Abstract
This article focuses on a marital arrangement that is both rare and captivating in Brazil: the interethnic union between a white woman and an indigenous man. It analyses an inter-ethnic marriage that occurred in the mid-1960s on the Amonia River in the state of Acre. First, it briefly presents the history of the Ashaninka people on the Brazil-Peru border and calls for a reconsideration of certain commonplace notions about their arrival on the Brazilian side of the Upper Juruá River. Second, it describes the trajectory of two families, which settled on the Amonia River in the 1940s. Third, it reveals the specificities of the marriage between a son and a daughter of these two families, discussing its significance for the whites of the region and the Ashaninka, and demonstrating its political consequences. The paper argues that this marriage is central to understanding the protagonism and political visibility of the Amonia Ashaninka during the last two decades.
Key words:
Ashaninka; Upper Juruá; History; Marriage; Politics