The Living Ancestors

The Living AncesTorsShamanism, Cosmos and Cultural Change among the

Yanomami of the Upper Orinoco

Zeljko Jokic

berghahnN E W Y O R K • O X F O R Dwww.berghahnbooks.com

http://www.berghahnbooks.com

Published in 2015 byBerghahn Books

www.berghahnbooks.com

© 2015 Zeljko Jokic

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passagesfor the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book

may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic ormechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information

storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,without written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataA C.I.P. cataloging record is available from the Library of Congress.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Printed on acid-free paper

ISBN 978-1-78238-817-3 (hardback)ISBN 978-1-78238-818-0 (ebook)

http://www.berghahnbooks.com

This book is dedicated to the Yanomami peopleand especially their shamans Ruweweriwë, Makowë, Enano and others,

who allowed me to step into their worldand take part in their age-old tradition.

The master shapori Ruweweriwë and his disciple Arawë singing in front of the ceremonial mast – Mountain of the ancestral hekura spirits.

conTenTs

List of Illustrations ix

Preface and Acknowledgements xi

Introduction 1Shamanism: Origins and Key FeaturesYanomami Shamanism: A Cross-cultural Perspective The Book’s Subject Matter and its Guiding Principles Fieldwork Setting and MethodologyThe Outline of the Book

Chapter 1. Life on Top of the Old Sky: Yanomami Habitat, 27Ethnographic Setting and Local Histories

Yanomami HabitatHistorical Migratory Movements and EncountersThe Sweeping Winds of Change and its ConsequencesPlatanal and Sheroana-theri at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century

Chapter 2. Inside the Boa’s Abdomen: The Yanomami Cosmos 51Holographic Totality of the Yanomami CosmosNo Patapi tëhë: The Ever-present Mythical Time of CreationOrigin Myths

Chapter 3. Hekura, the Body and Illness 71Shamans and HekuraEpena: A Transformative Substance and an Aliment for HekuraShamanism in Myths and in the Contemporary ContextYanomami Conception of a Person and Causes of Illness

viii • Contents

Chapter 4. Hekuraprai: Corporeal Cosmogenesis 89Summary of the Initiatory OrdealTransformation into Hekura: Day-by-day ProcessThe Cosmic Body and its DynamismFirst Trance: Re-experiencing Death and the Beginning of Hekuramou

Chapter 5. Oneiric Encounters 144Hekuramou and Expansion of Shamanistic PowersDreams and ShamanismDream Lucidity and the Transitional States of Dream ConsciousnessDreams, Illness and Healing

Chapter 6. Shamanic Battlefield: The Pendulum of Life 166and Death

A Shapori’s Identity and Social Obligation on the Intracommunal LevelThe Dialectics between Defensive and Offensive Hekuramou Body Intrusion and the Dynamics of the Cosmic FlowShaporimou and Intersubjective Knowledge Diffusion

Chapter 7. Two Pathways to Finding a Cure: Biomedical and 190Shamanic Treatment in the Life of YanomamiShamanism and Biomedicine: Compatibility and DifferencesDynamics of Doctor-Shapori-Patient Interaction Yanomami Responses to Diarrhoea, Malaria and Respiratory Infections

Chapter 8. Return of the Ancestors: The All-pervading Shawara, 217the End of the World and the Beginning of a New Epoch

The Origin of Shawara EpidemicsFurther Expansion of the Shawara Concept The End of the World and the Beginning of another Cosmic Cycle

Postscript. Recent Developments 245

Glossary of Yanomami Terms 258

Bibliography 265

Index 277

iLLusTrATions

All photographs taken by the author.

Figures

Title page image: The master shapori Ruweweriwë and his disciple Arawë singing in front of the ceremonial mast – Mountain of the ancestral hekura spirits.

0.1 Map of the geographical area of Platanal – Goaharibos Unturán in the Upper Orinoco River region of Amazonas State showing the location of the Yanomami communities that appear in the book; namely, the Mahekoto-theri (upper left corner), the Sheroana-theri and the Toritha-theri, among others. xv

1.1 Health clinic in Platanal. 43

4.1 Hekura guardians of the shapono strategically positioned by Ruweweriwë at the beginning of Arawë’s initiation. 94

4.2 The shapori assistant Taramawë blows yakõana snuff into Arawë’s nostrils. 95

4.3 Ancestor of Boa Constrictor approaching Arawë. 101

4.4 Arawë singing to his embodied House of Boas. 103

4.5 Hekura healing Arawë’s body after it had been slashed by the machete of Anaconda Ancestor. 107

4.6 Arawë receives the glowing Anaconda head crown. 107

4.7 Wathaperariwë – Hekura Ancestor of Rainbow Boa pierces Arawë with an arrow. 109

4.8 Ocelot Hekura Yaoriwë is arriving! 111

4.9 Ocelot Ancestor consuming the candidate’s body. 112

4.10 Ancestral Jaguar Irariwë is coming to eat the candidate. 116

4.11 Jaguar Hekura attacking Arawë. 117

4.12 Arawë with Jaguar’s crown of light singing to the hekura spirits. 118

4.13 The candidate singing to his Hekura Mountain with ceremonial mast rammed between his legs. 121

4.14 Arawë’s body is carefully washed and speckled with dots resembling Boa’s skin. 134

4.15 Ruweweriwë and his disciple walking together. 139

9.1 Sheroana-theri, April 2012. Back row, from left: Ruweweriwë’s son Mirko, the shapori Taramawë and Arawë. The author is in the middle. Front row, from left: Ruweweriwë’s son-in-law Kiawë (now a shapori) and Maruwë an ex-headman. 250

9.2 The shapori Ruweweriwë and the author, Toritha-theri, April 2012. 250

x • Illustrations

PrefAce And AcknowLedgemenTs

This book engages in phenomenologically oriented ethnography, focusing essentially on experiential aspects of Yanomami shamanism, including shamanistic activities in the context of cultural change. Many facets of the topic are covered, ranging from cosmology and shamans’ roles and activities to their relationship with spirit helpers and their responses to cultural change, especially their attitudes and reactions towards introduced diseases and the corresponding new forms of treatment that have resulted in a terminal imbalance in the Yanomami lifeworld. At the heart of the book is a detailed ethnographic description and systematic phenomenological analysis of the entire process of body transformation during shamanistic initiation. The book aims to demonstrate how cosmology, on the basis of myths and other oral communications, comes to be replicated in initiatory visionary experiences, while the shaman’s body, as an integrated and dynamic whole, comes to provide a model for the integrated and dynamic totality of the cosmos. The study uses an innovative approach that interweaves ethnographic material with a theoretical component of a holographic principle (‘part is equal to the whole’), which, I argue, is implicitly embedded in the nature of the Yanomami macrocosm, human dwelling, multiple soul components and shamans’ relationship with their embodied spirit helpers.

Among the Yanomami shamans, the established method for accom-plishing shamanistic initiations, mastery of trances and the subsequent competence in handling spirits involves the use of certain psychoactive snuff substances. The snuff not only aids shamans in establishing contact with the spirits, but is also conceived as food for their embodied spirit helpers. This procedure is generally known and described in a number of essays and books dealing with aspects of Yanomami and Sanema shamanism and cosmology: Barandiarán (1965); Barandiarán and Brandli (1983, especially Chapter XV); Colchester (1981, 1982) on the Sanema myths and cosmovision respectively, including sections on shamans and the cosmos; Taylor (1976) on Sanema shamanism and ancestral

xii • The Living Ancestors

spirits; Chiappino (1995) on Yanomami shamanism, cosmology and conservation of a vital cosmic energy based on his fieldwork in Sierra Parima; Lizot’s (1974, 1989) compilation of Yanomami myths, and his more recent article (Lizot 2007) on Yanomami cosmology; and parts of Cocco (1972), Valero (1984) and Biocca (1971) and Eguíllor García (1984) that deal with shamans, ancestral spirits and accompanying cosmological aspects. Barandiarán (1965) outlines shamanistic initiation among the Sanema. Father Luis Cocco (1972) in his book reproduced an account of shamanistic initiation as recounted by Helena Valero. Lizot (1976a, 1985: 87–105) provided a detailed account of shamanistic initiation, while De Pedro (1980) produced an outstanding documentary film on this topic. More recently, a Brazilian shaman, Davi Kopenawa, in collaboration with Bruce Albert published a monumental autobiographical account The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman (Kopenawa and Albert 2013), providing an insight into his thoughts and the challenges that the Yanomami today face. I shall refer to these works and other studies throughout. They mainly provide detailed representations of the Yanomami (and Sanema) cosmos, shamanistic practices and spirits. Despite the apparent volume of sources, there has been a paucity of information regarding further systematic exploration of the nature and dynamics of consciousness associated with shamanism (with the exception, to some extent, of Lizot 1976a, 1985). The reason for this deficiency lies in either the lack of interest in shamanism as a subject of investigation in its own right, or in the customary anthropological approach to fieldwork, which emphasises neutrality and detachment rather than personal experiential involvement, which is crucial when studying phenomena associated with changes of consciousness, such as shamanism. By making shamanism a central theme for my analysis, I aimed at producing a more comprehensive, principal book-length study of Yanomami shamanistic practices, cosmology and sociocultural changes than what had hitherto been the case.

In the burgeoning field of multidisciplinary consciousness study there is a growing emphasis on subjective and experiential content (e.g., Baars, Banks and Newman 2003; Hunt 1995; Laughlin, McManus and d’Aquili 1992; Shanon 2002; Wautischer 2008). For this reason, different modalities of consciousness, as experienced in shamanic initiations and ensuing practices, became the main object of my ethnographic investigation and the subsequent subject of this book. My broad intellectual framework, as well as the main research interest, is the general nature of human consciousness. Shamanism as a phenomenon under investigation is a technique of consciousness that in itself includes an array of different modalities of consciousness in transformation. As

Preface and Acknowledgements • xiii

such, shamanism pushes the boundaries beyond the limits of the Western rational mind and challenges the limitations of the Western philosophical tradition. This study is specifically intended to fill an important gap in the regional ethnography of the Yanomami people, and, more widely, make a significant contribution to Amazonian ethnography. By making consciousness involved in shamanism an object of investigation, I trust this study will contribute to a better understanding of shamanism as a phenomenon, with likely benefits to the general science of consciousness. This book could, therefore, benefit and attract the attention of scholars and university students from various disciplines, such as social and medical anthropology, psychology and consciousness studies. Considering the ongoing extensive interest in shamanism as a way of personal empowerment, this book may also appeal to many readers outside of academic circles who are interested in various esoteric phenomena. The account of shamanistic initiation in Chapter Four is mostly written in the present tense (i.e., it is unfolding in ‘ethnographic present’). Certain parts of the book dealing with the dynamics between the Yanomami and the health system are complementary to some recently published works on this subject (Kelly 2011). In the last chapter I refer extensively to Albert’s (1985, 1988) analysis of the history of representations of contact among the Brazilian Yanomami, as well as the aforementioned Davi Kopenawa’s personal account (Albert and Kopenawa 2013).

The book is based on fourteen months of field research carried out during 1999 and 2000 in two Yanomami villages in the Upper Orinoco region of Venezuela, under the auspices of the Anthropology Department, University of Sydney and funding provided by the Carlyle Greenwell Bequest Fund for which I express my gratitude. I am grateful to Dr Jadran Mimica for his support and guidance; he was and always will be my source of inspiration. In Venezuela, the realisation of my project was made possible through affiliation with several institutions, including the School of Anthropology at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr Daisy Barreto for her guidance and ongoing friendship. In Amazonas, my research was further facilitated by the Amazonian Centre for Investigation and Control of Tropical Diseases ‘Simon Bolivar’ (SACAICET) in Puerto Ayacucho, who provided me with the logistical support and enabled the realisation of my project. I am grateful to then director of the SACAICET and coordinator of the ecoepidemiology unit Dr Carlos Botto for his help. I am also indebted to Arelis Sumabila-Tachon for helping me with contacts in Venezuela.

I am grateful for being awarded, in 2006, a writing fellowship from the ‘Cross Cultural Centre Ascona’ (Centro Incontri Umani Ascona) located in Switzerland to assist me in writing this book. Eight months on from

xiv • The Living Ancestors

receiving the award, with my book not yet finished, I went back to my native Belgrade to continue writing. A few months later, I received a job offer in Venezuela to partake in the National Programme for Elimination of Onchocerciasis – Southern Focus Amazonas (PNEO-FS), which I gladly accepted. I packed all the necessary equipment and personal belongings, including my laptop and a pen drive with a copy of the unfinished manuscript. After landing at Caracas airport, I took the wrong (fake) taxi and was robbed at gunpoint. All my equipment was stolen. I realised I had made a huge mistake of not leaving a copy of my work in Belgrade; my manuscript had ended up in the hands of the robbers. Disheartened and deeply shaken by this unfortunate incident, but happy to be alive, I went to Puerto Ayacucho where for the next five years I was incorporated into the multidisciplinary team of the ecoepidemiology unit of the SACAICET, dealing with the research and control of onchocerciasis among the Yanomami population of the Upper Orinoco. Due to my heavy work commitments and frequent field trips, I did not get back to working on my manuscript, but I managed to publish a couple of essays on Yanomami shamanistic initiation (Jokic 2006, 2008a) and another, more recent essay (Jokic 2014) on hostile and harmful aspects of Yanomami shamanism.

While in Amazonas, I was acquainted with the developments in the Upper Orinoco since I had left Venezuela in 2001, and this additional information is included as a postscript at the end of the book. As an anthropologist-investigator working for the PNEO-FS, I participated in numerous field trips to various parts of Yanomami territory and on a few occasions briefly revisited my field sites after years of absence. Towards the end of 2012, my work contract with PNEO-FS terminated and I returned to Belgrade where I finally decided to complete this book. I owe a special debt to Olivera Pilipovic for revising and subediting the manuscript.

My deepest indebtedness goes to the Yanomami people of Platanal and Sheroana-theri, who befriended me and allowed me to stay with them. In particular, I owe special thanks to Jacinto Serowë, my main informant and host from Platanal, for looking after me and accepting me as part of his family. I am also grateful to an ex-Mahekoto-theri headman Alfredo Aherowë for allowing me to stay in Platanal and assisting me with my research. I remain forever grateful to a number of shamans for allowing me to participate in their activities: Enano and Makowë from Platanal for teaching me many things about their world and allowing me to participate in their shamanistic sessions, and my heartfelt thanks goes to Ruweweriwë, the principal shaman of Sheroana-theri and my classificatory father, who initiated me and privileged me with access to the world of shamans.

Map • xv

Map

of

the

geog

raph

ical

are

a of

Pla

tana

l – G

oaha

ribo

s U

ntur

án in

the

Upp

er O

rino

co R

iver

reg

ion

of A

maz

onas

Sta

te s

how

ing

the

loca

tion

of

the

Yano

mam

i com

mun

itie

s th

at a

ppea

r in

the

boo

k; n

amel

y, t

he M

ahek

oto-

ther

i (up

per

left

cor

ner)

, the

She

roan

a-th

eri a

nd t

he T

orit

ha-t

heri

, am

ong

othe

rs (

sour

ce:

PN

EO

-FS,

Onc

hoce

rcia

sis

Uni

t SA

CA

ICE

T).