Based on field research with the Aweti, a Tupi speaking group from the Upper Xingu, this article presents an analysis of the singularities of Xinguano magical aggression in an Amazonian context, by comparing the techniques, sociology and political effects of these practices. Contrary to the prevalent image of the anthropology of the region, the Xinguanos always identify the source of their greatest suffering in acts of people with whom they share intimate relations, frequently the victim's co-villagers and always other Xinguanos; that is, members of what Ellen Basso has called the Xinguano moral community: a multiethnic group of allies defined, ideally, by the abdication of internal violence. The central hypothesis of this work is that Xinguano sorcery should be considered a part of mechanisms that produce enmity out of ordinary relations, meaning that the continuous effort to produce identity is never entirely complete.
Upper Xingu; Sorcery; Shamanism; Warfare; Amerindian politics