From the Ground Up: The Interpersonal Politics of a Native American Peace System

托马斯·格雷戈尔博士将研究一种土著文化体系，以维持和平和避免冲突，因为它存在于巴西中部兴古河上游的梅希纳库人之间。Mehinauku是14个相对和平生活的土著社区之一。虽然说着六种彼此听不懂的语言，当地的族群通婚，交换特产，参加彼此的仪式。他们之间的战争是未知的。这项研究解决的首要问题是，是什么维持了新古系统？由于先前的研究表明，新古和平似乎是“自下而上”出现的，因此本项目将使用认知人类学技术关注个人和人际关系。研究人员将居住在村庄的长屋中，绘制当地和部落间亲属网络的系谱图，并进行深度访谈。他将使用认知人类学技术，如自由列表、三合一分类和文化共识分析来引出社会类别并探索文化变异性。在研究过程中，将通过向被调查者提供假设的“麻烦案例”来探讨慷慨、分享、自我牺牲和同情，从而激发道德判断和道德推理。这项工作将进一步记录村民的同理心能力，通过探索诸如照顾病人和失去亲人的人以及分享食物等做法。村民之间的温情纽带扩大了道德共同体，并在一定程度上模糊了当地的民族关系。但在某些方面，新古的和平是不稳定的，其中自私的动机，对暴力的恐惧和巫术似乎也有作用。这项研究将探讨对巫术的恐惧如何阻止攻击，在普遍反暴力的文化中如何表达冲突，以及儿童在青春期如何学会控制情绪。这项研究很重要，因为它是了解一个成功地与其他社会保持和平关系的社会的最后机会之一。和平是一个非常重要的话题，但面对巴西社会的蚕食，在上新古观察和平的机会正在迅速消失。这项研究也将有助于将文化的人际关系和制度方面联系起来的人类学理论的发展。

Dr. Thomas A. Gregor, will undertake research on an indigenous cultural system for sustaining peace and avoiding conflict as it exists among the Mehinauku who along the upper reaches of the Xingu river in central Brazil. The Mehinauku are one of fourteen indigenous communities who live in relative peace. Though speaking six mutually unintelligible languages, local groups intermarry, trade specialty goods, and attend one another's ceremonies. Warfare among them is unknown. The overarching question that this research addresses is what sustains the Xingu system?Because previous research has indicated that the Xingu peace seems to emerge from "ground up," this project will focus on individuals and interpersonal relations using cognitive anthropological techniques. The researcher will reside in the village long house, do a genealogical mapping of local and intertribal kinship networks, and carry out in-depth interviews. He will use cognitive anthropological techniques, such as free lists, triad sorts, and cultural consensus analysis to elicit social categories and explore cultural variability. Moral judgments and moral reasoning will be evoked during the research by presenting informants with hypothetical "trouble cases" that probe generosity, sharing, self-sacrifice and compassion. The work will further document the villagers' capacity for empathy by exploring such practices as the tending of the sick and the bereaved and the sharing of food. The links of warmth between villagers enlarge the moral community and partially blur local ethnic affiliations. But in some respects the Xingu peace is an uneasy one, in which egoistic motivation, fear of violence and witchcraft also seem to have a role. The research will examine how fear of witchcraft deters aggression, how conflict is expressed within a generally anti-violent culture, and how children learn to contain emotions during adolescence. The research is important in that it is one of the last opportunities to understand a society that has successfully maintained peaceful relations with other societies. Peace is a profoundly important topic but the opportunity to observe it in the Upper Xingu is rapidly disappearing in the face of encroaching Brazilian society. The research also will contribute to the development of anthropological theory that links interpersonal and institutional aspects of culture.