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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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 492
illness, and acquire guides for the journey to higher planes of existence after death. Although it is said that some women in the past drank ayahuasca, my data refer only to male seripigari. Rosengren (1987b: 342) reports that the “separation of the genders is legitimized by reference to the greater pollution of women, and men’s consequently closer relation with the sáangarite.” In Shimaa people made occasional reference to the shinkitacharira, a more powerful shaman than the seripigari. The distinction is between the seripigari as a “tobacco shaman” and the shinkitacharira (< -shinki-, inebriate) as an “ayahuasca shaman.” The latter is more powerful than the former, because ayahuasca gives more powerful visions than tobacco and is a more reliable means of travel to the land of the unseen ones. But, in daily conversation, people used the term seripigari most often, and meant by it to indicate the user of ayahuasca, which is by far the main hallucinogen they recognize. Seripigari is thus the best general term to translate our concept of shaman, and in Shimaa sometimes acts as a cover term for the various kinds of shaman. In the Matsigenka conception a seripigari works by changing places with his spirit helper (or counterpart, or double) among the unseen ones. Working only at night, the seripigari drinks ayahuasca and climbs the ladder or notched pole to his platform (menkotsi) in the roof beams of his house. According to Shepard (1990: 32), the seripigari’s counterpart simultaneously drinks ayahuasca and the two trade places, occuping each other’s bodies. The spirit is now present in this world to help treat those who need his powers. Let us say, for example, that Wasp shot me (ikentakena yairi, pneumonia). One way of describing this would be to say that Wasp, being an invisible spirit, has shot an (invisible) arrow into my (invisible) spirit. But perhaps a better way to express this is that, in addition to this 493
Page 1 and 2:
Chapter Seven Cosmos Matsigenka rel
Page 3 and 4:
egards Tasorintsi as a cover term f
Page 5 and 6:
far more quickly than I could write
Page 7 and 8:
The Matsigenka world is charged wit
Page 9 and 10: Words for smell are often built fro
Page 11 and 12: until the desired number (less than
Page 13 and 14: As I worked in field and forest wit
Page 15 and 16: whose hard outer wood is used in ma
Page 17 and 18: classificatory principle, I was tol
Page 19 and 20: very narrow scope. For example, shi
Page 21 and 22: of about 20 cm in length, whereas o
Page 23 and 24: east stomach heart liver intestines
Page 25 and 26: courteous but distant. They saw the
Page 27 and 28: that the badness of others is linke
Page 29 and 30: worlds, a material world and an “
Page 31 and 32: elief in ghosts or in the return of
Page 33 and 34: (shamans). Since both of the latter
Page 35 and 36: all my skills, knowledge and aspira
Page 37 and 38: (Baer 1979: 110-111). Itinkame look
Page 39 and 40: and came home. That night the serip
Page 41 and 42: pepper is to prevent another snake
Page 43 and 44: “You must spin now,” her mother
Page 45 and 46: leaned the tubers against the wall,
Page 47 and 48: come. But you said, ‘Eat her!’
Page 49 and 50: humans like game or seek them as sp
Page 51 and 52: A smaller number of animals, but st
Page 53 and 54: will kill you so that you cannot pr
Page 55 and 56: garden here. Now, never go upstream
Page 57 and 58: different now, not like the brother
Page 59: (Shepard 1998: 323-24). If we retur
Page 63 and 64: In the folktale, Shintori “Peccar
Page 65 and 66: A seripigari is seen as a powerful
Page 67 and 68: wear shining armor and carry large
Page 69 and 70: Commands are issued over and over w
Page 71 and 72: cannot escape the human dilemma of
Page 73 and 74: Matsigenka religion is based on spl
Page 75 and 76: she will grow up to be one of those
show all

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?