Moving alike: movement and human-nonhuman relationships among the Runa (Ecuadorian Amazon)

In this paper I suggest that an analysis of movement can offer a fresh perspective through which to look at human–nonhuman relationships in Amazonia and beyond. Focusing on some examples from my ethnographic work among the Runa of the Ecuadorian Amazon, I explore how movement constitutes an important means through which similarity with nonhumans is constituted in everyday practice. Movement, as a common quality that human and nonhumans share, enables the Runa to consider themselves as ‘alike’ nonhuman others. In particular, I will show how self-movement, understood as the awareness of one’s own movement, is a central way in which Runa women align themselves to a spirit entity known as a the Grandmother of Clay.