Ancestors’ times and protection of Amazonian Indigenous biocultural heritage

Abstract

This article discusses how for the Apurinã community in Brazil, the relationships with certain places and nonhuman entities actually co-produce biocultural heritage. This involves not only storytelling, care, and respect, but also avoidance, and thus shows specific intergenerational ways of managing and relating to the land. Here I will especially address Apurinã ancestral forest and historical places, and the experiences and knowledge that they trigger, including stories of Apurinã ancestors, core values, ways of relating in the communities, as well as preferred ecological practices passed down through the generations. Besides the current Apurinã community, their biocultural heritage is shared and protected by various nonhuman actors who are its true owners. The ontological dimension of the Amazonian biocultural heritage also involves a temporal aspect, as the nonhuman entities contributing to its production can be activated and interacted with from different times, from the distant past to present times. Finally, this article discusses how international cultural laws protect such an understanding of the biocultural heritage, and shows that they offer insufficient space for nonhuman actors in biocultural heritage protection.