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

myself suffered a mysterious and highly debilitating attack of malaria-like symptoms
(though medical tests showed it was not malaria) after having camped at one such
spot: a large rock in the Kwitaro river used by the ini as a fishing spot, and where
people claim to have heard him on moonless nights.
Similar concepts exist among other Amerindian tribes. Lokono and Warao people
in Orealla reported their belief in 'bushcow tigers' and 'water dog tigers’; the latter
seem to have many features in common with the Wapishana namachi din. Published
data on Makushi nomenclature includes eighteen terms for felids with no obvious
scientific gloss, including the kamisharai, or worakobra tiger, and the wairarimi,
whose name may be derived from waira, the Makushi term for tapir. Like their
Wapishana equivalents, they are reported to reside in mountains. The same study also
reported a belief among elder Makushi in an aquatic anteater named shipipti, though
this was said to be black in colour (Forte et al. 1996b: 55-56, 68).
A clue to their actual identity comes from reports of interactions between these
beasts and Wapishana piaimen who are said to have been able to initiate
communication and hence effect control over their activities. One informant
suggested that it was only the piaimen who were able to so much as see these
entities, and although informants were generally vague about the circumstances of
such encounters, various statements allude to the use of altered states of
consciousness. It appears that these are spiritual entities capable under certain
circumstances of manifesting in material reality in the fashion described. The control
exerted by the piaimen appears to have been considerable: informants in Maruranau
reported that such entities were more common in former times, sometimes indicating
particular places where they had been located, but that now-deceased piaimen had
subdued all present along the Kwitaro and within the forests to its west. I visited
several locations which my companions informed me had been home to kodoi din
and namachi din prior to the intervention of a marunao. A recurrent metaphor for
this process was that the tiger had been 'tied up', and people often described this
process as having occurred in a dream. It is noteworthy that the metaphor of tying up
implies the possibility of release. It was also reported that the action of a kanaumuu
could release these entities or call them to his assistance.
Nature spirits are also conceived which have special relationships with particular
species of animal, but appear to be distinct from the animal spirits themselves. Best
known of these is a spirit known as picha, a dwarf-like anthropoid said to be the
leader of white-lipped peccary herds. Some informants appeared to conflate this
concept with that of supernatural entities such as kodoi din, but what relationship,