Forest Cosmo-politics and the Agency of Plants: A Case Study from the Asháninka People in Peruvian Amazonia.

Authors

• Monika Kujawska University of Lodz, Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5643-3417

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.143870

Abstract

For Amazonian Indigenous people, the forest plays a vital role in sustaining their subsistence; it also serves as the social arena for interactions between different classes of beings. This paper analyses forest cosmo-politics and the agency of plants from the perspective of the Asháninka people in Peruvian Amazonia, making dual contributions to multispecies scholarship. Ethnographically, it demonstrates how manipulation and predation characterise human-aimal-spirit interactions within the unified cosmological space of the forest, whereby plants function as vital allies to humans. Methodologically, this paper puts forth the ´"walk in the forest" approach as a collaborative ethnographic method that elicits contextualised knowledge through conservations prompted by encounters with organisms and sensory cues that emerge in the forest. Drawing from an animistic framework on multispecies relations, the analysis reveals that plants vary in their ontological status, their proximity to humans, and their roles. Yet, different classes of plants participate in counteracting the malevolent actions of spirits and animals, thereby restoring health and mitigating social tensions arising from interspecies encounters. Multiple agentive capacities of plants stem from both cosmological positioning and biological attributes. This research contributes to understanding the complex and multifaceted nature of plant agencies in Indigenous Amazonia, whilst simultaneously demonstrating the efficacy of forest walks as a methodology for accessing embodied, relational knowledge. 

Keywords: Arawak people, Asháninka people, interspecies relations, Peruvian Amazonia, plant agency, walk in the forest