Based on ethnographic material relating to the Wari' (Rondônia, Brazil), this article questions some of the presuppositions concerning native conceptions of the body present in contemporary anthropological literature by exploring a central dimension of Amazonian corporality -one that has been little explored in ethnographic works on the regionits unstable and transformational character. This dimension only becomes evident when our analysis presumes an expanded notion of humanity -first called to our attention by authors such as Lévy-Bruhl and Leenhardt -that includes not only those beings we think of as humans, but also other subjectivities such as animals and spirits. Central to the problem's development is a discussion of the relations between body and soul, humanity and corporality.

This article analyses the process of producing kinship among various Amazonian peoples, focusing primarily on the Wari’, a Txapakura‐speaking people living in Western Amazonia (Brazil). It argues that the production of kin cannot be related exclusively to the domestic or intra‐tribal domain, since kinship emerges through a constant dialogue with non‐human entities. By examining the significance of alimentary taboos associated with couvade practices in a number of groups, it shows that the new‐born is made human by means of the production of its body as a human body in contraposition to animal bodies.

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This article explores the Christian experience of the Wari', an Amazonian native group, in light of a central feature of their personhood: its dual composition, both human and animal. Arguing that the centrality of the relation with God has resulted in a more stable human person, the article provides an ethnographic examination of how this relation is produced and maintained. Analytic categories derived from the New Melanesian Ethnography – the notions of the ‘dividual’ and the ‘partible person’– are applied to the Amazonian context, enabling a particular description of the Wari' person and the Christian God, and the subsequent visualization of some key aspects of the relationship between God and humans. Through this comparative exercise, the article looks to contribute to the dialogue between Amazonianists and Melanesianists that has been unfolding over the past decade or so. It also aims to insert Amazonian ethnography into the anthropological debate on Christianity, today strongly anchored in data and conceptual tools derived from Pacific societies in general and Melanesia in particular. Résumé L'auteure étudie l'expérience chrétienne des Wari', un groupe autochtone d'Amazonie, à la lumière d'un trait central de leur conception de la personne : sa composition duale, à la fois humaine et animale. Partant de l'idée que la centralité de la relation avec Dieu a donné naissance à une personne humaine plus stable, l'article examine du point de vue ethnographique la manière dont cette relation est créée et entretenue. Les catégories analytiques issues de la Nouvelle ethnographie mélanésienne (notions de personne « dividuelle » et « partible ») sont appliquées au contexte amazonien, permettant ainsi une description particulière de la personne Wari' et du Dieu chrétien et la visualisation de certains aspects fondamentaux de la relation entre Dieu et les humains. Par cet exercice comparatif, l'auteure cherche à contribuer au dialogue entre amazonistes et mélanésianistes qui s'est établi depuis une dizaine d'années. Elle cherche aussi à insérer l'ethnographie de l'Amazonie dans le débat anthropologique sur le christianisme, aujourd'hui solidement ancré dans les données et les outils conceptuels issus des sociétés du Pacifique en général, et de la Mélanésie en particulier.

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