Paper short abstract:

This contribution shows how human-dolphin relations in a place that arguably never has been wild are not framed as a matter of natural competition, but rather as a form of mutual aid, where fish is exchanged for economic profit, and spiritual boundaries between species become blurred.

Paper long abstract:

To the untrained eye, the patch of land in the triangle between the Aguarico and Napo rivers in the Ecuadorian Amazon looks like undisturbed primary forest – totally wild. However, local accounts and historical documents show proof of the centuries-old cultivated space this place really is. A web of relations, both (colonially) extractive, communal and across species has created the present, where local indigenous people, in collaboration with an international conservation NGO, have started a project of feeding pink river dolphins in order to foster their communal economy through tourism.

Even though fish are common food for both dolphins and humans in the region, in this case human-dolphin relations are not framed as a matter of natural competition. Much rather, it is seen as a practical form of mutual aid, where dolphins get free fish in exchange for showing themselves to tourists. The fact that after several years the dolphins still regularly attend the feeding station shows that there must be some kind of mutual profit. Additionally, local legends about human-dolphin transformations blur the boundaries between species. Hence, this case can be seen as an example of communal relations across species in a place that has stopped to be wild a very long time ago.