Paper short abstract:

The core subject of this communication is to rethink some presuppositions of the concept of “appropriation” within the context of cultural circulations among Amerindians known as Waiwai in Northern Amazonia.

Paper long abstract:

As there are many and specific "yesamarî" (ways, paths, or detours) linking one household to another, there are also many and specific ways among the Waiwai to translate the relations with beings who live close or far to them, permanently or temporarily, humans and non-humans. In Waiwai translations a direct and immediate relation constitutes a minimal form, a kind of level zero of relatedness and not much more than the instance from which knowledge only starts to develop. There is no appropriation of knowledge without translation - this is the maxim that seems to prevail among them. Far from being a pour of possessions, Waiwai translations renounce to the logics of property and identity to expose themselves to "transformation" (Derrida) and to achieve modes of "afterlife" (Benjamin). Supplementary, this Waiwai way of translating indicates that the limits are not anterior to translation, but phenomena of it, showing in the same movement the scope of translation in every appropriative connection.