Tales of (De)colonization in the Peruvian Amazon: The Case of the Iskonawa

This article presents some results of a long-term research project on the Iskonawa, a Peruvian Amazon community that until recently many specialists considered gone. The few living speakers hold a world of knowledge and oral tradition that a team of Peruvian researchers has been collecting since 2010. Some Iskonawa myths of origin and survival tell us about their relationship with nature, their use of animals and plants, and a bleak future of deforestation, contamination, drug trafficking, and other crimes. In some of these narratives, it is possible to find alternative views of nature and the world in general that challenge the Western and neoliberal approach to the Amazonian basin.