Whether invented, discovered, implicit, or directly addressed, relations remain the main focus of most anthropological inquiries. These relations, once conceptualized in ethnographic fieldwork as self-evident connections between discrete social units, have been increasingly explored through local ontological theories. This collected volume explores how ethnographies of indigenous South America have helped to inspire this analytic shift, demonstrating the continued importance of ethnographic diversity. Most importantly, this volume asserts that comparative ethnographic research can help illustrate complex questions surrounding relations vis-à-vis the homogenizing effects of modern coloniality.

Piergiorgio Di Giminiani is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He is the author ofSentient Lands: Indigeneity, Property, and Political Imagination in Neoliberal Chile (2018).

Introduction: Theorizing Relations in Indigenous South AmericaMarcelo González Gálvez, Piergiorgio Di Giminiani, and Giovanna Bacchiddu

Chapter 1. Learning to See in Western Amazonia: How Does Form Reveal Relation?Els Lagrou

Chapter 2. Looks Like Viscera: Folds, Wraps, and Relations in the Southern AndesFrancisco Pazzarelli

Chapter 3. On People, Sensorial Perception, and Potential Affinity in Southern ChileCristóbal Bonelli

Chapter 4. Sorcery, Revenge, and Anti-Revenge: Relational Excess and Individuation in the Gran ChacoFlorencia Tola

Chapter 5. The Name of the Relation: Making a Difference in Aweti OnomasticsMarina Vanzolini

Chapter 6. Ritualizing the Everyday: The Dangerous Imperative of Hospitality in Apiao, ChiloéGiovanna Bacchiddu

Afterword I: Relations and RelativesAparecida Vilaça

Afterword II: Reflecting BackMarilyn Strathern

Epilogue:The Cemeteries as Metaphors of Who We AreClaudio Millacura Salas

Index