Paper short abstract:

Among the Jarawara, life and afterlife, Earth and the Upperworld and strictly connected. We can only understand the living beings, the humans, if we understand the dead beings. This paper will try to elucidate the connections between the Jarawara and the Upperworld in order to demonstrate how they conceive themselves and the Others.

Paper long abstract:

The Jarawara, who live in the brazilian Amazon forest, is a group from the Arawa linguistic family. To understand their concept of becoming and being human we need to have a close look at the process that takes place once they die, a body-process, as well as their after-death world in the upper layer (nemeya). This paper will try to examine those two factors, paying special attention to the relations that the Jarawara build, when alive, with their posthumous co-residents (the souls of their garden plants) as well as the relations with all other beings which are important to them (animals, trees, White, objects... ).