Acá y allá (Here and there): Intersecting perspectives of young children’s
‘how-being’ in Achuar communities of the mid Corrientes River, Peruvian
Amazon
Willis, RN;
(2015)
Acá y allá (Here and there): Intersecting perspectives of young children’s
‘how-being’ in Achuar communities of the mid Corrientes River, Peruvian
Amazon.
PhD thesis, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17037/PUBS.02528131
Permanent Identifier
Use this Digital Object Identifier when citing or linking to this resource.
This thesis aims to explore ‘how children are’ in a case study of Achuar communities of the
mid Corrientes River region, in the Peruvian Amazon. An interdisciplinary approach,
drawing on anthropological, epidemiological and sociological methodologies, is used to
build a multi-dimensional analysis of relations between the physical and social context of
the Corrientes River basin and young children’s ‘how-being’. Grounded in a focus on
everyday practice in communities and health posts, this analysis highlights intersections
and tensions in knowledge about and among inhabitants, interrogating tacit
understandings of what it means for children to be ‘healthy’. Inter-related themes of place,
food and work are explored using complementary theoretical tools from Said (strategic
location and strategic formation), Bourdieu (relational analysis) and Amazonian
anthropological theory of conviviality and perspectivism. A concept of ‘how-being’,
developed to avoid the assumptions inherent in ‘health’ and ‘well-being’ is introduced and
discussed.