Snake Woman and Clay Woman: Art, Consumption, and Agency in the Huni Kuin Community

Mujer Serpiente y Mujer de Barro: Arte, Consumo y Agencia en la Comunidad Huni Kuin

Abstract

This article investigates the psychosocial, cultural, and environmental transformations occurring in the Huni Kuin community of Acre due to the incursion of consumer offerings and the communicative devices of noopolitics directed at consumption. It emphasizes the perspective of the female body-landscape and its relational transitions. The aim is to reveal the friction between the intense processes of reclaiming traditions by this population and the (re)existences arising from conflicts and interactions with the dominant nawá world, referring to non-Indigenous peoples. This research maps emotions during fieldwork conducted in the Kaxinawá neighborhood of Jordão and the Chico Curumim village, alongside interviews with artist Rita Huni Kuin and interpretations of her paintings. These impressions uncover vulnerabilities to colonization by the dominant world as well as the reactive and creative strengths of the forest, women, and Huni Kuin art.

Keywords:
Consumption; Body-landscape; Friction; Art; Huni Kuin