Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

CHAPTER 5: SYMBOLISM
5.1 Syncretism and the Wapishana world view
The importance of Wapishana cosmology in the present study proved to be
somewhat greater than I originally anticipated. In this acculturated and nominally
Christian people, I did not expect that resource use would to any great extent
continue to be regulated by traditional, symbolically-prescribed systems of regulation
such as those described by Descola [1994], Ross [1978], Reichel-Dolmatoff [1971,
1976] and Balée [1994]. Over the course of the study, however, it became clear
that the nature of the modern Wapishana belief system is syncretic. Christian beliefs
and practices have not displaced their local antecedents, but the two appear, so far,
to have been reconciled. This has occurred in less dramatic, coherent and formalised
a fashion than that of the Hallelujah church (Butt 1959, 1960; Butt Colson 1998),
but one which shares its essential nature as a novel synthesis of traditional and
Christian beliefs. A model in which Christianity forms a philosophical framework within
which certain specific aspects of Wapishana belief have been retained is one that,
although crude, is not entirely misleading.
Some people indicated to me that the formal coherence of the Christian world
view was something they had found the traditional system unable to provide
(although this may be a consequence of the fact that it is nowadays somewhat
degenerate), and for this reason they found Christianity more satisfying intellectually
(cf. Horton 1971). However, concepts in the traditional system associated with
sickness, healing, and the human relationship with the natural world — matters of
day-to-day importance whose practical functions Christianity is unable to fulfil — are
strongly retained and form essential components of the modern world view with
important manifestations in terms of lifestyle. Those with possible ecological
functions are considered in some detail later in this chapter.
To give an example of the way in which indigenous and exotic concepts have
been integrated, the Christian term 'God' is translated by the Wapishana term
Tominkaru, and the latter is employed within church services as well as in general
use. The concept appears to be somewhat different from the Christian one of a single
all-powerful creator separate from the creation since the same term also refers to
spirits considered to be creators of individual species of animal and plant. Wapishana
creation myths recorded by Ogilvie (1940) indicate the creator’s twin aspect and his
active role as a culture hero, motifs more typical of Amerindian than Christian belief
systems. The same stories also contain many elements with clear parallels in Christian