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

demon, Maniti, one of those hyper-phallic monsters of long snout and penis who kill by raping
human souls. The sons and daughters reveal their terror by building a tree house where the
four-legged creature cannot get at them. Yet they discover him to be their father in disguise and
gradually overcome their fear. So father appears here split in two: he is both the terrible phallic
demon who kills, and the pure wise spirit who protects. If the good child deserves the good
father, perhaps by implication the bad child deserves the demon.
The Shaman (seripigari; also, shinkitacharira). The most common term for
shaman is seripigari, from the roots seri-, tobacco, and -piga-, hallucinate or inebriate.
Shepard (1990: 31-2) also finds a semantic connection to the root -pega-, to transform. So the
seripigari is “one who inebriates himself with tobacco and transforms himself.” As is the
common pattern of tobacco use by shamans in South America (J. Wilbert 1973: 452), the
shaman’s breath is believed to be charged with sacred or magic energy that is enhanced through
the use of tobacco smoke. Hence, the healing practice of blowing tobacco smoke over an
afflicted person. As Matteson (1954: 84) notes among the Piro, “Whenever a death or serious
illness is mentioned the question is quickly asked, ‘Who blew?’”
Beyond his healing breath, however, the shaman’s power depends on his ability to
connect with good spirits. In Terira Ineenkani the link between the childlike, vulnerable brothers
and the unseen ones was provided by their father, the shaman. The unseen ones become visible
to the shaman by virtue of his mastery of hallucinogens (Shepard 1998). Over time, the shaman
builds a set of relationships with unseen ones, or inetsane (“visitors;” Baer 1981: 49-50), whom
he calls “Brother,” “Brother-in-law,” “Aunt,” and so on (like humans, unseen ones do not have
personal names). He may activate this network of spirit-friends to assure good hunting, combat
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