De qué ríen los chacobos

Abstract

Except for a few remaining Yaminahua and Pacaguara, the Chacobo are currently the only Pano-speaking group of Bolivian Amazonia. On the grounds of ethnographic data, the author analyses practical, symbolic, and discursive contexts such as hunting, drinking bouts, interethnic relationships, mythology, gender ideology, kinship, and onomastics in order to track down several phenomena that make the Chacobo laugh. After discussing some possible ways of classification of Chacobo humour, the article proposes a sociological interpretation of joking as a form of collective thought.