Paper short abstract:

Ecological degradation and cash transfer policies changed how the Apanjekra people (Central Brazil) dealt with cities and loan sharks when acquiring food and commodities. From the new hazards that emerged in recent years, I analyse how responsibility is considered in Apanjekra response to crisis.

Paper long abstract:

In the last fifteen years, the Apanjekra people in Central Brazil saw changes in their relations with settler colonialists. The advent of cash transfer policies and the growing ecological degradation of their lands helped to shape a scenario in which traveling to the cities to obtain food and commodities became normal. At the same time, different hazards emerged, from new diseases (such as diabetes) to complicated relations with loan sharks, regarded as a necessary part of the epoch the Apanjekra inhabit.In Amazonia, the idea of danger presupposes the agency of a particular source. Understanding how the source operates offers a way to respond to it. Body production, for better or worse, is a result of a successful or failed response. These transformations also show how a particular notion of time is embedded in agency and body theories. This paper is concerned with the questions the Apanjekra face when dealing with new hazards derived from their relation with settler colonialists, in particular the way they articulate their agency theories with attribution of responsibility. Their answers to crisis contain a reflection about the epoch they live in and the possibilities of action, a point I would also like to explore.