Paper short abstract:

The indigenous Matsigenka, of the Peruvian Amazon, and representatives of the modernist Peruvian society live in ontologically distinct worlds and they frequently fail to understand each other. When Matsigenka people act (cosmo)politically it is understood by their adversaries in distinct terms.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will discuss an expression of cosmopolitics that differs in many respects from, for instance, Andean cases as described by de la Cadena. The presentation will deal with encounters between indigenous Matsigenka and representatives of the modernist Peruvian society taking place in the Amazon of south-eastern Peru. The two groups of people belong to ontologically different worlds, one animist and one naturalists, which means that they frequently fail to understand each other.

While the Matsigenka once practically were the sole human inhabitants of the area, immigration to the area during the last decades have now reduced them to a minority. In contrast to the migrants who present themselves as modern people, the Matsigenka are seen as backward and irrational and they wield almost no influence in their dealings with the local and national authorities. This political asymmetry is partly an outcome of the lack of a political leadership that has not been introduced by non-Matsigenka agents. When Matsigenka people act politically they use the forces to which they have access. While the Andean articulation of cosmopolitics largely relies on the spiritual embodiment of the land no such forces are part of Matsigenka cosmological understandings. Spirits do, nonetheless, play an important part in the lives of Matsigenka people even though they mainly intervene indirectly. In conflicts with non-indigenous people, spirits principally provide indirect assistance through the subjectification of objects that subsequently are deployed by humans to reach their ends, thus I rely on Gell's notion of 'secondary agents'.