Through Zo’é Paths and Capoeiras: Networks of Relations in the Guianas and the “Sparse Population” Question

This chapter presents initial results of anthropological and archaeological research about the history of indigenous occupation in the region of the Brazilian Amazon currently inhabited by the Zo’é. Through information collected in two journeys to the Erepecuru-Cuminapanema interfluve, we explore what we understand to be points of convergence between the ethnology of the Guianas, the archaeological perspective of deep history, and some assumptions of Historical Ecology. By means of this approximation, our objective is to continue deconstructing some of the equivocate images around Zo’é sociality, as well as engage in a critical dialogue with interpretations surrounding human occupation of Amazonia. In particular, we argue that accounts about events and trajectories of important people, material evidence found during these journeys, and the Zo’é mode of occupation of the interfluves, point to the persistence of extensive networks of relations in space and time.