12 - Tukanoans and the outside world

Summary

No phrase captures so well what Tukanoans face in their present and future contacts with the outside world as the subtitle of Erving Goffman's book Stigma: The Management of Spoiled Identity (1963). Although the degree and nature of change vary greatly from region to region in the Vaupés, it is apparent to all but the most ethnocentric change agents (regardless of the particular type of change being promulgated) that Tukanoans have suffered greatly from disturbances in their traditional culture. Although the situation in the Vaupés may be better than in most of Amazonia, as Corry (1976) maintains, in my opinion Tukanoans face a bleak future.

In the vast majority of cases the results of regular contact between a small-scale society and a powerful colonizing one are massive, far-reaching, and for the most part negative. This has been well documented for hundreds of band and tribal societies (Bodley, 1975); Tukanoan society is no exception.

Some of the changes in the society resulting from contact with outsiders have been mentioned in previous chapters. Diseases introduced by outsiders brought death and out-migration, reducing the size of local groups so drastically that some customs and institutions have disappeared owing to lack of people to fill the required roles.

The effects of an expanding, development-oriented national and international economy on local systems like the one in the Vaupés are, with few exceptions, devastating (Davis, 1977).