Through a rich narrative ethnography of domestic life, this book
explores the philosophy of social relations among the Guna (Cuna), an
Amerindian people of Panama. This intimate study brings us into the
heart of the family economy, describing its nuanced interactions among
coresidents through two dimensions: an aesthetic of production resting
on the gendered division of labor and an ethic of affects informing the
language and enactment of kinship. By exploring local techniques of
nurture--child-rearing, singing, feeding, and care practices--the book
shows how the Guna create kinship and inhabit gender. The acceptance the
Guna show for same-sex relationships and cross-gender roles--which they
accorded to the author himself--allows kinship to be both subverted and
affirmed at the same time. Subverting kinship does not undermine the
structure or dynamics of residential interrelations; on the contrary, it
dramatically foregrounds kinship as a lived experience of reciprocal
nurture, thus enabling gender to be modulated, and inhabited in multiple
ways.
