433 Chapter Seven Cosmos For the Matsigenka of Shimaa, kameti ...

of hunting skill (failure to bag game over a series of hunts) is sure evidence that some taboo has
been broken. Magical practices such as avoiding contact with women and applying magical
substances can correct the problem:
Do Machiguenga men develop the aim and skill required to hunt monkeys through years of daily
training with bows and arrows since boyhood? Or do some men inherit natural talents from a father
with exceptional vision or athletic abilities? If you ask a Machiguenga, the answer is no. There is
no such thing as good practice, or good luck, or good genes. There are only good hunting
medicines. (Shepard 1997: 6)
Personal Magic: Love Magic and Magical Harm. Somewhat closer to
personalized spirits are the forms of magic that are practiced deliberately by one person at the
expense of another. In Chapter 4 we saw examples of love magic, which is feared as a form of
weakening and control by another. We also learned of the story of an envious man who
attempted to use a magical herb to destroy the crops in another man’s garden. Personal magic
beliefs are rooted in the assumption that the thwarted or disappointed desire of another will
motivate them to use magic either to achieve their desire or to exact revenge. Close to this is
the belief that if a man kills an animal he should not, the animal ipugatakeri “takes revenge” by
making the man’s baby sick (Shepard 1999: 102-103). Although the Matsigenka of Shimaa in
1972 practiced relatively little witchcraft, we can see the seeds of witchcraft beliefs in such
personal magic. We will examine the beliefs in good and evil shamans in the next section.
The Spirit World. The Matsigenka believe in a profusion of evil spirits, against
which are arrayed only the protective powers of the terira ineenkani (unseen ones) and seripigari
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