Etnografia Polska (Dec 2018)
SZKOŁA JAKO SPOSÓB BUDOWANIA WSPÓLNOTY (INDIANIE E’ÑEPÁ, AMAZONIA WENEZUELSKA)
Abstract
I this article I tried to provide answers to the question: why do the E’ñepá want school? Based on the ethnographic material gathered in the field, I pointed out that school was well received among the indigenous people because the set of social practices that constitute it allow E’ñepá to the achieve cultural objectives necessary for the reproduction of their communities. This fact decided that school was from ‘chosen’ among a number of national society institutions that suddenly appeared in the E’ñepá world (churches, economic enterprises, political institutions). The institution of school enables a new way of achieving the main goal among the E’ñepá – developing a self into a person. With school, the E’ñepá also gained a new mechanism of creating community between non-relatives and facilitated achieving the most important stage of an E’ñepá group trajectory – patán. By presenting school as a set of bodily practices (classes, meetings, school meals, development projects etc.) I demonstrated how its social function consisted in achieving the integration and cohesion of the group