Indigenous Youth in Brazilian Amazonia

How do Amazonian native young people perceive, question, and negotiate the new kinds of social and cultural situations in which they find themselves? Virtanen looks at how current power relations constituted by ethnic recognition, new social contacts, and cooperation with different institutions have shaped the current native youth in Amazonia.

"Virtanen provides a vivid and encouraging picture of the Machineri Indians of western Brazil, for whom a recent indigenist movement resulted in citizenship, a reserve, and access to new resources in education, health, and trade, all of which require involvement with regional and national governments as well as various nongovernmental agencies . . . Summing Up: Highly recommended. All level/libraries." CHOICE

"This engaging and thoughtfully written monograph follows the lives of young members of the Manchineri of Brazilian Amazonia, a people located in the state of Acre (Western Brazil) . . . In sum, this book is a brilliant ethnographic record of a neglected portion of the native population, followed in their pursuit to find, maintain and accommodate their identity as natives while simultaneously adapting to the shifting realities of life in Brazil, dynamically and strategically incorporating into their everyday lives new practical and intellectual resources." - Anthropological Notebooks

"In this ambitious book, Pirjo Kristina Virtanen intertwines her research of indigenous youth in Brazil, the Amazonian principle of sociality, and the politics of ethnicity and identity . . . Overall, the book is a remarkable ethnography that should occupy the bookshelf of any Amazonian scholar. Virtanen has played a pivotal role in opening the door to an imperative discussion of youth and change in the Amazonian context." - Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society

Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen is a researcher in Latin American Studies in the Department of World Cultures at the University of Helsinki.