Jealous women, bewitched men: ticuna contributions to the reflections on gender and violence

Abstract

This article explores an ethnographic data about the connections between sexual Ticuna practices, as well as the expectations around them, and the mode of violence and social regulation of witchcraft. Among this group, a man compelling a woman to have a sexual relation with him was not a collective grievance, neither a reason for punishment. Nevertheless, women could kill them through bewitchment if unsatisfied with their inaptitude, whether sexually or in terms of everyday primary activities. Hints that they were bewitched were whispered by comments dedicated to fostering suspicions about the promiscuity of women, which meant the “willing to get rid” of the men who they cohabitedwith. Thus, the focus is on the frontiers between sexual possibilities/practices and politics, as woven in ticuna gender relations, as well as its effects on the mobilization of this ethnic group to ensure their goals and their collective existence.