Starting from a statement about knowledge and power by a Piaroa informant of Joanna Overing, the article analyses two descriptions of a meal on the Purús River in early twentieth century: a Piro song and a short essay by Euclides da Cunha. Contrasting these two pieces in the context of how the ancestors of the Piro people of today came to meet the famous Brazilian writer, I propose the concepts of "nationalization" and "tribalization" as modes of symbolic action. Nationalization takes local events and escalates them into space-time of the nation state, while tribalization deactivates the dangerous ramifications of local events. The former remembers, the latter forgets. In these two modes of symbolic action are two modes of political philosophy, noted by Overing's Piaroa informant.
Overing; indigenous Amazonia; song; historicity; nacionalism
