A production of alterity: The Wayãpi of the Upper Oyapock and isolated groups

This study was carried out amongst the Wayãpi Amerindians of French Guiana, who have been made sedentary by governmental ‘francisation’ policies since the 1970s. Based on geographic location, ethnohistorical literature and Ameridian discourse, it proposes the definition of three “zones” near the Franco-Brazilian border which could potentially be inhabited by isolated or unknown Amerindians. Reviewing concepts of alterity and ontologies (Descola 2013), as well as Amerindian discourse on isolated groups, it identifies the foundational elements present in the Wayãpi’s alterity production processes concerning the isolated groups in the Upper Oyapock River region. It distinguishes six categories of elements the Wayãpi resort to when producing alterity vis-à-vis the isolated groups. It concludes that this alterity production happens predominantly within naturalism, with only a few cases of animism. This research contributes to a better understanding not only of sociality in general, but also of sociocosmological patterns in Lowland South America. Furthermore, ascertaining how the sedentary Wayãpi see the isolated groups and how this alterity is constructed may help to determine whether the legal right of the isolated group to remain isolated (right of self-determination) is in danger.