Reprinted from Networks of the Past: Regional Interaction in Archaeology edited by Peter D. Francis, F.J. Kense and P.G. Duk L P rancis, i +6. Duke, Ep- 19-30. Arehaeological Association, University of Calgary. ")4PI ABORIGINAL TRADE NETWORKS IN AMAZONIA Thomas P. Myers University of Nebraska State Museum Large portions of the Amazon and Orinoco Basins were occupied by peoples with a "Tropical Forest Culture", a phrase which implies that environment was the most important factor in producing fundamentally similar cultural patterns. To be sure, environment was important but essentially the same cultural patterns were also shared by peoples of the Venezuelan Llanos and the Llanos de Mojos. Instead, I would like to suggest that the most important ingredient in the cultural similarity of peoples across lowland South America lay not in the fact that they shared a common environment or in the fact that they were descended from a few parent groups. Instead, their similarity was derived from the fact that peoples throughout lowland South America maintained indirect contact with one another through a vast interregional trade network. This network was bound together by long distance trading specialists who plied the major rivers. Other groups took trade goods from the major rivers inland where they circulated in regional trade networks. In this way certain primitive valuables found their way from the Andes deep into the forests of the Amazon. This kind of exchange network is not unique to lowland South America. A similar system functioned in the Vitiaz Strait of northeastern New Guinea (Harding 1967). Similar systems may have functioned elsewhere. My task in this symposium is to identify and document component parts of this system in the Amazon Basin; to indicate how they interacted with one another; and to suggest the underlying causes which led to the forma~ tion and maintenance of the system in precolumbian times TRAFFIC ON THE MAJOR WATERWAYS In the mid-16th century the mainstream of the Amazon and its. lower tributaries were occupied by polities of several. linguistic families, often separated from one another by a no-man's land (Myers 1976). Community size ranged into the thousands and must have been associated with rank societies of the sort often known as chiefdoms, some of them very large. Various political units were sometimes at war with one another but there was also a basis for peaceful relationships if only through the medium of specialist traders who plied the Amazon with their wares. : Among the probable trade goods identifiable in the records-of the Orellana and Orsua expeditions of the 16th century are gold, pottery, salt and canoes. 17th century records, coupled with archaeology, add greenstone (jade) to the list. Gold,. at least, must have come from far away. In 1639 Acuha reported that- 20 - Opposite the lowest Curuzirari village, a little higher up on the north side is the mouth of a river called Yurupazi, ascending which and crossing a certain district by land, in three days another river is reached called the Yupura, by which the Yquiari is entered, called also the "river of gold". Here at the foot of a hill the natives get a great quantity (1859:102-103). Fifty years later, Fritz remarked that ...they go to the River Jurubetts navigating the Yquiari where they obtain it [gold] by barter... (1922:63). In each case the rivers are clearly indicated as the avenues of long distance trade. This is important. Water transportation provides the means for the transport of low value/high bulk goods such as pottery. which is so important in the archaeological record. The warehouse of polychrome pottery recorded by Carvajal on the central Amazon (1934:201) may have been one of several centers of distribution. . TRAFFIC WITH THE: HINTERLAND Travelers of the 16th century did not record the size or appearance of hinterland communities but later observations and archaeological evidence indicate that Lathrap (1968) is correct in supposing that hinterland settlements were much smaller than those on the major rivers. The two zones may have maintained contact with one another along roads leading from the river villages toward the interior. According to one report, Sancho Pizarro followed one of these roads, traveling four or five leagues a day for six days on a great and good road. At the end of each day's journey he found a large house where he slept and received food and drink (Ortiguera 1909:341). Elsewhere on their journey, members of the Orsua expedition stopped a group of Indians bearing cotton, fish and other trade goods (rescates) from a riverine town toward their villages in the interior (Ortiguera 1909324). . Little more than @ century later, Figueroa (1904:112-3) reported a silent trade between the riverine people of the Huallaga River and the Barbudos of the interior in which parrots, coarse hammocks, colored feathers and other trinkets were exchanged for knives and other iron tools. The archaeological record also supports the existence of trade between the Amazon and its Hinterland. Stone axes, an essential component of the tropical forest adaptation, are regularly found on Amazonian sites even though there are few suitable. outcrops along the major rivers. In contrast, numerous potential source areas are found on the tributaries. Some of them have been specifically identified as manufacturing centers of stone axes (Koch-Grimberg 1909:41, 113, 149, 215, 2803 Im Thurn 1883:422).aie Other archaeological evidence supports .the hypothesis of trade between the mainstem of the Amazon and its hinterland. A copper axe of Inca type found near the Rio Ribeira in So Paulo (Uhle 1969:161) indicates not only that Andean goods were carried to the opposite edge of the continent but also that they were carried far from the major rivers to the interior. Likewise, greenstone ornaments, which apparently originated in the Serra Preguica on the Brazil-Venezuela border (Rice 1928:121), are found on Tupi-Guaranf sites on the Brazilian coast south of the Amazon (Meggers 1974:100) on the Tapajos (Palmatary 1960: 75-89) and on the Trombetas and Nhamundi Rivers (Palmatary 1965:137). Greenstone was an article of trade among the Indians both south and north of the Orinoco. The Caribs made them known along the coasts of Guiana and the same stones, like money in circulation, passed success ive- ly from nation to nation, in opposite directions (Humboldt and Bonpland 185211:396). REGIONAL TRAFFIC IN THE HINTERLAND We must turn to ethnographic sources for information on regional trade networks. Evidence is best from the upper Xingu, the Northwest Amazon and the Brazil-Venezuelan borderlands, but regional trade networks exist in other areas as well. A remarkable range of goods is traded. Arong them we find cotton, pottery, hammocks, feathers and so on (Table 1). In each of these regional networks, certain tribes or subtribes monopolize the production of some classes of goods. On the upper Xingu, for example, this monopoly is so strong that when a Wauré woman marries into another tribe in the trading system, she ceases to make pottery (Lima 1950:5)." But, when she is captured into a tribe outside of the system, she continues the craft (Cowell 1961:136). Similarly, one Yanamamo subtribe disclaimed knowledge of pottery manufacture and even claimed that there were no-suitable clays in its territory. But, when war broke qut with the group which had supplied them with pottery, the first group suddenly found suitable clays and-re-invented pottery (Chagnon 1968:121). Exchange partners may be hostile with one another. Im Thurn reports that in the interior of Guayana, Each tribe has some manufacture peculiar to itself; and its members constantly visit the other tribes, often hostile, for the purpose of exchanging the -products of their own labour for suchas are produced only by other tribes. These. trading Indians are allowed to pass unmolested through the enemy's country, When living among the Macusis, T'was often’ amused by a number of those Indians rushing into my house, ..., who, with bated breath, half in joy, half in terror, used to point through the window to some party of their enemies, the Arecunas, coming with cotton-balls and blow-pipes for exchange (1883:271).~ 22 - Of course, there is no documentary evidence to prove that such networks existed in precolumbian. times, but. it strains the credulity to suppose that they did not. TRADING SPECIALISTS We know very little of the means by which the early trade on the major rivers was conducted but there is reason to believe that specialist traders were involved. In the 17th century the central Amazon was served by the Manao of the Negra River during the flood season (AcuHa 1859:103: Edmundson 1922:62}. Presumably they traveled up the Negro to obtain gold either directly from the source or to acquire it through intermediaries. They also traveled eastward up the Branco River where they met Dutch traders accompanied by their Carib allies. In addition to gold the Manao carried manioc graters, vermillion, hammocks of cachibanco fiber and various kinds of shields and clubs (Edmundson 1922:62). On the Ucayali, the Piro are indicated as traders who traveled to Cuzco to obtain gold in the mid 16th century. (Myers 1974; Salinas de Loyola 1e97sLxiv). Gold was still being brought. to the Ucayalt in the next century (Chantre y Herrera 1901:282), presumably by the Piro who continued their role as traders of the Ucayali into the 19th century (Myers 1974). The archaeological distribution of greenstone on the lower Amazon (Figure 1) may reflect the existence of a third trade sphere, perhaps served by the Tapaj6 who were the principal source of greenstone for the Portuguese on the Amazon in the 17th century (Heriarte 1952:17) and who traveled to the Nhamundé River for trade as recently as the 18th century (Palmatary 1960:77). Through Heriarte believed that the Tapaj6 themselves manufac~ tured greenstone ornaments from a green clay formed under the waters of the Tapaj6s River, the story is clearly apocryphyl even though it may have been generated by the Indians themselves to protect their source of supply. No evidence of greenstone manufacture has been reported fron the Tapaj6s River but at a site on the Amazon, some 29 km upriver from the mouth of the Trombetas, Barbosa Rodrigues found small chips of green- stone which may indicate a workshop site (Palmatary 1960:78). The Manao and the Tapajé fit the Sahlins' model (1972:284) that trading specialists tend to come from environmentally poor areas. He suggests that the service provided by the traders overcomes the competitive disadvantage of their-homeland. Both the Manao and the Tapaj6 inhabited large black water rivers which are invariably poor in aquatic life, in the plants they support and in the soils which they deposit after the flood season (Sternberg 1975). °Oné way for their inhabitants to remain or to become competitive is to provide a desirable service to those who are more advantageously situated. The Manao appear to have done so. When Dutch traders entered the picture, the Manao conveyed European goods and so became even more necessary to their clients as the providers of efficient iron tools.= Ble There is so little record of trade between mainstream groups and those of the hinterland that the question of trading specialization is best left undecided. However, Figueroa's description of the silent trade of the Huallaga River suggests that special sts were not enployed. at least in this instance. The modern trading networks of the hinterland are maintained by non- Specialist trading partners, as among the Jivaro, or by reciprocal gift giving, sometimes in the context of ceremonial exchange. There is sno reason to suppose that these two modes of exchange were not also employed in the past. MOTIVATIONS FOR TRADE IN AMAZONIA There is ample evidence for the existence of extensive exchange networks in Amazonia. What is the basis for. their existence? Figueroa's report in the mid-1600's suggests that access to European goods was an important motivation. European goods continue to be important trade items (Harner 1973; Yde 1965). Nevertheless, the ethnohistoric evidence has persuaded me that European goods were merely added to a system already in existence long before 1500. The uneven distribution of scarce resources has dften been found to be a motivator of great importance, even among non-western peoples. But, what resources are scarce in the Amazon Basin? Certainly gold and green- stone, both primitive valuables, are scarce in the Amazon but the raw materials for the manufacture of pottery and canoes seem to be found nearly everywhere. Perhaps the humble stone axe is the prime motivator, but there are also less spectacular resources that are unevenly distribu- ted in the tropical forest environment. Most of us conceive of the tropical forest as a vast canopy of evergreen forest broken only by the courses of river, The rivers themselves provide a limited niche within the tropical forest and this constitutes a basis for trade between the rivers and the hinterland but it does not provide a rationale for trade among hinterland groups or among riverine peoples. There is also a contrast between certain riverine environments. Here I am thinking of the distinction between black water and white water rivers. The forests associated with each river type are also distinct, but Tittle is known of the economic importance of this fact to jungle dwellers. I suggest it as a problem for investigation. How about environmental contrasts among the territories of hinterland groups? A few lines from Peter Kloos' study of the Akuriyo (1977: 12-13) are suggestive: The drive behind long-term [nomidic] movements however has not to do with food but with non-edible, but nonetheless vital materials.” These are: fibre for hanmocks, fibre for string (used to make a variety of artefacts, such as arrows, axe, bowstring, loincloth, necklace, hammock lines), arrow cane, and stone for= 24 Stone axes. AI] Akuriyo bands have their favorite Tte palm fibre patches (in swamps); their wild Pineapple fibre patches (on rocky outcrops). There are in their habitat only three or four sites where arrowcane can be found. And there are only a few sites (in certain rapids) where stone suitable for an axe head can be found. These various sites are widely distributed over their habitat and are not found in each other's vicinity. Sizeable Ite palm patches occur only in marshy places. Wild pineapple Sfows on granite outcrops. Arrow cane, growing Perhaps at ancient village sites, can be found only on the Upper Oelemari, the Litani and in one or tho small creeks. These circumstances force the Akuriyo, who are completely dependent upon their habitat and know no trade, to make their long voyages. In the absence of agriculture they are able to do so. Ane Situation is probably typical. .There is no compelling reason for Amazonian peoples“to trade so long as the people remain nomadic. But, once they become sedentary horticultural ists with « correspondingly reduced territory and resource base, they would have to rely upon tyade for some of the necessities of life. This is not to sey thet hunting peoples do no trading. Ethnographical and archaeological data trom various parts of the world attest that they do but 1 dees suggest garicultural peoples in the Anazon forests would not have accees to the full range of materials without trade. Kloos has suggested severai ecological variables in the hinterland forest where vital materials can be found. On a larger scale, it is apparent that various species of bicds, plants and insects ave not evenly distributed across the Anazon' Basin, hether or not this is evigense oy Tefugia (Meggers 1979; Whitten 1979) is not important to this paper: The point is that certain forest products might not. be universally available. The fact would be of little importance if we were talking ghout a particular hammock fiber, but it would be of supreme ‘importance if the subject were blowgun poison. The locations of most of the Pore {Pal poison producing tribes do not coincide with zones of relict forest as defined by Vanzolini (1973) and Hatfer (1969). Nevertheless, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that environmental difforonece within the forest played a role in the formation of regional trade networks. There is also a social basis for trade. The Yananano provide us with selene ample. Each Yanamano group is constantly struggling with its neighbors. Inevitably, one group will prove the weaker sod cy must flee fo preserve its identity. But there is an alternative. ‘It con strengthen itself by establishing an alliance with some third party. The alliance is established with gifts but it is always under tension, liable to break out into hostilities at any moment. Tt must he constantly reaffirmed with gifts, cerenonies and even intermarriage, Sines gifts are always important at each stage of a relationship, goods travel- 25 - Finally we should consider the efficiency of specialization, a point raised by Margaret Hardin in her discussion of the oral presentation of this paper. Specialization by sex is found in even the simplest of human societies. There is a further impetus toward specialization from the fact that not every person is equally adept at all tasks. There will be personal preferences favoring one task over another. One man may prefer to make feather ornaments which he would happily trade for a bow made by someone else. Such individual preferences promote trade, even intervillage trade in small scale societies. Village or tribal specialization may be a refinement of such basic specialization, but it is not necessary that every man in the village Produce feather ornaments. I suggest that it is @ constant interplay of the efficiency of specialization, environmental limitations and social goals which leads to the formation and maintenance of exchange networks. In any given instance, goods may be defined as gifts or as trade goods. The difference is situational, it is not intrinsic in the nature of the goods which change hands. CONCLUSIONS To summarize, I have argued that long distance trade, conducted by specialists, was a critical feature in the cultural similarity of - lowland South America from the Caribbean to the River Plate. Perhaps the key factor in this trade was the transport of primitive valuables Such as gold and greenstone. Since the trade was by water, bulky objects of low unit value, including pottery, were incorporated to the great advantage of the archaeologist. Riverine goods and primitive valuables were transported to the interior by hinterland groups who came to the major rivers, Ethnographic evidence suggests that these goods, and dthers, were circulated in the interior both by gift and by trade. This interior trade was spurred in part by the unequal distribution of scarce resources, in part by the maintenance of an alliance system which was constantly reaffirmed by gifts, and in part by internal specialization by personal preference.- 26-- REFERENCES CHTED Aculla, Father Cristoval de 1859 New discovery of the Great River of the Anazons. © Translated from the Spanish edition of 1641 by Clements R. Markham. In Expeditions into the Valley of the Amazons, 1539, 1540, 1639. TransTated and edited, with notes by Clements R. Markham, pp. 47- 134. London: Hakluyt Society. Carvajal, Friar Gaspar de 1934 The discovery of the Amazon according to the Account of Friar Gaspar d@ Carvajal ond Other Documents. editad by WC, Heaton American Geographical Society, Special Publication No. 17, New York. Chagnon, Napoleon A. 1968 Yanomamo Social Organization and Warfare. In War, the Anthropology of Armed Conflict and Aggression, pp. 109-159, edited by W. Fried, M. Harris and R. Murphy. New York. Doubleday & Co. Chantre y Herrera, J. 1901 Historia de las Misiones de 1a Compaitfa de Jesds en el Marafion Espafiol. Madrid. Imprenta de A. Avrial: Cowell, A. 1961 The Heart of the Forest. New York. Alfred A. Knopf. Figueroa, F. de 1904” Relacién de 1as Misiones de 1a Compaifia de JesGs en’ el Pais de Jos Maynas. “Madrid. Librerfa General de Victoriano Sudrez. 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Yde, J. : 1965 Material Culture of the Wai Wat Copenhagen, Ethnografisk Raekke, X The National Museum ofoaeage enfewyanx/enfeuo ngury zeddq, seuesng oucuey sedneq fiber * cotton (raw) redin ; Fish poison bows blowguns poison poisoned arrow points arrows native beadwork ear plugs feathers & feather ornaments shell beads stone ornaments gold grinding stones cotton cloth hanmocks stools pottery gourd dishes basketry stone axes manioc grater boards spindle whorls tusical instruments peanuts salt dogs tobacco jungle animals eqeTa0300 Aauodean, seprossea.8 poo peangovjnuey, oe ‘aay qes022q “sydomqau apeug [eudL6a4 uy spoob apeuy *sa04N0S SMOJ4eA wOdJ pal LdwioD T 37aviulspg UOZDWY aut ul SUOJsUsaIcd) Aasnnb euojsueasg x doysrsom auoysueesg O S}2D}1j4D SUOJSUseID ¥ FO YOLINGIYSIQ tL aanBi4