Ratting on the coca spirit or mastering exchange? Andoque negotiations of power and commodification between forest and market

Asserting the importance of analyzing Indigenous involvement in the extraction and trade of nonhuman entities against the backdrop of Amazonian perceptions of personhood, this article investigates the risks and opportunities that coca commercialization by the Andoque of Northwest Amazonia, Colombia, holds for the Andoque’s relationships with the coca spirit, other nonhuman entities, and non-Indigenous agents. Considering the triangular relational dynamics between coca producers, urban consumers, and nonhumans as an inflection of Amazonian mastery dynamics within the context of market economic exchange, I analyze the Andoque’s statements and practices relating to this activity through the etic distinction between gifts and commodities and the emic one between pets and orphans. I contend that the greater the agency attributed to coca, and the higher its degree of inalienability from the producer, the more it enables people to dominate human and nonhuman agents, but also to be dominated by them. My analysis of the Andoque’s idealized strategies for handling the commercialized coca—and its counterpart, non-Indigenous goods—as well as their inconsistent pursuit reveals the Andoque’s general indecision in navigating power relations with the nonhuman and non-Indigenous entities involved. My findings challenge prevailing observations on a shift in animist societies from perceiving nonhumans as persons to viewing them as things upon commercialization, suggesting instead a more nuanced understanding of commodification processes and their broader implications in such societies.