Paper short abstract:

Through an anthropological approach to habitation, the objective of this paper is to analyse how the Urarina, by way of their more frequent contact with exogenous practices and actors, redefine or modify its relationship with the house.

Paper long abstract:

For many contemporary indigenous societies, the house, like many things conceived as living entities, transforms itself, becomes sick, deteriorates and dies. Therefore, the house is not a mere container of human activity, but rather the place in which a collective composed of human and non-human entities develops and renewed itself.

The house does not just constitute an aspect of indigenous material culture, but its transformations offer starting points for reflections on the dynamics of the reproduction and innovation of indigenous cosmologies in their contact with the market economy, their increased relationships with extractive companies, religious congregations, NGO's and the state. These factors, alongside new forms of indigenous migration to urban centers, represent some of the more visible aspects of an articulated process of interaction which are manifested in the communal reality in the form of innovative models of residence: flexible forms of interaction which activate new dynamic relationships with the domestic space, the community and the territory.

The objective of this paper is to analyse case studies arising from ethnographical research conducted among the Urarina which, by applying an anthropological approach to habitation, allow us to analyse how this contemporary indigenous society by way of their more frequent contact with exogenous practices and actors, redefine, and/or modify, their relationship with the house.