Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses indigenous Aché children's understandings of and ethical dispositions towards nonhumans in relation to different environments in which they grow up, the forest, and the village.

Paper long abstract:

The Aché of Paraguay used to live as nomadic hunter-gatherers in the forest; since the 1960s they have been settled on reservations after years of persecutions and deforestation. They now live in villages and subsist by horticulture, but families continue to go on hunting treks regularly in the few stretches of forest that remain. The different subsistence styles on these treks and in the village entail different ethical, interactional, and ontological orientations. Children grow up in both of these spaces and are socialized from early on into attending to these differences in relation to adults and peers but also into relation to the various nonhumans they encounter, such as hunting dogs, predators, prey animals, and pets. I discuss children's understandings in relation to the environments and different categories of nonhumans by analyzing everyday conversations about and interactions with them.