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

all my skills, knowledge and aspirations. But my self also has an “otherness” that I only
experience tangentially. For example, when the Matsigenka tell their dreams, they routinely use
the expression, “I dreamt I saw...,” as in Andrea’s dream that began,
maika inkara nokisanivagetake nonei noatake oaku notentanaka ina
Now earlier I dreamt. I saw I went to the river with mother.
nonei nokogake koriti
I saw I wanted snails.
In this manner of description, Andrea is both the dreamer (“I dreamt I saw”) and the one who
goes to the river and wants snails. This inherent ambiguity of subjectivity is also evident in the
standard ending of many dreams. This is from one of Casiano’s dreams:
noneake kañotasanomatakatyo kutagiteri impogini nokireanake ontityo
I saw it was just like day! Then I woke up. It was
nokisanivagetake teratyo arisano.
I was dreaming! It was not true!
The exclamatory suffix, “-tyo,”indicating emphasis or surprise, appears three times in this
statement, as if to underline the strangeness of an experience he both had and did not have.
The realism of dreams has an eerie or uncanny quality for the Matsigenka, but they do
not for the most part regard dreams as real events in the world. The ending comment essentially
says, “It was only a dream!” The dream can be frightening, but not have real world
consequences, as in Emelio’s dream of a terrifying encounter with a jaguar:
maika nokisanivagetake inkaara kañotaka kutagiteniku impogini noatake anta
Now, I dreamt before. It was like daytime. Then I went there
nonkenavagetera impogini noatanake noneapaakeri matsontsori vataitaka avotsiku
to hunt. Then I went on, I saw on arriving jaguar seated in the path.
yovataitaka enoku timashitake avotsiku impogini imitaanake tera iragena
He sat up high guarding the path. Then he jumped, not he bit me.
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