Kalapalo Biography: Psychology and Language in a South American Oral History.

Kalapalo warrior biographies are concerned with dialogzcal processes of challenge, resistance, debate, and the negotiation of meaning—with the struggles that take place as people try to understand and experience anew. Although warriors were trained to aggressively defend their communities against enemies, these narratives describe how they attempted to refashion ideological forms connected with ethnic allegiance and moral community. The personalities of warriors, closely connected to the training they underwent in adolescence, are particularly important in this regard. While biographies are often understood as texts in which history is merely a context surrounding the progress of individuals, descriptions of personal development are shown here to constitute testimony about historical processes themselves, in this case the experiences of refugees fleeing from centers of European expansion in lowland Sooth America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of American Anthropologist is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)