicio?n entre especies. Lo que distingue a e?sta de pasadas coyunturas de
depredacio?n por parte de gente blanca es que en esta ocasio?n los ind??genas amazo?nicos
sienten que el gobierno y sus aliados se han propuesto acabar con ellos de una vez por
todas. [Amazon??a, cosmolog??as, ontolog??as, percepciones ind??genas, violencia capitalista]
A B S T R A C T
This article examines a set of stories told among theAwajun,Wampis, andAshaninka of
eastern Peru, which feature a diversity of white supernatural beings that wander about
their communities to steal their vital force, or introduce harmful substances into their
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 143?167. ISSN 1935-4932, online ISSN
1935-4940. & 2011 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/j.1935-
4940.2011.01128.x
Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos 143
bodies. These stories constitute a response to the capitalist violence experienced at
present by these peoples as a result of hard-line government policies promoting private
investment, and the frenzied activities of extractive corporations eager to profit from
the region?s natural resources. Such stories are informed by indigenous notions about
personhood and illness, but also by native eco-cosmologies that view life as a scarce
resourceFthe object of intense interspecific competition. What distinguishes this
from past junctures of predation by white people is that on this occasion native
Amazonians feel that the government and its allies have set out to exterminate them
once and for all. [Amazonia, capitalist violence, cosmologies, indigenous perceptions;
ontologies]
ON JUNE 5, 2009, THE PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT ORDERED THE removal of the Awajun and
Wampis protesters who were blocking the Fernando Belau?nde Terry road, near the
town of Bagua. In the context of a regional strike begun on April 9, protesters
demanded the repeal of 11 legislative decrees that created the conditions for the
despoiling of their lands and natural resources by large extractive corporations.
Close to seven hundred members of the elite police force using armored vehicles
and helicopters, and armed with assault rifles and tear gas, attacked protesters
equipped with spears and rocks. Thirty-three persons died in the confrontations,
including 9 of the 38 policemen taken as hostages by protesters in Station No. 6 of
Peru?Petro, the state oil company. It is estimated that around two hundred civilians
were wounded by police shots. What came to be known as the ??Bagua massacre??
marked a critical point in the struggle of native Amazonian peoples against mul-
tiple aggressions by the government of President Alan Garc??a (2006?11). It also
confirmed the extended indigenous perception that white people, represented
by the Peruvian State in alliance with large extractive corporations, were set on
exterminating them.
Numerous works have been published in the past decade documenting the
social, economic, and environmental impacts that extractive activities have had on
the territories of the indigenous peoples of Peruvian Amazonia, as well as the re-
sponse of these peoples in the face of such processes (Dandler 1998; La Torre Lo?pez
1998; DGE 2007; EarthRights International et al. 2007; Napolitano 2007). This
article will explore another dimension of the consequences that the market econ-
omy?s unbridled expansion has had over native Amazonian peoples, namely, how
these peoples perceive the advance and pressures of the new extractive fronts. The
main argument here is that the indigenous peoples of the region perceive such
pressures as a deliberate attempt by the State and the extractive companies to
eliminate them both as individuals and as social groups. In the case of the Awajun,
1 4 4 J O U R N A L O F L A T I N A M E R I C A N A N D C A R I B B E A N A N T H R O P O L O G Y
Wampis, and AshaninkaFthe focus of this workFthese fears are expressed in the
appearance of a number of stories about the activities of several supernatural beings
with white physiognomies, who wander about native communities equipped with
strange contraptions that make them invulnerable and allow them to spy on and
attack (more or less covertly) its members.
According to these stories, which began to circulate at the end of 2008 and
were still circulating in 2010 when this article was approved for publication, these
beingsFknown variously as bundles (bultos), stampers (selladores), and flying
gringos (gringos voladores)Fthreaten the security of native communities, infil-
trating them through governmental agencies and programs, killing their members
for a diversity of purposes. These perceptions, and the fears they entail, derive from
a widespread set of native notions about personhood, illness, the ??perspectival??
nature of the world, and the competitive character of relations between species,
who are perceived to be engaged in a permanent competition for vital forces. As
Santos-Granero (2009) has argued, these indigenous cosmologies provide the basis
for what he calls the Amerindian ??political economies of life.?? According to these
cosmologies, the vital force that animates the worldFvariously identified with the
sun?s energy, the soul of the creator God, or a generic vital substanceFis finite,
generally fixed, scarce, in constant circulation, and unequally distributed. Even
when vital forces are not considered to be finite and scarce, they are felt to be badly
distributed and not equally available to all. Given that this substance animates all
living beings, not only animals, plants, and humans, but also a large number of
objects and spirits, and given that it is generally scarce, the increase of a certain
species, or category of living being, can only be attained at the expense of the
decrease of another. Thismeans that all living beings are engaged in a fierce struggle
to accumulate as much vital force as possible in order to guarantee their survival
and reproduction.
In ??perspectival?? terms, such competition is conceived of as a struggle between
hunters and prey, and each species sees itself as predator of some species and prey of
others (Stolze Lima 1996, 2005; Viveiros de Castro 1998, 2004; Belau?nde 2007).
According to this conception of the world, in the mythical past all living beingsF
including objectsFwere human, immortal, and lived in harmony. Owing to the
fallibility of primordial humans, or of the Gods that created them, at a certain point
some humans were transformed into the animals, plants, objects, and spirits that
exist today, whereas others retained their humanityFnow mortalFand became
the different types of peoples that exist at present. Native Amazonian peoples assert
that all living beings have a human-shaped soul that recalls their past human con-
dition and for this reason they are considered to be ??persons.?? All these beings see
themselves as human, while they regard other beings as their structural opposites.
In such perspectival cosmologies, competition for life forces is expressed as a
Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos 145
struggle between human/hunters and non-human/prey, in which predators hunt
and eat their prey, whereas prey take revenge on their enemies by sending disease.
What prevents such political economies of life from becoming a Hobbessian ??war
of all against all?? is the notion that all living beings are persons and thus have a right
to live, and that all aggressions can and will be responded to with similar or greater
aggression. This results in an ethic of self-regulation that ensures a balance among
the species despite the practice of generalized predation.
The stories about whiteFespecially gringoFevil beings that have started to
circulate among the Ashaninka, Awajun, and Wampis in the context of the rapid
expansion of new extractive fronts respond to this particular logic. According to
such stories, these supernatural beings attack indigenous people either by intro-
ducing foreign substances into their bodies (including the stamping or marking of
their bodies), or by extracting bodily substances or body parts (fat, eyes, hearts, and
other organs), with the objective of stealing their vital energy or inhibiting their
reproductive capacities. Such stories resonate with widespread native Amazonian
theories that view disease as the result of the introduction of pathogenic objects or
substances into a person?s body, or the extraction of vital substances from them.
The circulation of these stories has generated much anxiety among the Ashaninka,
Awajun, andWampis, but also among other native peoples, such as the Shawi (DGE
2010). Such fears have emerged as the result of the State?s granting of concessions
for oil exploration and exploitation within indigenous territories without consult-
ing their inhabitants, or their collective organizations. They are sustained by the
accelerated changes and pressures that the Awajun, Wampis, and Ashaninka are
currently experiencing.
This is not the first time that native Amazonian peoples confront a situation
that affects their physical or social integrity as the result of the expansion of
extractive activities (OGE 2005). Neither is it the first time that they associate these
activities with the appearance of supernatural beings that seek to kill them in this
manner. A series of stories about pishtacos and pelacarasFgringos who kill people
to extract their fat or skin for a variety of purposesFcirculated throughout Pe-
ruvian Amazonia in the 1980s in the context of the aggressive colonization, defor-
estation, and road-building projects promoted by Presidents Fernando Belau?nde
(1980?85) and Alan Garc??a (1985?90). The effects of these stories were particularly
alarming among the Shipibo, Awajun, Yine, and Yanesha (Roe 1982:90?92; Brown
1986:183; Gow 1991:245; Santos-Granero 1998:137?139).
References to pishtacos appeared in the Andean highlands around 1571, when
their activities were reported by chronicler Cristo?bal de Molina, the Cuzquenian.
Some have argued, however, that the origin of this figure can be traced back to the
pre-Hispanic n?aqak, or ??throat cutter,?? which in turn would be an avatar of in-
digenous sorcerers (Ansio?n and Sifuentes 1989; Bellier and Hocquenghem 1991).
1 4 6 J O U R N A L O F L A T I N A M E R I C A N A N D C A R I B B E A N A N T H R O P O L O G Y
Analysis of the pishtaco, its pre-Hispanic roots, and its various metamorphoses
throughout time has been undertaken by numerous scholars working mostly in
Andean and urban coastal settings (Ansio?n 1989a; Degregori 1989; Rojas 1989;
Rivie`re 1991; Salazar 1991; Weismantel 1997, 2001; Canessa 2000). Most of these
authors agree that these figures represent a radical Other, an ??external power, that
dominates by force and extracts from Andean people their most valuable posses-
sion, their vital force?? (Ansio?n 1989b:9). They evoke the vulnerability of indige-
nous people, women, and the poor to the ??predations of the powerful,?? who in
colonial and post-colonial Peru are often identified with national, or foreign,
whites (Weismantel 2001:xxii). As such, pishtaco stories not only constitute a
reflection on alterity and its inequalities, but above all on affirmation of the
humanness of indigenous people ??in an oppressive and racialized world?? (Canessa
2000:705).
Today we witness the appearance of new stories, with new settings and char-
acters, that circulate through new means of communication, but which express a
similar fear: the fear of white people and their predatory powers. These stories are
inscribed within the long-lived pishtaco tradition. What seems to distinguish the
present situation of generalized predation from that of past timesFsuch as the one
that took place in the 1980sFis that this time indigenous peoples are certain that
the Peruvian State has allied with large extractive corporations not only to despoil
native peoples from their life forces, but to exterminate them.
This article will analyze narratives of white supernatural beings, as they have
been reported among the Ashaninka, Awajun, and Wampis, through new under-
standings of native Amazonian ontologies and cosmologies (Viveiros de Castro
1998, 2004; Santos-Granero 2009). TheArawak-speakingAshaninka and the Jivaro-
speaking Awajun and Wampis are among the most numerous native peoples in the
region, with a population of 88,700 and 65,500, respectively (INEI/UNFPA 2010).
Although they are separated by thousands of kilometers (see Map 1), they share a
similar environment (the forest-covered Andean piedmont) and history (of early
colonial contact interspersed with wars of resistance and extended periods of po-
litical autonomy).At present, they also share a commonaffiliation to the Interethnic
Association for the Development of Peruvian Amazonia (AIDESEP), Peru?s largest
confederation of native Amazonian peoples, and a firm stance against the alien
peoples and companies that are despoiling their lands and resources. This work will
analyze the Ashaninka and Awajun?Wampis because sightings of white supernat-
ural beings have often been reported among them, and because the authors are well
acquainted with their history and present situation. Although such sightings
respond to shared eco-cosmological conceptions and have been triggered by the
accelerated expansion of extractive activities in Peruvian Amazonia, they have
developed independently and, for this reason, differ in form and style.
Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos 147
To understand the context of these sightings, we first discuss the impact of
capitalist expansion over the past ten years. The reports of sightings are analyzed
next, to identify their common elements. Lastly, views of white people will be
examinedFrepresented here by State agents and foreign extractive companiesF
which we suggest express the competition for life forces characteristic of Amerin-
dian political economies. The general feeling among the Ashaninka, Awajun, and
Wampis that the government and the extractive companies have allied to exter-
minate them is expressed not only in these sightings, but also in a variety of formal
documents produced by their ethnopolitical organizations.
Map 1 Awajun, Wampis, and Ashaninka territories in Peruvian Amazonia.
1 4 8 J O U R N A L O F L A T I N A M E R I C A N A N D C A R I B B E A N A N T H R O P O L O G Y
The Resurgence of Terror Among the Ashaninka
At the beginning of the century, the Arawak-speaking Ashaninka of the Selva
Central region (departments of Pasco and Jun??n) had been decimated by confron-
tation with the insurgent forces of the Shining Path (SP) and the Tu?pac Amaru
Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), as well as with the counterinsurgent troops
that sought to suppress them. Between 1980 and 2000 more than six thousand
AshaninkaFincluding Asheninka and NomatsiguengaFdied as a result of these
confrontations (CVR 2003). Additionally, there were approximately 15 thousand
Ashaninka displaced from their communities. Instead of supporting them through
the Repopulation Program created in 1993 to benefit returning populations, the
government privileged Andean colonists, promoting their establishment in areas
abandoned by the Ashaninka during the period of violence (Dandler 1998:67).
The government also took advantage of the Ashaninka?s displacement to grant
hefty concessions to lumber companies in indigenous lands (Pen?aherrera 2009). In
some areas, such as Atalaya, the struggle between the Ashaninka and the lumber
companies supported by the State and local authorities has led to violent confron-
tations and the prosecution of indigenous leaders (Caruso 2004; Decretos 2006:
22?23). Timber extraction has affected not only Ashaninka communities, but also
the protected natural areas that formpart of their ancestral territories (El Comercio
2008d).
In remote areas, such as the Apurimac and Ene River Valley (VRAE), the
Ashaninka communities have been constantly harassed by Andean colonists, often
in associationwith bands of drug traffickers and the remnants of the SP that protect
them. These settlers systematically invade indigenous lands in order to grow coca
for the illegal production of cocaine (El Comercio 2008e). As a result, today the
VRAE produces 58 percent of the country?s cocaine (Pa?ez 2007). The despoiling of
Ashaninka lands has been aggravated by the authorities? resistance to title indig-
enous communities, even those that have been measured and demarcated, as
denounced by the Ashaninka Organization of the Apurimac River (OARA) in 2007
(Memorial 2007).
The activities of the VRAE Special Command, created in 2008 to eradicate the
narco-terrorist bands operating in the Apurimac valley, led drug traffickers and
coca producers tomove tomore remote areas of the Ene River valley, invading local
Ashaninka communities in the process (El Comercio 2008b). In June 2008, the
representatives of the Ene River Ashaninka Organization (CARE) denounced
the invasion of their communities. At the same time, community leaders signed
an agreement to help each other protect their territories and reject the invaders
(Salazar 2008b). The confrontation with the drug traffickers and the remaining SP
forces revived the Ashaninka self-defense committees, originally created in the
Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos 149
1980s to combat the insurgents, thus increasing the levels of violence and conflict
(El Comercio 2009).
The Ashaninka have also been affected by the granting of large oil concessions
in areas overlapping their communities and the adjacent protected areas. In 1998,
the government granted Blocks 34 and 35 to Spanish Repsol YPF Oil; these blocks
are located along the Upper Ucayali River (Anuario 2000:25). In 2003, it granted a
new concession, Block 90. At 8,800 km2, this block encompassed the old Blocks 34
and 35 and extended to the south toward the Tambo River, which covers the lands
of twelve Ashaninka communities, as well as the buffer zone between them and the
El Sira Communal Reserve (Oxfam 2007:15). In 2004, the government granted the
same company the adjacent Block 57, located along the Tambo and Urubamba
Rivers, which affects 14 Ashaninka, Yine, and Matsigenka communities. In
addition, in 2005, the government granted Oil Block 108 to Pluspetrol Peru? Cor-
poration, a subsidiary of the Argentinean consortium Pluspetrol (Salazar 2008a).
This block covers most of the Ene River basin, overlapping with the lands of
18 Ashaninka communities, as well as with the buffer zone of the Ashaninka
Communal Reserve.
Ashaninka organizations, such as CARE and the Ashaninka National Union of
the Apurimac River (UNAY), have opposed the entry of these oil companies into
their communities and have demanded the annulment of the concessions (Servi-
cios en Comunicacio?n Intercultural [SERVINDI] 2006; Salazar 2008a). In
June 2007, the Regional Association of Indigenous Peoples (ARPI), which
includes 11 indigenous federations of the Selva Central region, rejected the
government?s anti-Indian attitude, condemned the granting of oil concessions in
indigenous territories, and agreed to hinder the entry of oil companies into their
communities, or suspend any works that might have started (SERVINDI 2007a).
These organizations argue that the government did not consult Ashaninka
communities before granting these concessionsFwhich is required according to
Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization, of which Peru is a sig-
natory (Oxfam 2007). As a result, tensions between the Ashaninka and the oil
companies escalated, leading to the invasion of oil camps and the suspension of oil
exploration activities at the end of 2007, and again during the first half of 2008 (El
Comercio 2007; El Comercio 2008a).
Conflict resulting from the invasion of these land areas by colonists, timber ex-
tractors, and oil companies, as well as from President Alan Garc??a?s overtly anti-
Indianpolicies, has led to the organization of several regional strikes. InAugust 2008,
128 Ashaninka and Yanesha communities affiliated to UNAY and the Apatyawapa
Nampitsi Pichis (ANAP) federation participated in a regional strike, in response to
the general mobilization convoked by AIDESEP (SERVINDI 2008). Protesters de-
manded the repeal of Decrees 1015 and 1073, which modified the law of private
1 5 0 J O U R N A L O F L A T I N A M E R I C A N A N D C A R I B B E A N A N T H R O P O L O G Y
investment and allowed the sale of communal lands with the vote of only a simple
majority of the participants in an unqualified assembly, thus enabling the despoil-
ment of indigenous Amazonian and Andean communities by large corporations. In
April 2009, the Indigenous Organization of the Atalaya Region (OIRA) joined the
Amazonian strike convoked by AIDESEP to demand the repeal of Decrees 1020,
1064, 1080, 1081, 1089, and 1090, which created the conditions for this despoilment.
They also demanded from the government the recognition of the ancestral collective
rights of native Amazonian peoples, and the re-establishment in the country?s
political constitution of the principles of inalienability, imprescriptibility, and un-
seizability of indigenous lands (La Repu?blica 2009; SERVINDI 2009a).
In the meantime, the announcement that Peru and Brazil were planning to
build six large hydroelectric plants in Peruvian Amazonia, the most important of
which, Pakitzapango, was to be constructed in the Ene River valley, deepened the
feeling of encroachment experienced by the Ashaninka (SERVINDI 2009b). In its
23rdOrdinaryCongress, held inApril 2009, CAREdemanded the annulment of the
resolution by which the Ministry of Energy and Mining commissioned the com-
pany Pakitzapango Energy SAC to undertake a feasibility study for the dam?s con-
struction. CARE justified their demands on the basis that the native communities
had been neither informed nor consulted on the project, as required by ILO?s
Convention 169 (Pronunciamiento 2009). The damwould create over 73 thousand
hectares of artificial lake, whichwould affect tenAshaninka communities and flood
thirteen settlements and more than 30 thousand hectares of communal lands
(CARE 2009). The River Ene Ashaninka not only rejected construction of the dam,
but also denounced government policies, which, from their perspective, consti-
tuted an attempt to eradicate native peoples.
The Rupture of the Border Pact with the Awajun?Wampis
Despite being easily accessible from the coast, until the beginning of this century the
territories of the Jivaro-speaking Awajun andWampisFwhich include portions of
the departments of Cajamarca, Amazonas, San Mart??n, and LoretoFhad not ex-
perienced such extensive colonization processes as those in other areas of Peruvian
Amazonia. This was largely due to the fact that their territories occupy a disputed
border area in which, until the signing of the peace treaty between Peru and Ec-
uador in 1998, there existed a non-written pact of mutual protection between, on
the one hand, the Awajun and Wampis and, on the other, the Peruvian Army
(ODECOFROC 2010). After the signing of the peace treaty between Peru and Ec-
uador, and the demarcation of their common frontier, the old alliance between the
Awajun?Wampis and the Army started to dissolve, insofar as these peoples were
considered to be no longer necessary for the Army?s long-term objectives.
Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos 151
The most evident sign of this strategic change was the Army?s support for a
series of initiatives that put at risk the integrity of the Awajun and Wampis
territories and, more particularly, their approval of mining concessions in the
Cordillera del Condor, along the border region. These concessions had been
approved in 1992, but remained on hold until a few months after the signing of the
peace treaty, when the government signed a mining agreement with Ecuador to
promote cooperation in the development of mining activities along the border
(D.S. 046-1999-RE).
Simultaneously, the government created a Reserved Zone that overlapped with
52 Awajun and Wampis communities of the Condorcanqui province, under the
pretext of carrying out a territorial planning program and without consulting the
affected communities (D.S. N1 005-99-AG). The objective of this initiative was to
determine the route of a series of roads to connect Peru and Ecuador, as well as to
demarcate protected natural areas, as established in the 1998 peace agreements.
Awajun and Wampis local organizations accepted the idea of creating a protected
natural area along the frontier, which would ensure the conservation of the head-
waters of the Cenepa and Santiago Rivers, as well as block the development of
mining activities in the Cordillera del Condor area. From 1999 to 2004, the Awajun
and Wampis participated actively, together with environmental authorities, in the
planning process for this zone. This process culminated in a consensual proposal
for the creation of a 152,875-hectare national Park at Ichigkat Muja (INRENA
2004). However, in 2005 the government blocked the initiative, reducing the pro-
tected area to 69,829 hectares in order to open the region to gold exploration. The
Ministry of Defense and the Joint Command of the Peruvian Army, which until
then had systematically hindered all plans for colonization of Awajun and Wampis
territories, supported the reduction of the park?s area and the granting of mining
permits (ODECOFROC 2010:32).
The decision to cut down the park, sanctioned in 2007, was considered an
affront by the Awajun?Wampis. They denounced the apparent collusion between
government authorities, the Army, and the mining companies (ODECOFROC
2008a, b), and accused the Army of allowing the entry of miners without permits
into the area,whose operationswere already affectingwater quality. In addition, the
government had not compliedwith its commitment to expand the territories of ten
native communities and title the lands of several others in order to close the park?s
southern frontier to further colonization (Acta 2004).
This situationworsened when, in December 2006, Peru?Petro granted Oil Block
116 to Hocol, a French oil company (Peru?Petro 2006). Located to the south of the
Cordillera del Condor, the area covers 856,000 hectares and overlaps with almost
one hundred Awajun and Wampis communities of the Santiago, Cenepa, Nieva,
and Maran?on Rivers, at the heart of their ancestral territories. The decision was
1 5 2 J O U R N A L O F L A T I N A M E R I C A N A N D C A R I B B E A N A N T H R O P O L O G Y
immediately condemned by local Awajun and Wampis organizations. The follow-
ing year, they rejected a meeting organized by the government, arguing that the
proposed oil operations ??put their lives at risk?? (SERVINDI 2007b). This block also
overlaps with the Tuntanain Communal Reserve and affects the area set apart for
the creation of the Kampankis Communal Reserve. The distress caused by the
government?s actions has led to an increase of conflict in the areaFa conflict that
has deepened as new extractive companies settle in the area and new economic
projects are announced. One such project is the construction of the Rentema dam,
which would affect the territorial integrity of the Awajun and Wampis peoples
(GRA 2008).
In 1998, the lands of the Awajun community of NaranjosFSan Ignacio prov-
ince, department of CajamarcaFwere invaded bymore than one hundredmestizo
colonists (La Revista Agraria 2002). Despite the protests of community members,
followed by legal action, local authorities favored the invaders, granting them land
titles within the community?s borders. Attempts to eject the invaders failed because
of a lack of support from local police and law courts. This led to a violent con-
frontation when, in January 2002, the Awajun of Flor de la Frontera attacked and
evicted the colonists who had settled in their community (Congreso 2002); the
communities of this area have been affected by more than 60 concessions granted
by the government to the Peruvian mining company Metalfin-Afrodita (ODECO-
FROC 2010:16). Local Awajun communities have opposed these and other gold
mining concessions granted by the government in the area.
The Awajun and Wampis communities of Date?m province, Loreto, have been
included (almost in their entirety) in two large oil blocks (Benavides and Soria
2009). Block 109 was granted to the Spanish company Repsol in 2005, and en-
compasses a total of 23 Awajun communities living along the Potro, Apaga, and
Cahuapanas Rivers. Block 147 was granted in 2008 to Jindail Oil and Gas Peru S.A.
(a company based in India) in association with Peru?s Enigma Petro?leo y Gas (a
subsidiary of a company registered in NamibiaFnow Chariot Oil and Gas); this
block encompasses 11 Wampis communities along the Morona River. The gov-
ernment policy of granting oil concessions in indigenous territories has been de-
nounced repeatedly by the Awajun and Wampis organizations affiliated to the
Regional Coordination of Indigenous Peoples of the San Lorenzo area (CORPI-San
Lorenzo), which have demanded the annulment of all concessions (CNR 2008). In
addition, the Organization of the Awajun Peoples of the Manseriche District is
demanding compensation from the government for the contamination of the
communities? water source at ApagaRiverFa result of oil spills that occurredmore
than ten years ago. The protests have included the occupation of Peru?Petro?s
Station No. 5 on more than one occasion over the past years and during the 2008
Amazonian strike. The recurring conflicts with the State and large extractive
Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos 153
corporations explain why the Awajun and Wampis communities participated in
the April 2009 Amazonian strike, with its tragic outcome of so many dead
and wounded.
Indigenous Perceptions of Capitalist Violence
It was in this context of intense aggression by the government and a group of na-
tional and transnational corporations dedicated to the extraction of timber, gold,
and oil that news first appeared about the presence of white supernatural beings
that wandered around native communities harassing the inhabitants. The first of
these reports took the form of an e-mail sent on January 6, 2009, by Edinson
Esp??ritu, anAshaninka from the Perene River to themembers of the AMABilingual
Intercultural Network, a non-profit organization devoted to improving the quality
of life of Andean?Amazonian communities (http://aamapresidente.blog
spot.com). The text of the e-mail, here translated literally from Spanish, said:
Dear friends, brothers, colleagues, comrades, allies and public in general. Yesterday,
an Ashaninka sister declared to us that in the Ashaninka territoryFselva central,
people (gringos) have appeared dressed in trousers, shirts, shoes, helmets and iron
wings; the wings help them travel fromone place to another; we believe they operate
with some sort of fuel; no bullets can enter their clothing; they kill boys and girls
without pity to extract only their eyes and hearts; up until now there have already
disappeared several Ashaninka boys and girls; for this reason we alert all men and
women who are not yet aware of this to remain vigilant. People, in particular
Ashaninka who live in dispersed areas distant from towns, please organize and you
know what to do.
This was reproduced the following day in the blog of Leonardo Antich, an
Awajun from Santiago River (http://noticiaskanus.blogspot.com), and on January
29, on the webpage of a conservation newsletter ViajerosOnLine (http://www.viaj
erosperu.com).
The second report appeared on January 31, 2009, in La Voz Municipal, the
monthly bulletin of the Santiago River District Municipality, in Awajun?Wampis
territory. Under the title ??Guayabal: invasion of strange beings, truth or fiction???
the text said:
In late Januarywewere informed by a technical nurse via radio from the community
of Guayabal, of the presence of some strange beings who appeared at night and
terrorized the entire population. During the first days it seemed incredible, the news
from Guayabal was constant and a climate of that nature was worrying for this
1 5 4 J O U R N A L O F L A T I N A M E R I C A N A N D C A R I B B E A N A N T H R O P O L O G Y
reason: the communications team and the commission of authorities travelled to
the scene to check the facts; we were welcomed in that community; we were in-
formed of spine-chilling events such as the presence of gringos that appeared; seven
community members told us how these beings were; they said that a being de-
scended from space inside a glass sphere and that it reflected multicolored lights;
they had made several shots from a distance of 3 meters, but the pellets would not
penetrate the bundle; we stayed one night to capture the image of the supposed
gringo; wewandered about almost all night long but with no results.We urge people
to remain alert in the face of this situation and inform local authorities immediately.
Whether this be true or not, we must remain alert. (Bolet??n 2009)
This news was also reproduced in Leonardo Antich?s blog, where there are links
to various editions of the Rio Santiago District Municipality bulletin.
Some reacted to these reports with skepticism, as expressed by comments on
the reports of flying gringos in the Selva Central region, on Antich?s blog. This
article is not interested in determining whether these and similar reports circulat-
ing among the Ashaninka, Awajun, andWampis are true.What is important here is
that these stories are circulating in native communities, either verbally or through
other means of communication, and that they express the native peoples? distress
over the gradual occupation of their territories by foreign agents.
The two reports share many similarities. In both cases, foreigners are repre-
sented as gringos who wander freely about the communitiesFeither by land or by
airFand are invulnerable to bullets, harass native communities, and threaten to
kill children to extract their organs, or terrorize their inhabitants at night. Among
the Ashaninka these reports have been circulating for quite some time (Lucy Trap-
nell, personal communication, November 24, 29, and December 5, 2009). People
assert that flying gringos have been sighted in areas of Satipo, Pangoa, Ene, and
Perene?, as well as along the road that connects Puerto Bermu?dez with Pucallpa. In
this latter place, a group of Ashaninka and colonists saw one of these beings flying
over the forest canopy when they were changing a pickup?s flat tire. Flying gringos
are generally men, but they can sometimes be women. In some of the versions that
circulate, it is said that they can fly thanks to ironwings; in other versions, the flying
capacity is attributed to small motors attached to their bellies, which they can turn
on and off by pressing a button. They generally wander at night. When they move
they emit multicolored lights and have powerful flashlights with which they blind
their chosen victims. Their objective is to kidnap children and young peopleF
although they occasionally kill adultsFto extract their hearts and other organs in
order to send them to theUnited States, where they are used tomake transplants for
elderly people. They always carry a small freezer with many compartments where
they put the different organs extracted from their victims. Some assert that when
Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos 155
flying gringos kidnap a child, they often leave behind some money by way of com-
pensation. In all cases, their victims disappear for good.
The Ashaninka of the Ene and Tambo Rivers claim that flying gringos work in
associationwith the National Program of Direct Support to the Poorer, also known
as the Juntos (??Together??) program. This program, created by the government in
2005, provides amonthly incentive of one hundred soles (approximately US$27) to
mothers with children less than 14 years old in exchange for complying with certain
conditions, such as undergoing regular gynecological examinations, enrolling their
children in school and ensuring that they attend regularly, taking their children to
periodic health controls and having them vaccinated, and committing themselves
to feed their childrenwith fortified foods provided by the government. The Ashan-
inka claim that the program?s promotersFgenerally womenFhave given the lists
of assisted children to the flying gringos and that it is from these lists that the latter
choose their victims. This rumor has generated a massive rejection of the Juntos
program among the Ashaninka.
People say that flying gringos flee as soon as they are sighted. Some claim that in
Pumpuriani (Perene River), community members scared away one of these beings
when he was descending from the sky to seize a boy. In some cases the Ashaninka
have organized themselves to capture the marauders. It is said, for instance, that in
Zutziki (Perene River), community members caught two of them and burned
them. In the area of Mazamari they killed one of them and found that he was
carrying money with him. According to a widely circulating story, in the Ene River
an Ashaninka man who killed a flying gringo and attached to his body the gringo?s
little motor, turned on themotor accidentally and flew off at high speed. People say
that he landed far away in Poyeni (Tambo River), and that there he was killed by
community members who did not recognize him as one of their own. Many assert
that flying gringos have a three-year contract with Alan Garc??a?s government, the
main objective of which is to exterminate the Ashaninka. According to one of the
advisors of Pluspetrol, the oil company that operates Oil Block 108 in the Ene River
basin, these reports have been invented by native people to scare away oil company
workers. However, the anxiety and distress that these reports are causing among the
Ashaninka seem to contradict this theory.
The wandering bundles reported among the Awajun and Wampis have certain
similarities with the flying gringos of the Selva Central region. In another ver-
sion of the reports appearing in the monthly bulletin of the Rio Santiago District
Municipality, it is said that such bundles travel within glass spheres. When
people see them, they usually hide, and when they shoot at them, the bullets
bounce and they take off and disappear in the sky. After the first sighting in
the community of Guayabal there have been several other sightings of
bundles along the Santiago River. The most recent was in Puerto Galilea, where
1 5 6 J O U R N A L O F L A T I N A M E R I C A N A N D C A R I B B E A N A N T H R O P O L O G Y
community members associated the intruders with the fat-extracting pishtacos of
Andean tradition.
In Awajun andWampis communities the reports often appear alongside stories
of another character known as sellador, or stamper. Stampers assume various
guises, but they are always civil servants in charge of aid programs who stamp
indigenous people on different parts of their bodies with the aim of harming them.
In one version, the stamper is an unsightly man, generally accompanied by a young
female secretary, who claims to be a defender of children?s rights in order to ap-
proach indigenous children and talk to them (Pedro Garc??a, personal communi-
cation, January 29, 2009). Once he is close to them, he stamps his victims? wrists
either with a bar code, or with the number 666. According to the New Testament,
this number is the ??mark of the beast,?? which Satan will impose on the forehead or
right hand of all human beings at the end of time (Apocalypse 13:16?17). In ad-
dition, since the publication of Mary Stewart Relfe?s The New Money System 666
(1982), there has been much speculation that all Universal Product Code barcodes
contain the number 666, and that the combination of a barcode and the number
666 will be the way in which the Antichrist will mark people in the future, thus
fulfilling the Apocalypse prophecy (see, for instance, http://www.av1611.org/666/
barcode.html). This notion has somehow reached the Awajun and Wampis who,
after conversion to Christianity from the 1950s, are well acquainted with the Bible.
Although the Awajun?Wampis are vague as to the purpose of the stampers, they
intimate that it might be to kidnap and rape the children thus marked.
In another version that coincides with this, the stamper is a female promoter of
the Juntos program. After a slow start in 2007 (because it costmore for Awajun and
Wampis mothers to travel to where disbursements were made than the amount
they obtained), the program took off once it was decentralized. Since then, a high
proportion of Awajun and Wampis women with young children registered for the
program. In October 2008, however, rumors started circulating that the program?s
female promoters (who were in charge of making the disbursements, giving ori-
entation talks, and checking whether mothers complied with the program?s re-
quirements) were really stampers with unspecified but evil intentions. People said
that only the women so marked could work for the government. As a consequence
of these rumors, hundreds of Awajun and Wampis women have quit the program.
The third version of reports about this character represents stampers asmale or
female health promoters in charge of national vaccination campaigns. Distrust of
these campaigns has intensified in recent years with the suspension of the yellow
fever vaccination initiated in 2007, in the context of the Pisco earthquake, after four
vaccinated people died (OMS 2008), and the suspension of the 2008 campaign
against hepatitis B in Arequipa, due to increasing concerns about the possible
noxious effects of the vaccine?smercurial component (thimerosal), whose function
Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos 157
is to prolong its effectiveness (El Comercio 2008c). In this version, vaccinators are
stampers who take advantage of campaigns to mark the bodies of their victims.
Some assert that this and other types of vaccines, such as the vaccine against
German measles, which is only given to women of reproductive age, aim at ster-
ilizing indigenous women. As a result of these fears, the campaign against hepatitis
B had little coverage in Awajun and Wampis communities.
Fear of stamps extends to foodsmarkedwith barcodes and especially powdered
milk, baby formulas and cereals, as well as other donated fortified foods distributed
by government agencies. It is reported that such foods sterilize women and
have pernicious effects on those who consume them. In brief, the Ashaninka,
Awajun, and Wampis fear that gringos have initiated a campaign to exterminate
them either by extracting body parts or substances (such as eyes, organs or fat),
or by introducing noxious substances (stamps, vaccines, or fortified foods) into
their bodies.
These fears were also expressed in the aftermath of the violent events that took
place in Bagua in 2009, when human rights defenders reported a story circulating
among the Awajun: the government was planning to inject Awajun detainees with
the blood of the dead policemenFwhich reveals Awajun fears of inoculation with
harmful substances (FIDH 2009:32). More importantly, the Awajun, Wampis, and
Ashaninka feel that the campaign has been undertaken with the overt, or covert,
complicity of the government, which has signed contracts with gringo people to
achieve its aims, or have put at their disposal its agencies with the aim of making
indigenous people ill, or sterilizing, raping, or killing them.
Personhood, Illness, and Competition for Life Forces
The negative perceptions upheld by the Awajun, Wampis, and Ashaninka with
regards to Peruvian or foreign whites is undoubtedly informed by their historical
interaction with them; an interaction plagued with instances of exploitation,
epidemics, dispossession, killings, and enslavement (Varese 1973; Brown 1984). In
this juncture, however, such perceptions have combined with the set of ideas that
Santos-Granero (2009) encompasses under the notion of ??political economies of
life,?? to give origin to a broad range of stories about a series of white supernatural
beings who harass native communities with their evil powers.
Awajun, Wampis, and Ashaninka notions of personhood, illness, and inter-
specific competition express clearly this set of ideas. The Awajun and Wampis
affirm that all living beings, includingmany objects, have a spiritual essence:wakan
in the case of humans; aents, or ??person,?? in that of non-humans (Brown 1986:54?
55). Aents are thought to have human shapeFa vestige of the original human
nature of their ownersFand are conceived of as collective animal souls represent-
1 5 8 J O U R N A L O F L A T I N A M E R I C A N A N D C A R I B B E A N A N T H R O P O L O G Y
ing all individuals of any given species. In addition, some animals and plants are
said to be ??owned?? or ??controlled?? by powerful mythical beings, such as Nugkui,
the female earth spirit, who controls a large variety of garden plants, domesticated
animals, andwild animals (Brown1986:50). Given that humans dependon animals
and plants for their subsistence and that the latter were originally human beings,
relationships with them are considered to be extremely delicate and requiring
compliance with a large number of taboos. The two most important in relation to
animals are the prohibitions to hunt too many individuals of the same species and
to treat the bones and remains of hunted animals disrespectfully (Brown 1986:91?
92). The breaking of these taboos is thought to bring about shimpankamu, a con-
dition imposed by the animal spirits thus disrespected bywhich hunters are unable
to find game (Brown 1986:70).
The same happens with garden plants. If they aremaltreated by thewomanwho
has planted them or by other people, they might take revenge by sucking the blood
of the transgressors. Instances of maltreatment include harvesting all plants of the
same species within a garden, or leaving carelessly behind portions of the harvested
crops. The act by which plants suck the blood of a transgressor is known as ??soul
eating?? and it is understood as the ??tapping of a person?s life force such that he or
she becomes weak, pale, and unable to resist death?? (Brown 1986:106). The ratio-
nale behind these taboos, which seem to be shared by all Jivaro-speaking peoples, is
the idea that ??the possibilities of human existence are finite and dependent on a
chronically insufficient stock of virtualities of persons?? (Taylor 1994:74).
The Ashaninka also assert that all beingsFhumans, animals, plants, and ob-
jectsFare endowed with human-shaped souls (ishire) that betray their common
human origin. For this reason, they consider all living beings to be ??people.?? How-
ever, whereas the souls of human beings are containedwithin their bodies, the souls
of non-human beings appear as the external ??mothers?? (iniro), or ??fathers?? (iriri),
of particular plant or animal species (Chevalier 1982:344).Mystical progenitors are
conceived of as ??owners?? of their ??children,?? but also as their ??guardians?? and
??protectors.?? In addition, forest animals and fish have ??chief owners??FManinkari
andKiatsi, respectivelyFwho keep their wards in caves and pools and decide when
and how many of them they will release for the Ashaninka to catch (Elick 1970:49;
Weiss 1975:287). The Ashaninka assert that these mystical owners are extremely
protective of their children. The fathers of the different animal species become
aggrieved when hunters kill too many of their wards (Elick 1970:53). In such cases,
they may appear to the hunter in animal form to make him ill. Animal guardians
also become angry when careless hunters shoot one of their wardswithout killing it
and the animal bleeds to death in vain (Elick 1970:48). In those cases, the angry
father avenges the death of the animal by attracting the hunter to a cave and turning
him into one of his animals.
Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos 159
The basis for these conceptions seems to be the same as among the Awajun and
Wampis, namely, that life is a scarce resource and all living beings compete to ac-
cumulate asmuch vital force as possible, even if this is in detriment of other species.
This is why the mothers and fathers of plants and animals punish people who
overexploit their wards, or kill them recklessly, by sending them mortal diseases.
The underlying principle is that some kind of balance between competing species
must be achieved before generalized predation leads to the annihilation of any
given species and, thus, to an irreversible disruption of the world. Among the
Ashaninka this is an explicit notion. Shamans are charged with the task of main-
taining equilibriumbetween humans and the spirit guardians of animals and plants
(Elick 1970:211).
We propose that the Ashaninka, Awajun, and Wampis conceive of the rela-
tionship between different human groups, or categories of human beings, in the
same terms as they conceive of the relationship between humans, plants, and an-
imals, to wit, a relation of competition for life forces that must reach a certain
balance despite of the principle of asymmetry and structural disequilibrium that
characterizes it (Taylor 1994:74). Such competition has been particularly keen be-
tween native Amazonians and white people, with whites dispossessing and enslav-
ing natives to enrich themselves, and natives trying to pacify white people in order
to acquire some of their extraordinary powers. The problem today is that the
Ashaninka, Awajun, and Wampis feel that the possibility of equilibriumFof a
balanced predation so to speakFhas been broken. From their perspective, at pres-
ent whites are not only exploiting native peoples, as they have been doing for
hundreds of years, dispossessing them of their resources and with them their
sources of life, but have decided to exterminate them with the active support
of the State.
Conclusion
It could be argued that the correlation between the present situation of capitalist
encroachment of native Amazonian territories and resources, and the appearance
of narratives of white supernatural beings is circumstantial. It could also be con-
tended that the notion that these narratives express an indigenous concern for
survival is a mere inference. However, such a concern is also found in a variety of
documents produced by indigenous leaders and organizations, as well as in the
statements of the many native peoples struggling to defend their lands.
A declaration by the Awajun and Wampis in the context of the August 2008
Amazonian strike, notes: ??This indigenous mobilization is an expression of our
opposition to the legislation promulgated by the present government, which
vulnerates our ancestral rights to the land, and constitutes a just demand so that our
1 6 0 J O U R N A L O F L A T I N A M E R I C A N A N D C A R I B B E A N A N T H R O P O L O G Y
lives are respected and the government stop emitting norms that put in jeopardy our very
existence?? (Pronunciamiento 2008, emphasis added). A similar sentiment is found
among the Ashaninka. In a declaration by CARE in 2009, opposing the building of
the Paquitzapango dam, the signatories conclude: ??Although we have contributed
with our blood and lives to the pacification of the country, organizing ourselves in
self-defense committees, the government brings us new threats: the concession of
our lands to oil companies and the construction of hydroelectric dams.We see these
attacks to our territory as onemore violent attack that attempts directly against our
lives and our existence as a people. This leads us to a single conclusion: that the
government intends to exterminate us?? (Pronunciamiento 2009, emphasis added).
These stories of bundles, stampers, and flying gringos respond to the gener-
alized feeling that white people and the State that represents (in the case of Peruvian
whites) or promotes them (in the case of gringos) intend to exterminate native
Amazonian peoples. The massacre of Awajun and Wampis protesters in Bagua
during the 2009 strike confirms this perception, as expressed by the desperate and
enraged words that an Awajun woman addressed to President Alan Garc??a when
interviewed for a national television program: ??You are the one to blame because
you are exterminating us. You are killing us. You are selling us. You are the terrorist
yWe, the Awajun-Wampis, have not elected you so that you could exterminate us
but so that you could help us y You have already exterminated us, now we have
nothing?? (Testimonio 2009, emphasis added).
Encroached upon by oil, mining, and lumber companies, invaded by construc-
tion workers, and threatened by legislative decrees and government policies seeking
to erode a protective legal structure that had been constructed with so much effort
throughout the past decades, the Ashaninka, Awajun, and Wampis, like other in-
digenous peoples of PeruvianAmazonia, feel that they are engaged in a final struggle:
a definitive struggle from which they can only emerge victorious or dead.
References Cited
Acta
2004 Acta de conformidad para la creacio?n del ParqueNacional Cordillera del Co?ndor. Archive of
the Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales (INRENA), March 30.
AIDESEP
2008 Comunidades de la Cordillera del Co?ndor rechazan exploracio?n de petro?leo porque
atenta contra sus vidas. Asociacio?n Intere?tnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana, May 20.
http://www.aidesep.org.pe/index.php?codnota=37, accessed December 2009.
Ansio?n, Juan M., ed.
1989a Pishtacos: de verdugos a sacaojos. Lima: Ed. Tarea.
Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos 161
Ansio?n, Juan M.
1989b Presentacio?n. In Pishtacos: de verdugos a sacaojos. Juan M. Ansio?n, ed. Pp. 9?15. Lima:
Ed. Tarea.
Ansio?n, Juan M. and Eudosio Sifuentes
1989 La imagen popular de la violencia, a trave?s de los relatos de degolladores. In Pishtacos: de
verdugos a sacaojos. Juan M. Ansio?n, ed. Pp. 61?105. Lima: Ed. Tarea.
Anuario
2000 Anuario estad??stico de hidrocarburos. Ministerio de Energ??a y Minas del Peru?. http://
www.minem.gob.pe/minem/archivos/file/Hidrocarburos/anuario%202000/Exploracion.pdf,
accessed November 2009.
Belau?nde, Luisa E. (org.)
2007 Thematic Issue, ??Perspectivismo??. Amazon??a Peruana 30: 9?305.
Bellier, Ire`ne and Anne-Marie Hocquenghem
1991 De los Andes a la Amazon??a. Una representacio?n evolutiva del ??Otro??. Bulletin de l?In-
stitut Franc-ais d?Etudes Andines 20(1): 41?59.
Benavides, Margarita and Carla Soria
2009 Mapa de lotes de hidrocarburos y concesiones mineras. Amazon??a Peruana 2009. Lima:
SICNA, Instituto del Bien Comu?n.
Bolet??n
2009 Guayabal: invasio?n de seres extran?os ?verdad o ficcio?n? Bolet??n mensual de la Munici-
palidad Distrital de R??o Santiago, January 31.
Brown, Michael F.
1984 Una paz incierta: historia y cultura de las comunidades aguarunas frente al impacto de la
Carretera Marginal. Lima: Centro Amazo?nico de Antropolog??a y Aplicacio?n Pra?ctica.
1986 Tsewa?s Gift: Magic and Meaning in an Amazonian Society. Washington, DC: Smithson-
ian Institution Press.
Canessa, Andrew
2000 Fear and Loathing on theKharisiri Trail: Alterity and Identity in the Andes. Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute 6(4): 705?720.
CARE
2009 Valle del r??o Ene en amenaza por el proyecto Paquitzapango. Video produced by
the Central Ashaninka del Rio Ene (CARE). http://www.dailymotion.com/video/
x8u6e4_mapas-de-inundacion_creation, accessed November 2009.
Caruso, Emily
2004 Peru: Amazon Forestry ConsortiumThreatens to Evict an Ashaninka Community.World
Rainforest Movement Bulletin 80. http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/80/Peru.html, ac-
cessed November 2009.
Chevalier, Jacques M.
1982 Civilization and the Stolen Gift: Capital, Kin, and Cult in Eastern Peru. Toronto: Uni-
versity of Toronto Press.
CNR
2008 Ind??genas toman estacio?n de petro?leo en Saramiriza. CNR Health Care Network,
December 8. http://www.cnr.org.pe/noticia.php?id=23184, accessed December 2009.
1 6 2 J O U R N A L O F L A T I N A M E R I C A N A N D C A R I B B E A N A N T H R O P O L O G Y
Congreso
2002 Informe del grupo de trabajo encargado de la investigacio?n de los hechos ocurridos en la
provincia de San Ignacio, departamento de Cajamarca, producto del enfrentamiento en-
tre colonos y nativos de la zona y para identificar zonas de la amazon??a peruana en las que
se puedan presentar hechos similares. Congreso de la Repu?blica. http://www.cong
reso.gob.pe/congresista/2001/lguerrero/paginas/fiscalizadora0.htm, accessed March
2009.
CVR
2003 Informe Final. Comisio?n de la Verdad y Reconciliacio?n. http://www.cverdad.org.pe/
ifinal/index.php, accessed November 2009.
Dandler, Jorge
1998 Pueblos ind??genas de la Amazon??a peruana y desarrollo sostenible. Lima: OIT/HIVOS/
PNUD.
Decretos
2006 Decretos de urgencia: fe de erratas. Sistema Peruano de Informacio?n Jur??dica,
May 17. http://spij.minjus.gob.pe/Normas/textos/170506T.pdf, accessed November
2009.
Degregori, Carlos Iva?n
1989 Entre los fuegos de Sendero y del Eje?rcito: El regreso de los ??pishtacos??. In Pishtacos: de
verdugos a sacaojos. Juan M. Ansio?n, ed. Pp. 107?114. Lima: Ed. Tarea.
DGE
2007 Ana?lisis de la situacio?n de salud del Pueblo Achuar, 2006. Lima: Direccio?n General de
Epidemiolog??a.
2010 Ana?lisis de la situacio?n de salud del Pueblo Shawi, 2008. Lima: Direccio?n General de
Epidemiolog??a. In press.
EarthRights International et al.
2007 Un legado de dan?o. Occidental Petroleum en territorio ind??gena de la amazon??a
peruana. Lima: EarthRights International, Racimos de Ungurahui, Amazon Watch &
WWF Peru?.
El Comercio
2007 Asha?ninkas toman campamento de empresa exploradora en R??o Tambo. El Comercio,
December 1.
2008a Detienen trabajos petroleros por exigencia del pueblo asha?ninka. El Comercio, April 15.
2008b El comando especial del VRAE. El Comercio, April 18.
2008c Suspenden campan?a de vacunacio?n contra la hepatitis B en Arequipa. El Comercio,
June 4.
2008d Talan ma?s de cinco mil a?rboles de la Reserva Natural Asha?ninka. El Comercio, June 19.
2008e Denuncian invasio?n de terrenos por presuntos narcoterroristas. El Comercio, October 30.
2009 Comite?s de autodefensa del VRAE recibieron 400 escopetas y municiones.
El Comercio, September 15.
Elick, John William
1970 An Ethnography of the Pichis Valley Campa of Eastern Peru. Ph.D. dissertation, Univer-
sity of California-Los Angeles.
Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos 163
FIDH
2009 Peru?FBagua.Derramamiento de sangre en el contexto del paro amazo?nico.Urge dia?logo
de buena fe. Informe N1 529e. Fe?de?ration Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l?Ho-
mme, Octubre 2009. http://www.politicaspublicas.net/panel/noticias/a-latina/417-fidh-
bagua.html, accessed December 2009.
Gow, Peter
1991 Of Mixed Blood: Kinship and History in Peruvian Amazonia. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
GRA
2008 Alternativas de centrales de generacio?n de energ??a ele?ctrica en Amazonas.
Direccio?n Regional de Energ??a y Minas. Chachapoyas. Gobierno Regional Amazonas.
http://www.regionamazonas.gob.pe/sede/reg-imagenes/publicidad/centrales.pdf, accessed
November 2009.
INEI/UNFPA
2010 Peru?: Ana?lisis etnosociodemogra?fico de las comunidades nativas de la amazon??a peruana,
1993?2007. Lima, Peru: Instituto Nacional de Estad??stica e Informa?tica/Fondo de Pob-
lacio?n de las Naciones Unidas.
INRENA
2004 Plan Maestro: Parque Nacional Ichigkat MujaFCordillera del Co?ndor. Borra-dor. Lima,
Peru: Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales.
La, Repu?blica
2009 Nativos asha?ninkas toman control de la ciudad de Atalaya, April 30. http://www.
larepublica.pe/regionales/30/04/2009/nativos-ashaninkas-toman-controlde-la-ciudad-
de-atalaya, accessed November 2009.
La Revista Agraria
2002 Nativos y colonos. ?problema cultural? La Revista Agraria: 32. http://www.cepes.org.pe/
revista/r-agra32/arti-01c.htm, accessed December 2009.
La Torre Lo?pez, Lily
1998 ?Solo queremos vivir en paz! Experiencias petroleras en territorios ind??genas de la am-
azon??a peruana. Copenhague: IWGIA.
Memorial
2007 Memorial de los pueblos ind??genas del Valle de la Regio?n Apur??mac (VRA).Monkirenshi,
October 13. http://www.servindi.org/actualidad/2836, accessed November 2009.
Napolitano, Dora A.
2007 Towards Understanding the Health Vulnerability of Indigenous Peoples Living in Vol-
untary Isolation in the Amazon Rainforest: Experiences from the Kugapakori Nahua Re-
serve, Peru. Ecohealth 4(4): 515?531.
ODECOFROC
2008a Documentos sobre el proceso de participacio?n de las comunidades nativas en la cat-
egorizacio?n de la Zona Reservada Santiago-Comaina, 1999?2004. Organizacio?n para el
Desarrollo de las Comunidades Fronterizas del Cenepa.
2008b Documentos relativos a la creacio?n del Parque Nacional Ichigkat Muja-Cordillera del
Co?ndor y Reserva Comunal Tuntanain, 2004?2008. Organizacio?n para el Desarrollo de
las Comunidades Fronterizas del Cenepa.
1 6 4 J O U R N A L O F L A T I N A M E R I C A N A N D C A R I B B E A N A N T H R O P O L O G Y
2010 Cro?nica de un engan?o. Los intentos de enajenacio?n del territorio fronterizo awaju?n en la
Cordillera del Co?ndor a favor de laminer??a. Documento 5, IWGIA. Lima:ODECOFROC/
IWGIA/Grupo de Trabajo Racimos de Ungurahui.
OGE
2005 Ana?lisis de la situacio?n de salud del Pueblo Matsigenka, 2003. Lima: Oficina General de
Epidemiolog??a.
OMS
2008 Comite? ConsultivoMundial sobre Seguridad de las Vacunas. Organizacio?nMundial de la
Salud, December 12?13, 2007. http://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/reports/Dec_2007/es/
index.html, accessed November 2009.
Oxfam
2007 Pueblos sin derechos. La responsabilidad deRepsol YPF en la Amazon??a Peruana. Informe
de Intermo?n Oxfam. http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/229811,
accessed November 2009.
Pa?ez, Angel
2007 Peru: Shining Path Rebels and the War on Drugs. http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?
idnews=40232, accessed November 2009.
Pen?aherrera, Liliana
2009 El u?ltimo reducto: cro?nica de un despojo ??legal?? de ancestrales tierras asha?ninkas.
Caretas, April 9. http://www.caretas.com.pe/1480/ultimo/ultimo.htm, accessed Novem-
ber 2009.
Peru?Petro
2006 Peru?Petro S.A. logra un nuevo record de firmas de contratos en el 2006. http://www.
perupetro.com.pe/wps/wcm/connect/2c636f804286b592b6ffb6f8dcb36e00/Memoria+2006.
pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=2c636f804286b592b6ffb6f8dcb36e00&Memoria2006,
accessed November 2009.
Pronunciamiento
2008 Pronunciamiento de los pueblos Awaju?n-Wamp??s. Santa Mar??a de Nieva, August 13.
http://milanta.blogsome.com/2008/08/17/un-pronunciamiento-de-nuestros-hermanos-
awajun-wampis/, accessed November 2009.
2009 Pronunciamiento de los Ashaninka del r??o Ene sobre la Hidroele?ctrica de Pakitzapango.
Pichiquia, April 26. http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/am%C3%A9rica-latina/
los-r%C3%ADos-de-la-amazon%C3%AD/pronunciamiento-de-las-comunidades-ashan
inka-de-la-cuenca-del-, accessed November 2009.
Relfe, Mary Stewart
1982 The New Money System 666. Montgomery: Ministries Stated.
Rivie`re, Gilles
1991 Lik?ichiri y Kharisiri y A propo?sito de las representaciones del ??Otro?? en la sociedad
aymara. Bulletin de l?Institute Franc-ais d?Etudes Andines 20(1): 23?40.
Roe, Peter G.
1982 The Cosmic Zygote. Cosmology in the Amazon Basin. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Uni-
versity Press.
Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos 165
Rojas, Emilio
1989 Los ??sacaojos??: El miedo y la co?lera. In Pishtacos: de verdugos a sacaojos. JuanM. Ansio?n,
ed. Pp. 141?147. Lima: Ed. Tarea.
Salazar, Carmen
1991 El ??pishtaku?? entre los campesinos y los mineros de Huancavelica. Bulletin de l?Institute
Franc-ais d?Etudes Andines 20(1): 7?22.
Salazar, Milagros
2008a El pueblo asha?ninka no va a permitir tanto abuso, August 30. http://ipsnoticias.net/
print.asp?idnews=89610, accessed November 2009.
2008b Native Groups Hemmed in by Coca Threat, October 6. http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?id
news=44140, accessed November 2009.
Santos-Granero, Fernando
1998 WritingHistory into the Landscape: Space,Myth andRitual in Contemporary Amazonia.
American Ethnologist 25(2): 128?148.
2009 Vital Enemies: Slavery, Predation, and the Amerindian Political Economy of Life. Austin:
University of Texas Press.
Servicios en Comunicacio?n Intercultural (SERVINDI)
2006 UNAY rechaza concesiones petroleras sobre la Reserva Comunal El Sira, September 7.
http://www.servindi.org/actualidad/1078/1078, accessed November 2009.
2007a Pueblos ind??genas de Selva Central rechazan agresiva pol??tica de concesiones sobre ter-
ritorios ind??genas, June 6. http://www.servindi.org/actualidad/2197/2197, accessed
November 2009.
2007b Pueblos awaju?n rechazan actividad petrolera en el Lote 116, July 8. http://www.servin
di.org/actualidad/2265/2265, accessed November 2009.
2008 Comunidades asha?ninka y ya?nesha paralizan el viernes 15, August 14. http://www.
servindi.org/actualidad/4462#more-4462, accessed November 2009.
2009a Amazo?nicos retomar??an protestas ante incumplimiento del Gobierno, March 18. http://
www.servindi.org/actualidad/9275, accessed November 2009.
2009b Acuerdo Lula-Garc??a para construir hidroele?ctricas causa alarma en ind??genas, April 21.
http://www.servindi.org/actualidad/10757#more-10757, accessed November 2009.
Stolze Lima, Ta?nia
1996 O dois e seu mu?ltiplo: reflexo?es sobre o perspectivismo em uma cosmolog??a tupi. Mana
2(2): 21?47.
2005 Umpeixe olhou paramim.O povo Yudja? e a perspectiva. Sa?o Paulo: Editora UNESP: ISA;
Rio de Janeiro: NuTI.
Taylor, Anne-Christine
1994 Les bons ennemis et les mauvais parents. Le traitement symbolique de l?alliance dans les
rituels de chasse aux te?tes des Shuar (Jivaro) de l?Equateur. InLes complexite?s de l?alliance
(Economie, politique et fondements symboliques de l?alliance). Elisabeth Copet-Rougier
and Franc-oise He?ritier-Auge?, eds. Pp. 73?105. Paris: Archives Contemporaines.
Testimonio
2009 Drama?tico testimonio de valerosa luchadora ind??gena peruana, June 5. http://www.you
tube.com/watch?v=CIt4FZ7chPU&feature=related, accessed December 2009.
1 6 6 J O U R N A L O F L A T I N A M E R I C A N A N D C A R I B B E A N A N T H R O P O L O G Y
Varese, Ste?fano
1973 La sal de los cerros: una aproximacio?n almundo campa. Lima: Retablo de Papel Ediciones.
Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo
1998 Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism. Journal of the Royal Anthropolog-
ical Society 4(3): 469?488.
2004 Exchanging Perspectives: The Transformation of Objects into Subjects in Amerindian
Ontologies. Common Knowledge 10(3): 463?484.
Weismantel, Mary
1997 White Cannibals: Fantasies of Racial Violence in the Andes. Identities 4(1):
9?44.
2001 Cholas and Pishtacos: Stories of Race and Sex in the Andes. Chicago: University of Chi-
cago Press.
Weiss, Gerald
1975 Campa Cosmology: The World of a Forest Tribe in South America. New York: The
American Museum of Natural History.
Bundles, Stampers, and Flying Gringos 167