The Palm and the Pleiades

INITIATION AND COSMOLOGY IN NORTHWEST AMAZONIA

STEPHEN HUGH-JONES
Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

CAMBRIDGE
LONDON NEW YORK NEW ROCHELLE
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F»no.D- , £,27HS3

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The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP
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© Cambridge University Press 1979

First published 1979

Printed in Great Britain at the

University Press, Cambridge

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data

Hugh-Jones, Stephen, 1945 —
The Palm and the Pleiades.
(Cambridge studies in social anthropology; 24)
Based on the author’s thesis, Cambridge University,
1974, which was presented under title: Male
initiation and cosmology among the Barasana Indians
of the Vaupds area of Colombia.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Barasana Indians - Rites and ceremonies.
2. Barasana Indians — Religion and mythology.
3. Indians of South America - Colombia - Rites and ceremonies.
4. Indians of South America - Colombia - Religion and
mythology. I. Title.
F2270.2.B27H83 390’.098 78-5533
ISBN 0 521 21952 3
FOR LEO AND TOM

319277
CONTENTS

List of tables and figures page ix

List of maps and plates x
Preface xi
Orthography xvi

Part I The rites in context 1

1 Introduction 3
2 The Barasana: land and people 18

Part II The rites described 39

3 Fruit House 41
4 He House: the main initiation rite 69

Part III Explanation and analysis 103

5 The participants 105
6 The flutes and trumpets 134
7 The gourd of beeswax 163
8 Open and closed: the howler monkey and the sloth 193
9 Death and rebirth 214
10 The Sun and the Moon 227

Part IV Conclusion 239

11 Conclusion 241

Part V The myths 261

MA Romi Kumu 263
M.2 Ayawa, the Thunders 267
Contents

M.3 Sun and Moon; day and night 272

M.4 Warimi 274
M.5 He Anaconda 284
M.6 Manioc-stick Anaconda 287
M.7 Yeba 295
M.8 The Thunders and Jurupari 302

Appendixes

1 Descriptions of Yurupary rites — a list of sources 309

2 Yurupary myths — a list of sources 310
3 The playing of Barasana He instruments 311

Bibliography 317
Index 323
Index of Names 332
TABLES AND FIGURES

Tables
1 Attendance at He rites 43
2 Fruit House and dance 48
3 He House 74
4 The instruments used at He House 143

Figures
1 The longhouse setting 29
2 Plan of the longhouse interior 50
3 He rites and the seasonal cycle 66
4 Kinship relations and household affiliation of men
present at He House 71
5 Yage Mother 78
6 Yurupary instruments 135
7 The construction of a Barasana He flute 136
8 Engraved designs on Barasana He flutes 137
9 Instruments used by the Saliva Indians during
mortuary rites 138
10 The He world 142
11 The Adze (Sioruhu), part of the constellation Orion 145
12 The paxiuba palm with detail of buttress roots 158
13 The beeswax gourd 166
14 Links between female characters in Barasana myth 174

IX
MAPS AND PLATES

Maps
1 Northwest Amazonia: the area of the Yurupary cult 8
2 The Vaupes region showing distribution of major
Indian groups 20
3 The Pira-parana drainage showing location of longhouse
communities attending He rites 45

Plates
Between pp. 40 and 41
1 Barasana longhouse
2 Fruit house
3 Men wearing feather crowns
4 Men wearing full head-dresses

The publisher and the author gratefully acknowledge the per¬

mission of Brian Moser to reproduce Plates 1,3 and 4, and of
Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt to reproduce Plate 2,
which first appeared in Koch-Grimberg (1909—10) Zwei Jahre
unter den Indianern, Vol. I, p. 315.

x
PREFACE

This book is an amended version of my doctoral thesis entitled ‘Male

Initiation and Cosmology among the Barasana Indians of the Vaupds
Area of Colombia’. The thesis, submitted in May 1974, was based on
fieldwork carried out in Colombia between September 1968 and
December 1970 under the auspices of Cambridge University. Of this
time, approximately twenty-two months was spent in the field.
This field research formed part of a larger project of study of Indian
groups in the Vaupes region and involved myself, my wife Christine
and Peter Silverwood-Cope. The project was directed by Professor
Sir Edmund Leach and financed by a grant from the Social Science
Research Council. This support is gratefully acknowledged.
My first encounter with the Indians of the Vaupes came from
reading Wallace’s A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio
Negro as a boy interested in exploration and natural history. On
leaving school, I travelled to Colombia and headed for Mitu, a small
frontier town and capital of the Vaupes. There I spent a month
living with the nearby Cubeo Indians. This short visit was enough to
persuade me both that I wanted to do anthropological research and
that I should return to the Vaupes, specifically to the Rio Pira-
parana. Unlike the Cubeo, the Indians there had remained largely
isolated from the activities of missionaries and marginal to the
rubber economy that dominated the rest of the Colombian Vaupes.
The reports of the few travellers and missionaries to enter the river
showed that its Indians still retained most aspects of the traditional
culture once common to the region as a whole.
In 1967, when I graduated at University, Amazonia was an anthropo¬
logical terra incognita, especially for English anthropologists with
their traditional focus on Africa and Asia. One of the objectives of
our research was simply to fill an important gap in the ethnographic
XI
Preface

knowledge of Amazonia. With the exception of Goldman’s pion¬

eering work amongst the Cubeo (Goldman 1963), no extended study
based on participant observation over a long period of time had ever
been undertaken for any of the Tukanoan groups of Northwest
Amazonia. Our intention was to study one such group in depth and,
in conjunction with Peter Silverwood-Cope, to examine the reported
‘symbiotic’ relationship between the Tukanoans and their nomadic
Maku neighbours.
At this time also, the structuralist anthropology of Claude Levi-
Strauss, in particular as applied to the study of myth, had already
had a major impact upon anthropological theory in England. But
whilst the theoretical ideas were familiar enough, the ethnographic
basis on which they were founded was not. The three volumes of
Mythologiques that had appeared contained not only a general theory
of myth but also an extended discussion of South American Indian
ethnography, some of it culled from sources of doubtful quality.
Our second objective, and one more directly related to the theme of
this book, was to provide an empirical test for some of the grand
generalisations that Levi-Strauss had offered concerning the structure
of South American Indian mythology and its relation to Indian
thought and culture. The Vaupes, lying well outside the Central
Brazilian culture area that forms the focal point of Levi-Strauss’s
work on Amerindian myth, appeared to be an ideal location for such
a test. Levi-Strauss himself had only given passing consideration to
the myths from this area.
The river Pira-parana, choked with dangerous rapids and inhabited
by Indians who, till recently, had a reputation for fierceness, is a
refuge area. During the rubber boom at the turn of the century and,
to a lesser extent, during the Second World War when natural rubber
was once again in great demand, the Indians suffered heavily at the
hands of Colombian rubber gatherers. Houses were burned, women
were abused and the men were carried away by force to work for
white patrones. Initially, the Indians reacted with violence and later
moved away from the main rivers to the side streams and headwaters.
From after the war until the late 1960s, when the first Catholic and
Protestant mission outposts were established in their midst, the
Indians remained more or less isolated, receiving only sporadic visits
from rubber gatherers and itinerant missionaries.
After an initial survey trip down the entire length of the Pira-
parana, and including a stay amongst the Makuna of Cano Komeyaka,
Preface

my wife and I established ourselves in a Barasana longhouse on Cano

Colorado where we were based for the rest of our time in the field.
Our hosts, though overtly friendly, were extremely suspicious of
our presence and understandably unwilling to allow us to approach
them too closely and become intimate with their culture. In order
to overcome their suspicions and to avoid the stereotyped relations
that Indians maintain with outsiders, we tried as far as possible to
adapt ourselves to the Barasana way of life. We lived inside the
longhouse, ate only the food that they ate, observed their food
taboos and other restrictions, dressed like them and worked with
them in the daily tasks of house building, agriculture, hunting and
fishing.
All our research was carried out in the Barasana language which
we had to learn without the aid of interpreters or written materials.
The few Indians who spoke Spanish knew only enough to conduct
a basic relationship of trade. Initially, our life was physically and
emotionally strenuous but as our command of the language increased
and as we became familiar with our hosts and they with us, it became
more and more pleasant and rewarding. As time passed, the Barasana
with whom we lived became firm friends, generous with their food,
their care and their time. They tolerated our mistakes, encouraged
us as we learned and did their best to help us in our work. Living
and working in such close contact carried with it both advantages
and disadvantages. It meant that we understood things, not only
because we saw them and were told about them, but also because
we practised them daily. We came to know one community and its
neighbours in depth. But what we gained in depth, we sacrificed in
breadth. Because it took so long to establish a working relationship
in one area and because we knew that it would be equally difficult
elsewhere, we avoided travel except in the company of our hosts.
Only towards the end of our stay did my wife go off alone to work
with a Tatuyo group, affines of the Barasana, and we never visited
all the Barasana longhouses, let alone all those of the other Pira-
parana Indians.
Barasana society is rigidly divided along lines of sex. Men and
women use different doors to their house, spend most of their waking
lives apart from each other and are periodically and forcefully
reminded of their separateness by the Yurupary rites that form the
subject of this book. Working amongst them as a married couple was
a distinct advantage. Minimally, it established that, in spite of being
Preface

a foreign man, I was relatively safe and had not come there to take
their women. It meant that we were recognised as being mature
enough to be fully incorporated into adult life even though our
lack of children was the subject of ribald comments. But most
important of all, it meant that we became familiar with Barasana
society from the point of view of both sexes. Though we never
specifically divided topics of research between us, the nature of the
society itself imposed a division in our work. Though my wife was
barred from secret male ritual, she was able to talk freely with the
men and to discuss topics normally kept secret from women. But,
for me, the world of women was relatively closed.
Many people have helped me in my research and in the preparation
of this book. My greatest thanks go to the people of Cano Colorado,
especially those of Bosco’s house who took us in, fed us and taught
us, all with generosity and good humour. In particular, I should like
to record my gratitude to Bosco, Pau, Pasico and Maximilliano, my
teachers. Hereafter, in order to protect my informants, I have changed
their names.
Professor Sir Edmund Leach, as teacher, supervisor, colleague and
friend, has given me unfailing support, advice and encouragement
ever since I first went to Amazonia some fourteen years ago. My
warmest thanks are due to him.
Many people made our work in Colombia not only possible but
also more enjoyable. Special thanks are due to Professor Gerado
Reichel-Dolmatoff for his advice and encouragement; to Dr F.
Marquez-Yanez and others of the Instituto Colombiano de Antropo-
logi'a who gave official support and who helped in many other
ways besides; to the University of the Andes who provided office
space and other facilities; to Dr F. Medem who offered hospitality
and encouragement and who identified animals; to Mr and Mrs
Alec Bright, the Bahamon family, Nina de Friedemann, Horacio and
Isobel Calle and many more.
We received help, advice and hospitality from many individuals
connected with the Javerian Mission of Yarumal and the Summer
Institute of Linguistics. Special thanks are due to Monsenor
Bellarmino Correa and Padre Manuel Elorza of the Prefectura Apos-
tolica del Vaupes and to Joel and Nancy Stolte and Richard and
Connie Smith of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. We owe also
Preface

a special debt to George DeVoucalla and fellow pilots of the SIL

for their skill, courage and helpfulness.
A number of people have read my Ph.D. thesis and offered advice,
suggestions and helpful criticism which I have tried to incorporate
in this book. My thanks to Professor J. Pitt-Rivers and Dr P. Riviere,
my thesis examiners, to Professor C. Levi-Strauss, and to Kaj Arhem,
Bernard Arcand, Ellen Basso, Patrice Bidou, Irving Goldman, Jean
Jackson, Pierre-Yves Jacopin, Joanna Kaplan, Tom Langdon, Peter
Silverwood-Cope and Terry Turner. Thanks also to Professor J.
Goody for encouragement and for allowing me time to write.
Finally I must thank my wife Christine for her fundamental
contributions to every aspect of this work. We planned our research
together, worked together in the field and pooled all our data. In
writing this book, I have drawn freely on data from her notebooks
and constantly discussed aspects of my work with her, and she has
given up her time and work to enable me to write.

Cambridge S.H.-J
August 1977
ORTHOGRAPHY

The Barasana orthography used in this book follows that developed by Richard
Smith (n.d.) of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. This orthography uses
symbols chosen to conform to that of Colombian Spanish. For English readers
I have substituted the symbols ‘h’ and ‘ny’ for ‘j’ and ‘h’; I have also not used
the symbol ‘q’ as it has the same value as ‘k’ which I use instead of ‘c’.
Vowels
Un-nasalised Nasalised
a as in musk a
e as in egg e
i as in ink 1
0 as in orange 5
u as in scoop u
u- similar to German ii u-
Consonants
b similar to buy but with prenasalisation (mb)
k as in kite
d prenasalised as in and
g as in go but with prenasalisation (ng)
h as in house
m as in man (phonologically a variant of b, conditioned by a contiguous
nasalised vowel)
n as in nose (phonologically a variant of d, conditioned by a contiguous
nasalised vowel)
ng as in tongue (phonologically a variant of g, conditioned by a contiguous
nasalised vowel)
ny as in Spanish mahana (phonologically a variant of y, conditioned by a
contiguous nasalised vowel)
p as in pen
r between r and 1 in English
s similar to English ts as in boats
t as in time
w as in wine
y as in yam
Where animals, plants, musical instruments, and the sun and moon act as people in
the context of myth and ritual, I have used capital letters.

xvi
 PART I

The rites in context

1
Introduction

Despite both the importance and elaborate development of ritual

amongst the Indian societies of lowland South America, this topic
has received surprisingly little attention in the ethnographic litera¬
ture. Today, there exists a substantial body of monographic studies
of a number of different Amerindian societies, most of which focus
upon kinship and social organisation. In addition, Levi-Strauss
(1968, 1970, 1971, 1973) has published a massive cross-cultural
study of North and South American Indian mythology unparalleled
in the anthropological literature for any other part of the world.
Yet to date, there is hardly a single account or analysis of ritual
amongst lowland South American Indians that is comparable in
scope or detail with those published on African, Asian and Austra¬
lasian societies. Most accounts of Amerindian rituals form part of
a wider, more general, ethnographic study and as such tend to be
both highly superficial and often one-sided. To me, this neglect of
ritual represents a distortion of the ethnographic reality of South
American Indians, at least from a native point of view. On the one
hand, one of the most interesting and significant features of these
societies is that, unlike some of the anthropologists who study them,
they do not see their kinship, marriage and social organisation in
isolation from a wider religious and cosmological order. On the
other hand, it appears to be through ritual that the elaborate mytho¬
logical systems of these people acquire their meaning as an active
force and organising principle in daily life. This study is intended to
redress the balance and to go some way towards filling an ethno¬
graphic vacuum. Its focus is upon a particular ritual complex, known
in the ethnographic literature as the Yurupary cult, amongst the
Barasana Indians, a Tukanoan-speaking group living in the Vaupes
region of Colombia.
3
The rites in context

The Yurupary cult, like other secret men’s cults widespread

amongst lowland South American Indian groups, centres on the use
of sacred musical instruments that women and children are forbidden
to see. These cults serve to express and to reinforce a fundamental
division between the sexes that permeates almost every aspect of
society. The cult embraces all adult men, new members being in¬
corporated through rites of initiation at which they are shown the
Yurupary instruments for the first time. Yurupary rites are thus
rites of initiation but, as I shall show, they are much more than
this. They are also the highest expression of the religious life of the
Barasana and their neighbours and as such have no single or simple
interpretation. I shall describe and analyse these rites and their
associated mythology and, by setting them selectively in their wider
ethnographic context, attempt to gain an insight into Barasana
society, religion and cosmology more generally. I hope to show that
such an approach represents a valid and useful way of studying religion
and one which achieves results that would not perhaps be gained
from a broader descriptive study.
In addition to being a contribution to ethnography, this study is
also an exercise in the interpretation of ritual and myth. I have
attempted to integrate structuralist analysis, in particular Levi-
Straussian analysis of myth, with more conventional approaches to
the study of religion and cosmology in such a way as to construct a
unified system around the religious thought of a single society.
I seek to show how one ritual can be analysed with reference to
others and to a body of myth, and to show how ritual mediates
between mythic thought and social action.

The Yurupary cult

The first account of the Yurupary cult comes from the writings of
Alfred Russel Wallace (1889 : 241—2), who travelled up the Vaupes
river in 1850. Following him, nearly every traveller, missionary and
ethnologist to visit the Vaupes region has described Yurupary rites
and recorded Yurupary myths, and a variety of interpretations,
some of them highly fanciful, have been offered for the cult.
Until the recent past, the Catholic and Protestant missionaries who
worked in the Vaupes believed that the cult of Yurupary was the
cult of the Devil and they went to considerable lengths to suppress
it. They burned the longhouses, or malocas, which play an integral
4
Introduction

role in the cult, destroyed feather ornaments and other items of

ritual equipment and exposed the instruments to women and children.
Some measure of the importance of the cult to the Vaupes Indians
is given by the fact that in 1883, when the missionaries exposed
sacred Yurupary masks to women and children at a church service,
the Indians rose in revolt and temporarily expelled them from the
region. Unfortunately, many elements of this intolerant attitude
still persist amongst members of both the Catholic and Protestant
missions that work in the area today. I would like to believe that
this book would enhance respect and understanding for the Indians’
religion, but I fear that, unless the missionaries realise the criminal
folly of their present way of thinking, it may instead be used to
further the process of ethnocide, a fear expressed by the Barasana
themselves.
In the ethnographic literature on the Vaupes, there are numerous
accounts of Yurupary rituals amongst the different Arawakan and
Tukanoan groups living in the region (see appendix 1). Unfortunately,
most of these accounts are highly superficial, but at least in terms of
gross features it appears that the rites are broadly similar to those
of the Barasana. Usually, forest or cultivated fruit is taken into the
maloca or longhouse to the sound of the Yurupary instruments,
whilst women and children are required either to flee to the forest
or gardens or to remain secluded in a screened-off area at the rear
of the house. The men play the instruments in the house all day and
there follows a dance at which the women are present. Sometimes
the men whip each other (and the women), and sometimes ritualised
intersexual aggression is expressed. My own study of the Barasana
shows that there are two different kinds of Yurupary rite, one much
more extended and much more sacred than the other. This more
elaborate rite appears to have occurred amongst at least some other
Tukanoan groups but has never been properly described before. I
shall argue that it would be impossible to understand fully the shorter,
less sacred, rites without knowledge of the longer rite upon which
they are modelled and for which they act as a preparatory phase in
a process of initiation. One of the objects of this book is simply to
present, for the first time, an accurate and detailed account of
Yurupary rites as a basis for interpretation. What I show in my
analysis is that many aspects of the rites are only comprehensible in
the light of a careful examination of details of their spatio-temporal
structuring, of the dress and age of the participants, and so on.
5
The rites in context

In addition to these accounts of Yurupary rites, there also exists a

large body of myths, recorded from different Indian groups in the
Vaupes-Icana region, which tell of a culture hero called Yurupary
or of other characters identifiable with him (see appendix 2). A theme
common to most of these stories is that of the hero being burned
alive on a fire, often as a punishment for an act of cannibalism. From
the ashes of this fire springs a paxiuba palm (Iriartea exorrhiza)
which is subsequently cut up into sections to make the Yurupary
instruments. Another theme, equally common, tells how the women
stole the Yurupary instruments from the men so that the social
order was reversed, the men becoming like women and the women
achieving political dominance over the men. Only when the men
were able to get back the instruments was the ‘normal’ order restored.
In this book, I present a corpus of myths recorded amongst the
Barasana and their neighbours in the Pira-parana area. Although none
of them concerns a character called Yurupary, and although some of
them appear superficially to be very different from the classic
Yurupary myths, I shall argue that they can be treated as variants
and transformations of them. I use these myths as an integral part
of my analysis of Barasana Yurupary rites, showing that unless myth
is systematically related to rite, many features of the rites remain
inexplicable. This reflects the Barasana viewpoint, for most expla¬
nations that they give of whole rites or elements within them are
couched in terms of myth or make reference to mythic knowledge.
Such explanations are not simply ‘charters’ for ritual action; myths
are understood at a deeper level, by shamans and ritual specialists,
and are used to give meaning and potency to the rites.
Throughout this study, I have tried to make as full use as possible
of these published accounts of Yurupary rites and myths. I have
done so in part to supplement and extend my own data, particularly
in the area of myth where, following Levi-Strauss, I take the view
that one myth can only be properly understood in the light of
other variants. In this respect, my study is only the preliminary
groundwork for a more thorough and extensive analysis of Yurupary
myths which I hope to undertake at a later date. But also, by relating
my own data and analysis to that of other writers, I hope that this
study will be seen not only as a contribution to the ethnography of
the Barasana and their neighbours but also as a contribution to the
ethnography of Northwest Amazonia more generally.
The word Yurupary (Iurupan, Jurupari, etc.) comes from the
6
Introduction

Tupian Lingua Geral or Nheengatu, a lingua franca once widely

spoken along the Ri'o Negro and its affluents. Various writers,
principally Schaden (1959 : 149-53) and Goldman (1963 : 192,
255), have objected to the use of this term in anthropological litera¬
ture, pointing out that it is a term used by Indians only in conver¬
sation with outsiders, and often as an apparent explanation for
anything taboo, secret or mysterious designed to avoid further
questions, and that its meaning is tainted by having been identified
with the Christian Devil.
The term is generally used in three related ways: first, to refer to
the sacred musical instruments that are taboo to women and children;
second, as a blanket name for a variety of mythical characters,
many of whom do indeed have much in common with one another,
but each of whom has a proper name in the language of the group
that tells the myth; and third, when used in phrases such as ‘the
Yurupary cult’, to refer both to the instruments and also to the
beliefs and practices that go with them. Used in the first sense, I
can see no great objection to the term as a label for a cross-cultural
phenomenon — it is simply a useful shorthand for the more cumber¬
some ‘sacred flutes and trumpets’. From the evidence available and
as I hope to show, there does seem to be something fundamentally
the same about these instruments, the context in which they are
used and the beliefs associated with them, over a very wide area of
Northwest Amazonia (map 1 shows the rough extent of the area
in which the Yurupary cult occurs). In this book, I shall use the
term Yurupary in this shorthand sense to mean ‘sacred flutes and
trumpets taboo to women’ that are used (a) within a roughly defined
geographical area and (b) in the context of initiation into a secret
men’s cult of which they form the focus.1 But I shall use the Barasana
term He (pronounced like ‘hen’ without the ‘n’) to refer to the
Barasana instruments in particular.
Used as a name for a mythical hero, the term is more problematic.
To identify the heroes of Yurupary myths with the Christian Devil
is an error that cannot be too strongly condemned in the light of
the crimes to which it has led. This error was recognised by the
Bishop of Amazonas back in 1909 (Costa cit. Schaden 1959 : 151)
but his words appear to have gone unheeded. Leaving aside the

1 In other words I would not, for example, include Tikuna sacred trumpets used in the
context of rites of first menstruation, nor the sacred flutes used in the Xingu area of
Central Brazil.

7
8
Map 1 Northwest Amazonia: the area of the Yurupary cult
Introduction

confusions of missionaries, there still exists a considerable body of

myths about someone to whom those who recorded them rightly
or wrongly assigned the name Yurupary. These myths are close
variants of one another in spite of coming from societies widely
separated in space. They are also close variants of other myths
concerning characters whose names are given in the original language
of the people who told them. All these myths come from a single
geographic area and one in which the Indian cultures are, or were,
strikingly similar to one another. In view of this, and leaving aside
the Devil, I see no great objection to calling these myths Yurupary
myths, nor to calling their heroes Yurupary, provided that it is
understood that these heroes are not identical and that each has
his own proper name. But when I refer to the characters of Barasana
myth, I shall use their proper names.
The term He is polysemic and the whole of this book could be
said to be an extended exploration of its various meanings. In its most
restricted sense, the term refers iiL&articular to the sacred flutes and
trumpets; more widely, it is perhaps best translated as ‘ancestral’
and refers to the past, to the spirit world and to the world of myth.
At its widest range, it implies a whole conception of the cosmos and
of the place of human society within it. The Barasana have an un¬
usually rich and varied corpus of myths which are treated with
considerable respect and which form the basis of shamanic knowledge
and power. The myths describe the establishment of an ordered
cosmos and the creation of human society within it; the human social
order is seen as part of this wider order, as timeless and changeless
and beyond the immediate control of human agency — it is, or should
be, as it was created in the past. The He state implies a state of being
prior to, and now parallel with, human existence. Originally everything
was//e and the pre-human, man—animal characters of myth are the
He People from whom human beings developed by a process of
transformation. The He People and the He state, wherein lies the
power of creation and order, are thus set in the distant past. But it
is also an ever-changeless present that encapsulates human society
and which exists as another aspect of reality, another world. When
He is viewed as the past, human society is in danger of becoming
increasingly distant and separated from this wider reality and source
of life — the effects of this time must be overcome. As the present,
this other world is seen as separated in space; human society is in
danger of becoming out of phase with this other reality and spatial
9
The rites in context
separation must be mediated. The He state is known through myth;
it is experienced and manipulated through ritual and controlled
through spatial and temporal metaphor.
At birth, people leave the He state and become human, ontogeny
repeating phylogeny; at death, people once again enter the He state
and become ancestors to be reborn at future births. In life, people
enter into involuntary contact with the He state through dreaming
and illness, through menstruation and childbirth and through the
deaths of others. All such contact is uncontrolled and dangerous. It
is also possible to enter into voluntary and controlled contact with
the He state and to experience it directly. The power and position
of the shaman lies precisely in his ability to experience and manipu¬
late the He state at will; such people are seen as living on two planes
of existence simultaneously. Other men can enter into contact with
the He state through rituals at which the shamans act as mediators.
Though all rituals involve such voluntary contact, it is during the
rites at which He instruments are used that this contact is achieved
to its fullest extent. The He instruments represent the living dead,
the first ancestors of humanity. This regular and controlled contact
with the other world, which gives power to control life and which
ensures the continuance of society in a healthy and ordered state,
is reserved for adult men. Its complement lies in female fertility and
powers of reproduction. Women ensure the reproduction of people;
men ensure the reproduction of society.
It is impossible for me to summarise adequately the main prop¬
ositions of Barasana religious thought — I attempt to give some idea
of this in the pages that follow. Nor is it really possible to summarise
the main themes of my analysis of Barasana He rituals. Two points
will emerge from my analysis which explain in part why this is so.
First, these rites, which are not simply rites of initiation but total
religious phenomena, have no simple explanation. Rather they must
be explained at a number of different levels and along a number of
different axes. Secondly and related to this point, these explanations
should ideally be given simultaneously, for they are all there simul¬
taneously in the multidimensional nature of the rites themselves.
But because writing involves a linear presentation, they must be taken
in sequence. What I have done is to present my analysis in a sequence
which is to some extent arbitrary, but to raise at the start a number
of interrelated themes which are then explored from a number of
different points of view using different aspects of the same set of data.
10
Introduction

In order to give some idea of my method of analysis and of the dif¬

ferent themes that I explore within it, I shall briefly summarise the
contents of the different chapters of this book and the way in which
they are interrelated.
The book is divided into five parts together with a preface and
appendixes. Part I is intended to set Barasana He rites in their wider
ethnographic and theoretical context. Parts II and V contain the
basic data upon which the argument is based. I found that to attempt
to describe and analyse the rites at the same time was cumbersome
and the result unreadable. I have therefore tried to keep description
and analysis separate. In part II, the rites are described in detail but
commentary and explanation are kept to a minimum. In part V, a
number of myths are presented, again without commentary or ex¬
planation. In part III, the rites described in part II are analysed and
explained. The analysis draws heavily upon the myths and also upon
explanatory data that is introduced at this point. In order to fully
understand the argument, frequent cross-reference must be made to
both part II and to part V. The fact that the myths are given as an
extended appendix at the end does not in any way mean that they are
considered less important. Part IV, the conclusion, is divided into
two sections: the first relates my description and analysis of Barasana
Yurupary rites to those of other writers on the Vaupes area and
attempts to draw together some of the major propositions of Barasana
religious thought; the second is devoted to a discussion of anthropo¬
logical approaches to myth and ritual in terms of some of the
general points that emerge from my analysis.
Chapter 2 provides a brief ethnographic sketch of Indian society
in the Pira-parana region and places He rites in the context of other
rituals and of Barasana society at large. It is not intended as a balanced
or exhaustive account of Barasana society. Chapter 3 describes one
kind of He rite, called Fruit House, and sets it in the context of an
initiatory process that culminates in another kind of rite, called He
House, described in chapter 4. Fruit House, it is argued, reproduces
the structure of He House in a reduced and attenuated form. Chapter
5 focusses upon the different categories of actors that take part in
the rites. The significance of the inaloca as ritual space is discussed in
relation to the different age-grades of the participants and it is argued
that the microstructure of the maloca with its people reproduces the
macrostructure of society and the cosmos. The role of the shaman
as mediator is examined and the theme of open and closed bodily
11
The rites in context

orifices is raised, first in relation to shamanic power and then in

relation to female reproduction. Shamans and initiates, it is
argued, are like menstruating women, and men’s He, their instru¬
ments, are seen to be equivalent and complementary to female
powers of reproduction. The theme of dominance and submission
between the sexes is also raised and discussed.
Chapters 6, 7 and 8 focus on the dominant and polysemic ritual
symbols used in the rites. Chapter 6 examines the He instruments in
terms of the world they embody, in terms of their role as mediators
parallel to that of shamans, in terms of their correlation with the
structure of the longhouse group and of society at large and in terms
of the way they are used during the rites. The He represent the body
of the first ancestor who comes to adopt the initiates as his sons.
It is through this process that macro- and microstructure are made
coterminous, thus ensuring the continuity of society along principles
established in the mythic past. The He instruments, as predominantly
masculine symbols, are thus concerned with continuity and immortality.
Chapter 7 examines the symbolism of a gourd of beeswax that is
used in the rites. This gourd, never before mentioned in relation to
the Yurupary cult, is shown to be crucial for its understanding and
of equal importance to that of the Yurupary instruments to which,
as a predominantly female symbol, it stands in a complementary
relation. Although women are excluded from the rites, the female
element is represented by this symbol. In particular, this gourd is
connected with female powers of reproduction which men lost when
they took back the Yurupary instruments stolen by the women in
the mythic past. Female reproduction, dependent upon periodicity
and bodily openness, is reintroduced into male society in symbolic
form during the rites. This clarifies the periodic nature of He rites and
the presence of female symbols in an exclusive men’s cult. Menstru¬
ation is shown to be associated with a change of skin; the power to
change skins is contained within the wax gourd and is in turn related
to the theme of rebirth and immortality. It is the combination of the
He instruments with the gourd of wax that underlies much of the
significance of He rites. This combination expresses simultaneously
the make-up of the human body, sexual reproduction, the inter¬
dependence of men and women in productive activities, the comp¬
lementary relation between the seasons and the creation and structure
of the cosmos itself.

12
Introduction

In chapter 8, the symbolism of hair, whipping and tobacco is examined

in relation to the themes of open and closed body orifices, death and
rebirth by swallowing and regurgitation, destruction and creation as
associated with the two sexes and growth and aggression. Also, fire
and water are shown to be in a complementary relation, expressed
in terms of the two sexes and of the He instalments and gourd of
wax that represent them. In chapter 9, the spatio-temporal structuring
of the rites is related to that of myth to display the theme of symbolic
death and rebirth. It is argued that the rites imply that whereas
women create children, it is men who create adult men and the
society they represent. This power of creation is in turn related to the
forest fruits that are used in the rites. Finally, in chapter 10, it is
argued that during the rites, the sun and moon, the ultimate rep¬
resentatives of the He state from which all life derives, are brought,
in symbolic form, into the house. This is in turn related to Levi-
Strauss’s arguments concerning bull-roarers and the ‘instruments of
darkness’, and the ‘rotten and burned worlds’, a predominant theme
of the lirst two volumes of his analysis of Amerindian mythology
(1970, 1973).

Myth and ritual

In his comparative study of Amerindian mythology, Levi-Strauss does

not attempt a systematic analysis of myths from the Vaupes region.
With reference to the myth of origin of the cult of Yurupary, he
writes:

Many variants of this myth are on record ... I do not propose to examine
them in detail, since they seem to belong to a different mythological genre from
that of the more popular tales — comparatively homogenous in tone and inspi¬
ration — that I am bringing together here to provide the subject-matter for my
investigation. It would seem that some early inquirers in the Amazon basin,
prominent among whom were Barbosa Rodrigues, Amorim and Stradelli, were
still able to find esoteric texts belonging to a learned tradition, and comparable
in this connection to those discovered more recently by Nimuendaju and
Cadogan among the southern Guarani. Unfortunately, we have little or no
knowledge of the old native communities which once lived along the middle
and lower Amazon. The laconic evidence supplied by Orellana, who sailed down
the river as far as the estuary in 1541—2, and still more so the existence of oral
traditions, whose extreme complexity, artificial composition and mystical tone
suggest that they must be attributed to schools of sages and learned men, argue

13
The rites in context

in favour of a much higher level of religious, social and political organisation than
anything that has been observed since. The study of these previous documents,
which are the remnants of a genuine civilization common to the whole of the
Amazon basin, would require a volume in itself and would involve the use of
special methods in which philology and archaeology . . . would have to play a
part. Such a study may one day be possible (1973 : 271—2)

In carrying out field research amongst the Barasana, we had two

principal objectives in mind. The first was to make a general ethno¬
graphic study of a still relatively unacculturated Tukanoan-speaking
Indian population. Our second objective was to examine some of
Levi-Strauss’s ideas on mythology, especially on South American
Indian mythology, in the light of a detailed body of ethnographic
data, including a corpus of myths, collected with this in mind. Many
of the ethnographic sources on which Levi-Strauss’s studies of myth
are based are fragmentary and sometimes misleading and most of
them pre-date his general theories concerning myth and totemic
thought. Our aim was to collect data with this kind of analysis in
mind, but to refrain from actually reading Mythologiques until
both our field research and the preliminary stages of our analysis
were complete.2 In addition to the more usual topics of ethnographic
enquiry, we therefore paid particular attention to knowledge about
the natural world, animals, plants, stars and seasons, and to the kind
of ‘implicit mythology’ that is revealed in such things as hunting,
fishing, gardening and food preparation, eating arrangements and
manufacturing processes, as well as in ritual and ceremony.
This book represents the first statement of the results of this
research. Focussing as it does upon ritual and explicit or narrative
myth, it is complemented by my wife’s book (C. Hugh-Jones 1979),
which focusses upon the ‘implicit myth’ mentioned above. My aim
in this book has not been to analyse Barasana myth itself, but to
use myth along with other kinds of data to elucidate the organisational
features and symbolism of ritual. My approach to both myth and ritual
is essentially structuralist. In my analysis I have drawn both upon
Levi-Strauss’s method of analysis as applied to myth, and also upon
some of his findings with regard to Amerindian mythology. Reciprocally,
I have tried to indicate, in the text and in notes, where my findings
2 We did, however, use Ldvi-Strauss’s Mythologiques as a compendium of myths which we
read to the Barasana for their amusement. In so doing, we not only obtained a number
of Barasana myths, given as the correct versions of myths that other societies ‘did not
know properly’, but also gained many insights into the way the Barasana themselves
think about their myths.

14
Introduction

with regard to Barasana myth and ritual symbolism are in accord with
those of Levi-Strauss for other parts of lowland South America.
Without first conducting a detailed analysis of Barasana myth, it
would be premature to offer anything more than some tentative
remarks upon the applicability of Levi-Strauss’s methods and con¬
clusions to my data from the Barasana. My agreements and reservations
will become clear in the pages that follow. In general terms, and in
spite of Levi-Strauss’s reservations concerning Yurupary myths
quoted above, it does appear that myths from the Vaupes region are
by and large close variants or transformations of those that form the
subject of Levi-Strauss’s enquiry. The story of Manioc-stick Anaconda
(M.6.A), to give but one example, contains within one myth many
of the themes that form the backbone of the first two and a half
volumes of Mythologiques. I find in particular, that his arguments
concerning the ‘instruments of darkness’ (see especially Levi-Strauss
1973 : 359—475) appear to be confirmed empirically by my data
from the Barasana.
Where I differ most strongly from Levi-Strauss lies in the area of
cross-cultural comparison. Levi-Strauss is concerned to outline the
syntax of South American mythology as a whole (1970 : 7—8): he
is concerned less with what myths mean than with how they convey this
meaning. His argument is that whilst different myths serve different
purposes and have different meanings in particular social and cultural
contexts, their internal organisation is subject to laws that have
universal validity, at least within the area from which the myths he
studies derive. I am concerned rather to examine myths within a
single socio-cultural context and to elucidate their meanings within
it. I am therefore concerned as much with what myths mean as with
how they mean it. I shall try to show that, to a considerable extent,
Barasana myths can only be understood when they are systematically
related to ritual and that it is in the context of ritual that their
potential meaning is made actual. Reciprocally, I shall show that
many features of Barasana ritual can only be understood in relation
to myth.
Levi-Strauss has proposed three rules for the interpretation of
myth which I quote:

1. A myth must never be interpreted on one level only. No privileged expla¬

nation exists, for any myth consists in an inter-relation of several explanatory
levels.

15
The rites in context
2. A myth must never be interpreted individually, but in its relationship to
other myths which, taken together, constitute a transformation group.
3. A group of myths must never be interpreted alone, but by reference:
(a) to other groups of myths; and (b) to the ethnography of the societies in
which they originate. For, if the myths transform each other, a relation of
the same type links (on a transversal axis) the different levels involved in the
evolution of all social life. These levels range from the forms of techno-
economic activity to the systems of representations, and include economic
exchanges, political and familial structures, aesthetic expression, ritual
practices, and religious beliefs. (1977 : 65)

Throughout this book, I try to apply these rules to the interpretation

of myth, but I shall try also to extend them to the interpretation of
ritual. I shall show that when considering a myth given as explanation
for a ritual, this myth must be considered in relation to other myths
that are neither given as explanations nor make any explicit reference
to the rite concerned. I shall show that there is no single level at
which Barasana Yurupary rites can be interpreted but that the
different levels of interpretation can be systematically interrelated.
I shall show that Barasana initiation rites must be considered in
relation to one another and in relation to other rites. Finally, I shall
show that neither myth nor rite can be fully understood unless each
is considered within the total ethnographic context from which it
derives.
But having said this, it becomes clear that this book is in some
ways but the groundwork and preliminary outline of a much more
ambitious project. A proper analysis of Yurupary myths alone would
indeed require a volume to itself; having analysed Yurupary rites as
a process of initiation, the analysis could then be extended to include
other rites of passage, notably those of birth and death; and having
done this, and in view of the striking similarities between the Yurupary
cult and other secret men’s cults and their associated mythology
from elsewhere in Amazonia, a comparative study might one day be
possible.

Finally, a word or two should be said about the circumstances under

which these Yurupary rites were observed. As will be explained
below, there are two different kinds of Yurupary rite amongst the
Barasana. The first kind, Fruit House (He rika soria wi), is held
relatively often and I was able to observe a total of nine over a
twenty-two-month period. At some, I devoted my time to writing
16
Introduction

notes and making tape-recordings; at others, I endeavoured to ob¬

serve them from the inside by dancing with the dancers, playing the
He instruments, chanting with the chanters and drinking hallucinogenic
drugs. The second kind of rite, He House (He wi), is held very in¬
frequently, perhaps once in two or three years in some of the larger
longhouse communities. I was therefore extremely fortunate to see
it at all. I was allowed to participate on condition that I did not
play the role of the note-taking anthropologist and that I underwent
initiation in the mixed status of young man, elder and guest and
observed all the relevant prohibitions on diet and behaviour. My
wife remained secluded in the rear of the house together with the
other women who assisted her in taking notes. Her presence was
invaluable to me both for the data that she was able to record and
for the insights she brought into the role of women in this exclusive
men’s cult.

17
2
The Barasana: land and people

The Barasana, numbering perhaps some three hundred individuals,

are one of several small Tukanoan sub-groups who live in the area
drained by the Pira-parana river in the Vaupes region of Colombia;
other groups represented are the Bara, Karapana, Makuna, Taiwano,
Tatuyo, Tuyuka and the Arawakan Kabiyeri. The river Pira-parana
lies between 70 and 71 degrees W. and between one-half and one
degree N. This area lies just inside the Colombian frontier with
Brazil and forms the southern section of the Comisaria del Vaupes.
Geologically, the area forms the southernmost extension of the
Guiana shield and is known as the Vaupes Swell (Moser and Tayler
1963 : 440). The river Vaupes, rising to the south of the town of
San Jose de Guaviare, flows east into Brazil crossing the frontier at
Jauarete and entering the Rio Negro above the town of Uaupes
(Sao Gabriel); it lends its name, Vaupes in Colombia, Uaupes in
Brazil, to the region that it bisects (see map 1). This region is one of
flat river valleys and rolling uplands interspersed with isolated
hills, outcrops of rock and low, flat-topped mountains with sheer
sides. Most of the Pira-parana area lies between 600 and 700 feet
above sea level, but hills of 1000 feet are not uncommon and the
chain of mountains that divides the Pira-parana from the Cananari
rises in parts up to 2000 feet.
The vegetation of the area is characterised by tropical rain-forest
with occasional stands of miriti palms {Mauritia flexuosa) and areas
of savannah with xerophytic vegetation. The average annual rainfall
is around 3500 mm but is subject to great variation both from year
to year and from place to place (Instituto Geografico Agustrn Codazzi
1969 : 67). There are four major seasons: a long dry period between
December and March, a long wet season between March and August,
a short dry season between August and September and a short period
18
The Barasana: land and people

of rains between September and December. The temperature usually

varies between 20 C and 35 C, but may drop as low as 10°C during
the aru or friagem, a cold period accompanied by fine drizzle that
occurs around mid-June.
The river Pira-parana runs off the watershed that divides the river
system of the Vaupes from that of the Apaporis—Caqueta. Its head¬
waters lie close to those of the Papuri, one of the major southern
tributaries of the Vaupes, and the sources of two of its major affluents,
Cano Colorado and Cano Lobo, lie close to the headwaters of the
Tiquie, itself the major southern tributary of the Vaupes (see maps
2 and 3). The precise hydrological features of the Pira-parana have
had, and continue to have, an important influence on the Indian
groups that live in the area. As the only effective link, other than that
of the Amazon river itself, between the river systems of the Vaupes—
Rio Negro on the one hand and the Apaporis—Caqueta—Japura on
the other, it is an important route of communication. In relation to
this, it is significant that the Arawakan Yukuna of the river Miriti-
parana, an affluent of the Apaporis, share a number of cultural
features, notably in the area of mythology and ritual practice, in
common with the Indians of the Pira-parana drainage (Jacopin :
personal communication). Some of these features are common to all
the Indians of the Vaupes region and suggest Tukanoan influence
spreading from the north and east; others, like the masked dances
associated with pupunha palm (Gulielma gasipaes) fruit are found
only amongst the southernmost Tukanoan groups (Makuna, Tani-
muka, Letuama) of the lower Pira-parana and Apaporis, and suggest
Arawakan influence from the south. In certain respects, the Indians
of the Pira-parana and Apaporis, the only Eastern Tukanoan-speakers
not living within the area of the Vaupes river drainage, are marginal
to the main bloc of Tukanoan culture and display certain features
transitional between Tukanoan and Arawakan culture.1
The strategic location of the Pira-parana has also had an important
influence on the nature and extent of Indian contact with white
people. On the one hand, as an important communication route
1 This is most true of the groups furthest to the south, but without more data than is at
present available for the Tukanoan-speakers as a whole, the significance and magnitude
of the cultural differences between different Tukanoan groups are difficult to estimate.
The Cubeo, the northernmost Tukanoan-speakers, also have certain cultural features
that appear to be atypical of the main bloc of Tukano culture. This may well be related
to their marginal geographic location and to their relative proximity to the Arawakan
Baniwa to the north and east. From the rather sparse ethnographic descriptions, it is
clear that the Baniwa share many cultural features with the Tukanoans.

19
20
Map 2 The Vaupe's region showing distribution of major Indian groups
The Barasana: land and people

between two major river systems, it has been an avenue of white ex¬
ploration and penetration into the area. It is first mentioned, as a
route connecting the Vaupes with the Caqueta—Japura via the
Apaporis, in reports of exploration from the latter half of the
eighteenth century (Briizzi da Silva 1962 : 22). Also mentioned in
these reports is an Indian tribe called Panenua, living on the ‘upper
Vaupes’: the Panenua are probably identifiable with the contemporary
Barasana, known as Panenua or Pareroa in Tukano, the dominant
Indian language used as a lingua franca in the Vaupes region. On the
other hand, the Pira-parana is blocked by numerous rapids and falls that
make travel hazardous and dangerous even for the Indians themselves.
It is marginal to the Vaupes, the main avenue of white penetration,
and therefore has remained relatively isolated from the commercial
and missionary activity that has so radically altered the traditional
Indian culture of the main Vaupes region. Although the Pira-parana
Indians have suffered from the forced labour, disease and population
decline associated with the extraction of natural rubber and from the
destructive effects of missionaries operating from both Colombia
and Brazil, their relative isolation combined, in the past, with a
ferocious reputation, has meant that they alone have managed to
preserve the greater part of their traditional culture. Furthermore,
whilst the Protestant and Catholic mission posts in the Pira-parana
region were only established in the late 1960s, those in the rest of
the Colombian Vaupes were established around the beginning of the
century, and some in the Brazilian Vaupes date back as far as 1850
and beyond.
With the exception of rubber gatherers, traders, missionaries and
government personnel, the majority of whom are concentrated in
Mitu, the administrative centre and capital of the Comisaria del
Vaupes, the inhabitants of the Colombian Vaupes are all Indians.
These people speak a variety of languages belonging to at least three
distinct language families, and one of the most striking cultural
features of the Vaupes area is that of extreme linguistic diversity
combined with widespread multilingualism (see Sorensen 1967).
The majority of these languages or dialects belong to the Eastern
Tukanoan family, named after one particular linguistic and social
unit, the Tukano; the name Tukano is also used in a loose fashion
to refer collectively to all the different Tukanoan-speaking groups in
the area. Arawakan languages are spoken by the various Baniwa
groups living in the area of the Guaim'a and Icana to the north of
21
The rites in context

the Vaupes, by the Tariana around the area of Jauarete, by the

Kabiyeri living between the Pira-parana and the Cananari and by
the Yukuna along the Miriti-parana to the south. The Carib language
family is represented by a remnant population of Karihona on the
upper Vaupes, and the semi-nomadic Maku speak at least two
languages or dialects, as yet of uncertain affiliation, which bear no
close relationship to any of the other languages spoken in the area.
Besides speaking languages or dialects of a common family, the
Tukanoan Indians of the Vaupes share a large number of basic cultural
features in common. This is true of fundamental patterns of sub¬
sistence: extensive cultivation of bitter manioc combined with
hunting, fishing and gathering; of traditional habitation and settlement
patterns: large communal longhouses built near the rivers and sep¬
arated by one or more hours of travel; of kinship and social structure:
Dravidian kinship terminology combined with bilateral cross-cousin
marriage between groups of hierarchically ordered patrilineal sibs; and
of shared patterns of ritual organisation and a common mythological
tradition. At the same time, within this common cultural framework,
the Tukanoans are divided into a large number of discrete groups
differentiated by territorial location, language, rules of exogamy,
traditions of origin, versions and interpretations of myth, ecological
adaptation, etc. This has led to two diverging tendencies in the ethno¬
graphic literature: one, most apparent in Briizzi da Silva (1962),
to emphasise the unity and similarity of the different groups; the
other, to lay stress on their diversity and specialisation (see Reichel-
Dolmatoff 1971). An extended discussion of the social structure of
the Vaupes region as a whole, in terms of the relationship between
language groups on the one hand, and social and ethnic groups on
the other, is beyond the scope of this book and would also, I believe,
require more complete data than is at present available.2 But I shall
attempt to summarise some of the more salient points in order to
place the Barasana in a wider context.
In previous ethnographic accounts of the Indians of the Vaupes
region, the concept of ‘tribe’ has been used in at least three distinct
0

2 To date, the only attempts to discuss the social structure of the Tukanoans as a whole
are those of Briizzi da Silva (1962, 1966) and Fulop (1955). On a more limited scale,
Jean Jackson has discussed the relation between social structure, language-group
affiliation and exogamy, with particular reference to the Bara of the Papurf region
(Jackson 1972, 1974, 1976). Christine Hugh-Jones discusses this same topic in relation
to the Indian groups of the Pira-parana area (1979). My own account is intended as no
more than a brief sketch.

22
The Barasana: land and people

ways: (1) to refer collectively to all Tukanoan-speakers, the ‘Tukano

tribe’, that live in the area. Used in this sense, the term ‘tribe’ refers
to a large group of people who share a common cultural tradition,
who speak a number of related languages or dialects and who live in
a more or less continuous geographic area. Used in this way, the
term does not imply political unity under a single headman or chief
and, perhaps unfortunately, it emphasises a common culture rather
than the structural features that unite the Vaupes Indians, including
non-Tukanoan-speakers, into an open-ended social system bound
together by relations of marriage, economic exchange, reciprocal
ritual interaction, etc. (2) With particular reference to the Cubeo,
to refer to a largely, but not exclusively endogamous unit made up
of three intermarrying sub-groups who claim common ancestry and
who speak a single, common language (Goldman 1963). As will be
seen below, the Cubeo are atypical of Tukanoan-speakers in
their emphasis on linguistic endogamy rather than linguistic exogamy.
(3) To refer to an exogamous patrilineal descent group, internally
sub-divided into a number of hierarchically ranked patrilineal sibs
whose members speak a common language or dialect (see e.g. Reichel-
Dolmatoff 1971). The Desana, Tukano, Bara, Pira-Tapuyo, Wanano,
Karapana, Tuyuka, Tatuyo, Taiwano, etc. are all ‘tribes’ in this sense.
Whether or not they did so prior to the influx of white people into
the Vaupes, today none of these ‘tribes’ occupies a continuous stretch
of territory although, in most cases, they are concentrated in one or
more specific areas.
Amongst the Tukanoan Indians, with the exception of the Cubeo,
there is an ideal that the boundaries of exogamous descent groups
and those of language or dialect units are coterminous and to a
considerable extent this is true in practice. For this reason, both
Indians and ethnographers make use of language as a criterion for
defining units of social structure. The ideal coincidence of language
unit and exogamous group boundaries leads the Indians to use
language as a way of talking about descent. Group membership is
often indicated by saying that an individual ‘says . . . ’ and repeating
a stock phrase in the language concerned. Sometimes, as for example
amongst the Barasana and Taiwano, Indians will state that the
languages of two intermarrying groups are entirely different whilst an
outside observer can only detect minute dialectical variation and
Indians will often claim that even the different sibs of one exogamous
language unit speak in different ways. For similar reasons, ethno-
23
The rites in context

graphers frequently divide Tukanoan Indians into ‘tribes’ based on both

language and descent-group criteria.
However, there are important exceptions to the ideal that units
of language are also exogamous descent groups. As mentioned above,
the Cubeo ‘tribe’ consists of three intermarrying sub-groups who
share a common language. The Barasana and Taiwano, who share a
common language and intermarry with other language units, also
intermarry amongst themselves as distinct patrilineal descent groups.
The Makuna, who share a common language (Makuna), are made up
of one exogamic descent group intermarried with a segment of
another that includes all the Barasana. Thus, by the criterion of
language alone, the Makuna form a single ‘tribe’. But the term
Makuna may also be applied exclusively to the first-mentioned
exogamic descent group who share their language with some Barasana.
The Makuna in this latter sense marry both Barasana who speak
Barasana and Barasana who speak Makuna. Finally, as mentioned
below, the maximal exogamous descent group, or phratry, generally
includes at least two distinct language groups. For these reasons, I
do not consider the ‘tribe’ to be a useful concept in discussing
Tukanoan social structure, nor do I consider that language alone is
a useful criterion for the definition of the units of social structure.
By concentrating on descent and exogamy rather than on language,
the similarities and common structural features of all Tukanoan
groups can be emphasised, rather than the differences between them.
In this book, where the evidence makes it possible. I attempt to show
these similarities at the level of ritual and myth.
In the Pira-parana region, the most inclusive social units that can
be identified embrace the members of two or more language-bearing
descent groups. These un-named phratries are defined partly in terms
of exogamy, their members considering each other to be like brothers
who should not intermarry, and partly in terms of common descent
and origin trom either the same anaconda ancestor or from two or
more such ancestors who can be identified together. One such group
includes the Bara, the Arawakan Kabiyeri, and those members of the
Makuna ‘tribe’ who are not Barasana (see above). The anaconda
ancestor of the Bara, Fish Anaconda, is said to be the same as Water
Anaconda, the ancestor of the Makuna. In theory, the Bara and
Makuna should not intermarry, but in practice a few marriages do
take place between them. The component sub-groups of a phratry
are identifiable by name, by a tradition of common ancestry, by
24
The Barasana: land and people

strict rules of exogamy and in most cases by the possession of a

common language.
The Barasana, as a patrilineal descent group, are internally sub¬
divided into a number of hierarchically ranked, named sibs. During
our fieldwork, we were based in a longhouse or maloca of the Meni
Masa sib, situated on Cano Colorado, an affluent of the middle
Pira-parana (see map 3 below). When I refer to the ‘Barasana’ in
this book, I refer in particular to this sib. The Meni Masa see
themselves as one of an un-named group of five sibs, ranked ac¬
cording to a model of five male siblings. Terms used between siblings
are never reciprocal as one is always older or younger than the
other and the terms imply relative age. Likewise, relationships between
patrilineal sibs are phrased in terms of relative seniority. The Meni
Masa come in the middle of the group of five sibs; those above are
referred to as ‘our elder brothers’ and those below as ‘our younger
brothers’. The five sibs, in decreasing order of seniority, are called
Koamona, Rasegana, Meni Masa, Daria and Wabea. Each sib is in
turn associated with a specialist ritual role: the Koamona are chiefs
0bdiara), the Rasegana are dancers and chanters (bayaroa, keti masa),
the Meni Masa are warriors (guamara), the Daria are shamans (kumua)
and the Wabea are cigar lighters (muno yori masa) and are likened
to the Maku who in other parts of the Vaupes region act as servants
to riverine Tukanoan groups.3 According to one informant, three
generations ago the sibs listed above all lived together in one place
but each in their own separate maloca. At that time there was actual
specialisation during rituals so that, for example, only the Rasegana
danced and chanted and only the Daria acted as shamans. Whether
this is true or not I cannot say, but it is true that early travellers in
the Vaupes region saw both conglomerations of malocas and also
huge malocas containing upwards of seventy-five people. There is
also good evidence that chiefs were of greater importance in the last
century than they are now. But today this ritual specialisation is
largely a matter of ideology and, as will be shown later, is only
apparent, in disguised form, during major rituals.
Beyond this group of five, the Meni Masa recognise many other

3 The Maku are semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers living in the interfluvial areas of the
Vaupds. They maintain a symbiotic relationship with the sedentary Tukanoan groups
of the region, exchanging meat and other forest produce for tobacco, manioc products
and merchandise of white origin. The sedentary agriculturalists view the Maku as their
servants. For more details, see Silverwood-Cope (1972) and Jackson (1973). There are
no Maku living in the Pira-parand area.

25
The rites in context

sibs related to them as elder or younger brothers and all of them are
considered to be the common descendants of Yeba Meni Anaconda.
These other sibs are also said to be arranged into ranked sets of five,
each with its specialist role, though the Meni Masa are often unsure
of the details of ranking and of role specialisation; one such set
speaks the Makuna language, the rest all speak Barasana. In theory,
these sets of sibs are also ranked in order of seniority as elder and
younger brothers; in practice, whilst there is little disagreement
as to ranking within a set, ranking between sets is open to dispute
and sections of origin myths are cited and interpreted to provide
evidence that a particular sib or group of sibs claiming senior status
over another are, in fact, junior to them. To some extent, both the
divisions of sibs into sets and their relative internal ranking is corre¬
lated with spatial distribution. The Barasana as a whole occupy a
more or less continuous area of territory, surrounded on all sides by
affinal groups. Within this territory, different sets of sibs are dis¬
tributed in different areas and top-ranking sibs live, or should live,
at river mouths whilst lower-ranking sibs are ideally arranged in
descending order towards the headwaters. Today, the spatial dis¬
tribution of sibs only very imperfectly reflects their hierarchical
order, though this may in part be due to the disruptive effects of
contact with white people. Though the internal division of language¬
bearing descent groups into hierarchically ranked sibs appears to be a
feature common to all Tukanoan-speakers of the Vaupes, the division
of these sibs into groups of five with specialist ritual occupations
has not previously been reported in the ethnographic literature.
Local groups live in malocas or longhouses, each one generally
separated from its neighbours by two or more hours of travel by
canoe or trail. Prior to the effects of contact with white people, there
were no villages in the Vaupes region and there are still none in the
Pira-parana area. Ideally, all the members of one sib should live
together in one maloca and there is some evidence that they did so in
the past. Today, sib members are usually dispersed in a number of
different malocas situated within the same general area. The house¬
hold generally consists of a group of brothers or close patrilateral
parallel cousins reckoned as brothers, sometimes with one or more of
their parents, together with their children and in-married wives. Local
groups vary in size from single nuclear families living alone, to large
malocas containing upwards of thirty individuals. Residence after
marriage is virilocal so that wives come in from other malocas and
26
The Barasana: land and people

daughters move out to them. The Barasana (Meni Mas a) intermarry

with their neighbours, the Bara and Tatuyo; other Barasana sibs inter¬
marry with the Taiwano, Kabiyeri and Makuna as well. In any par¬
ticular longhouse, the men and their unmarried sisters will all speak
a common language whilst their wives may speak up to three other
languages. Children grow up to speak the language of their father
and though they will understand several languages, they will normally
only use their father’s language in conversation.
The Barasana have a prescriptive marriage rule. They have a
Dravidian-type kinship terminology and would express their marriage
rule by saying that a man must marry a woman of the category
tenyo, a category that includes bilateral cross-cousins but covers
all women of the same genealogical level as ego who belong to
different exogamic groups. Within this category, preference is ex¬
pressed for the exchange of true sisters and for marriage with the
true father’s sister’s daughter (mekaho mako)dTYiQ Barasana deny
that the ranked sibs of one group should intermarry with sibs of
equivalent rank in other groups, and an examination of actual mar¬
riage patterns shows no evidence that this happens. In the arrange¬
ment of marriage, each maloca community acts as a more or less
independent unit. Most marriages take place between malocas
separated by less than half a day’s travel from one another; mar¬
riages between more distant communities are sometimes accomplished
by the forcible abduction of women. Marriages are relatively unstable,
especially prior to the birth of children, and it is common for a man
to have had a succession of two or more wives in his lifetime. Polygyny
occurs but Knot widespread; many instances of apparent polygyny
in fact represent a transitional stage between two marriages. Men
who have stable unions with more than one wife are often also
maloca headmen or powerful shamans.
The maloca is always located near running water, usually with a
river running near the front of the house and a small stream behind.
The river is used for bathing, fishing and as a means of communication;
travel by canoe is often preferred to walking in the forest. The largest
houses are impressive structures, sometimes 80 feet long and 40
feet wide, with tent-like gabled roofs coming almost to the ground
on each side (see plate 1). The very large houses, called dance houses
(basaria wi), used to hold communal rituals or dances, serve as
ceremonial centres for other smaller houses nearby.
4 Barasana kinship and marriage is fully discussed by Christine Hugh-Jones (1979).

27
The rites in context
The maloca has two doors, one at each end. The door at the tront
is used by the men whilst that at the rear is used by the women and
children. The rear of the house, which may be either rectangular
or semi-circular, is used as a kitchen area where manioc is processed
and made into cassava bread. This area is very much the domain of
women. Around the sides of the house, towards the rear, there are
screened-off compartments for each nuclear family. The front end
of the house, associated with men and with public, social life, has no
compartments and it is along the side walls at the front that visitors
sleep and cook their food. These side areas are also used by men to
toast coca leaves and to prepare tobacco. During the daytime, the
men often sit just inside the front door, talking and making baskets
and other handicrafts. At night, the men sit together in the centre
of the house smoking large cigars, chewing coca and talking quietly.
During the day, this central space is not used except for the eating
of communal meals. The middle of the house is used most as an
area for dancing and for other ritual activities.
Houses usually last for about eight to ten years after which they are
abandoned. The Barasana prefer to build a new house rather than
rebuild an old one. Houses are also abandoned after the death of an
important person, very often with the new house being built a few
hundred yards from the old one. The house is surrounded by an
area of cleared sandy earth called the maka — I shall refer to this
area as the plaza (see fig. 1). This area is kept clean and is weeded
frequently as its state reflects upon the prestige of the community.
The edge of the plaza is usually planted with fruit trees, most typically
with pupunha palms. The importance of these fruit trees is one
reason why new houses are so often built close to old house sites.
The plaza is in turn surrounded by an area of manioc gardens and
there are generally other manioc gardens further away in the sur¬
rounding forest. In order to make these gardens, the men fell and
clear the forest at the beginning of the dry season; the dead trees
are burned off whenever there has been an extended period of sun¬
shine to dry out the vegetation. No secondary clearing is attempted
after burning; instead it is carried out piecemeal throughout the
year. After felling and burning the forest, the men take no further
part in the cultivation of food crops with the exception of maize
which they both plant and harvest. The main food crop is bitter
manioc, but this is supplemented by bananas, plantains, yams, sweet
potatoes, pineapples, sugar cane and a variety of other plants. The
28
The Baras ana: land and people

Forest

■Manioc garden

Women Women's HOUSE

T] \door

Manioc garden.

Forest

Fig. 1 The longhouse setting

manioc gardens are essentially the domain of the women but the men
plant coca, tobacco, fish-poisons and yage (Banisteriopsis sp.) and make
almost daily visits to pick coca leaves. As a cultivation site for manioc,
the garden is abandoned after about three years, but fruit, drugs, fish-
29
The rites in context
poisons and a number of other crops are harvested for many years
afterwards.
Most of an adult woman’s time is spent in the cultivation of manioc
and in the preparation of cassava bread. Much ot a man’s time is
taken up in hunting and fishing. Though meat is highly valued and
hunting carries great prestige, the bulk of the protein supply comes
from fishing. The Barasana are expert fishermen and employ a wide
variety of fishing techniques. Fish, in one form or another, is eaten
nearly every day. There is not a great abundance of game in the
Pira-parana region (the Indians relate this to the introduction of
shotguns which have now completely replaced the traditional bow
and arrow) and the Barasana rarely devote much time and effort
to tracking game. Woolly monkeys and peccary are the most esteemed
game but most of the animals killed are rodents and birds. In addition
to shotguns, blowpipes are used to kill arboreal game. Dogs are also
kept for use in hunting but most of them are somewhat ineffective.
When the Barasana complain of hunger, they generally refer to the
absence of fish or meat and not to manioc products which are in
more or less constant supply; on the other hand, they will never eat
meat or fish without cassava bread or farina.
Gathering in the forest is of great importance both as a means of
obtaining food and also as a source of raw materials. A considerable
portion of the diet comes from insects and much time is devoted to
obtaining these and other gathered foods. Large amounts of forest
fruits are eaten and these fruits are of considerable ritual significance
as will be shown later. Alongside fish and meat, gathered foods are
also important as items of ceremonial exchange. Among other
functions, these exchanges serve to redistribute certain food species
that have a very localised distribution in the region. Collecting is
done by both sexes, but when large quantities are collected and
brought back to the house, this is generally done by men.
Almost all food preparation is done by the women. Men will
prepare game animals for cooking but women also do this. Food is
generally smoked and/or boiled; the only foods that are roasted are
insects and small fish. Men hardly ever boil food, but when large
quantities of fish or meat are to be smoked, this is done by the men.
Ideally, each adult woman is expected to produce fresh cassava
bread each day. Meat and fish are cooked individually by different
families but should be served communally to the longhouse as a
whole. Failure to share food at communal meals gives rise to a
30
The Barasana: land and people

considerable amount of friction, and the extent to which this is done

provides a fairly clear index of social cohesion within the maloca
group.
Internally, the maloca community is divided in a number of dif¬
ferent ways. A major division is along the lines of sex. In daily life,
men and women spend much of their time apart, carrying out
different subsistence activities in different places, using different
spatial areas within the maloca, coming in and going out through
different doors, often eating at separate times and in different
groups, sitting in two conversational groups at night, etc. This division
becomes even more strongly marked at dances, and especially when
the He instruments are used, and women are totally excluded from a
part or all of the rites. The group of male siblings or close parallel
cousins who form the core of the community are ranked according
to their order of birth, a ranking that is to some extent reflected in
the distribution of family compartments along the walls of the house.
Ideally, the eldest brother, who should marry first and be the head¬
man, lives in a compartment nearest to the back of the house, his
younger brothers live in compartments extending forwards towards
the front and arranged in order of birth and marriage. The community
is thus also divided into its component nuclear families, the primary
units of economic production, a new unit being set up on the mar¬
riage of each young man.
The men are also divided into the age-grades of elders (bukura),
married men with children, young men (mamara), initiated but not
yet married, and children (ria masa), uninitiated and still closely
attached to their mothers. Again, these divisions are spatially ex¬
pressed: the elders sleep in family compartments along with their
wives and young children whilst the young, unmarried men sleep
in the open part of the house, in the middle towards the men’s
door where visitors also sleep. The elder married men play a dominant
role both within the community and in its relations with other local
groups. It is they who arrange the marriages of their sons and daughters,
who initiate the communal rituals discussed below, and who act as
an informal council that directs the affairs of the group, the headman
acting as their spokesman. The younger, unmarried men are often
called upon to carry out the more menial and less pleasant tasks in
such activities as house building, felling the forest to make gardens,
coca processing, etc. As will be shown below, the division of male
society into age-grades plays an important role in ritual organisation.
31
 The rites in context
Very often, one or more of the adult men in a maloca group will
be recognised as a specialist in some aspect of ritual. Some men are
specialist dancers (baya) who have a large repertoire of dance-songs
and who know well the complicated steps and movements associated
with each dance. Others are specialist chanters (yoamu-) who can
recite in detail the traditions of origin of the group. These men act
as leaders for the long sessions of chanting, involving all adult men,
that form an integral part of communal rituals. Very often these
two roles overlap so that specialist dancers are also chanters and
vice versa. A third specialist ritual occupation relates to shamanism.
Amongst the Barasana, there is no absolute difference between those
men recognised as shamans and those who are not. At the lowest
level, most adult men have some abilities as shamans and will carry
out some of the same functions as those men who have a wide¬
spread reputation for their powers and knowledge. The most common
function that shamans perform involves the treatment of food and
other things by blowing spells. The breath is believed to be the
manifestation and seat of the soul or spirit {mu). By controlled
breathing, accompanied by muttered spells, the shaman can direct
the power of his spirit or soul towards a specific end. Blowing not
only has curative and protective power, but also imparts life force
and can change the state of being of a person or an object.5
All foods are ranked into a graded series of relative danger; at one
end are such things as mother’s milk, at the other certain large
)jeb species of animal and fish which are most dangerous of all. After
birth, each new category of food that a person eats must first be
rendered safe by a shaman who blows spells over a sample which
is then given to the subject to eat. By about eight or nine years, a
young boy or girl will be able to eat all but the most dangerous
categories. After initiation or first menstruation, the person must
start again from the beginning of the series and it may take three or
four years before they can eat all the foods of a normal adult diet.
Birth, menstruation, snake bite, illness, death in the community,
participation in communal rituals and a number of other factors will
all render specific categories of individual subject to danger from
specific categories of food which must be treated by a shaman prior

5 The Barasana have a verb base- that covers the activities of shamans in general. I have
translated this as ‘blow, blowing’ as this action is a common feature of these activities.
In many respects this closely parallels the Akawaio concept of taling discussed by Butt
(1956).

32
The Barasana: land and people

to consumption. Most adult men know the requisite spells for the
treatment of the less dangerous foods, but only a few, the most
powerful and knowledgeable, are able to treat the most dangerous
categories. In similar fashion, most adult men know something about
the curing of minor ailments, but very few know how to cure serious
illness. There is a graded series of curing techniques and only the most
widely known shamans know all of them.
Shamans are thus ranked according to their knowledge and abilities.
Their powers are founded upon their knowledge of myths. Most
adult men know a considerable number of myths but shamans differ
from the rest in two respects: first, they know more myths, and
secondly, they know and understand the esoteric meaning behind
them. In the hands of the shamans, myths are not merely sacred
tales or stories, but things with inherent power, and it is upon these
myths that shamanic spells are based.
As a counterpart to their highly dispersed settlement pattern, the
Indians of the Pira-parana region do a great deal of reciprocal visiting
between longhouse communities. Much of this visiting is informal
and involves individuals or families visiting their kinsmen or affines
in other houses. Sometimes these visits last only a few hours, some¬
times individuals may stay in another house for a month or more. In
addition to this casual visiting, there are frequent occasions on which
individuals in one house formally invite the members of one or more
other houses to come and dance and to drink manioc beer. The scale of
these gatherings varies, from small groups of ten to twenty adults,
to grand occasions on which up to sixty or seventy adults are as¬
sembled under one roof. These communal rituals are divided into a
number of named categories; collectively they are referred to as
basa, a word meaning both dance and song. I shall refer to them as
‘dances’.
Basaria wi, house of dancing, describes an occasion on which one
household invites those from other houses to drink and dance. The
dancing usually begins in the late afternoon of one day and continues
till nightfall of the next. These dances correspond to the Cubeo
drinking parties (unkundye) described by Goldman (1963 : 202—18)
but unlike their Cubeo counterparts, Barasana drinking parties involve
not only patrilineally related kinsmen but members of affinal sibs
as well. Also, unlike Cubeo parties, they do not generally end in
fighting. A special form of these dances, called nahii kutiria wi,
house containing cassava bread, involves the preparation of huge
33
The rites in context
quantities of cassava bread which the hosts distribute to their guests
at the end of the dance. This dance is described in chapter 4.
Dances at which food is ceremonially exchanged between long-
house communities are called bare ekaria wi, house where tood is
given. The food exchanged is always forest produce of some kind.
Usually it consists of smoked fish or meat, but sometimes cater¬
pillars and pupae, ants, termites, beetle larvae, or pulped miriti or
pupunha palm fruit are exchanged, always in large quantities. For
these dances, the donors travel to the recipients’ house, usually
arriving in the late afternoon. They do not enter their hosts’ house
that night, but sleep in shelters constructed a little distance off.
After dark, they dance on the plaza in front of the house and chant
there with their hosts. In the morning, they enter the house, carrying
in the food amidst a great amount of noise. The food is then cer¬
emonially presented to the hosts and dancing begins. The dancing
continues all day and all night, ending at dawn. Exchanges of food
are mostly, but not always, between affinally related local groups.
A dance of this kind, involving the Barasana sib Kome Masa has
been described by Torres (1969 : 145—52).
The other two categories of dance, He rika soria wi, house into
which tree-fruit are taken, and He wi, He laria wi, He house, house
where He are seen, form the subject of this book and will be de¬
scribed in detail in chapters 3 and 4. For convenience, I refer to these
two rites as ‘Fruit House’ and ‘He House’. Both are distinguished by
the use of sacred flutes and trumpets called He. Finally, according
to informants, the Barasana used to perform masked dances similar
to those of the Cubeo, described by Goldman (1963). These dances
were held after the death of important people and a number of the
older men can remember the songs, dances and organisational features
of these rites. During Cubeo mourning ceremonies, large trumpets
are used. The Barasana class these trumpets as He but deny that
they were used at their own mourning rites. According to them,
the Cubeo, Siriano and Tariana who use these instruments are
endo-cannibals and they add cryptically that the men of these groups
menstruate.
Dances not involving the use of He instruments will form the sub¬
ject of a future publication. In most respects, the details of their
organisation are very similar. Each has the same overall pattern of
being divided into two sections, called the small dance and the big
dance, the big following the small. Each section consists of periods
34
The Barasana: land and people

of dancing interspersed with periods during which the men

consume tobacco, coca, manioc beer and yage (a hallucinogenic
drink) and chant myths in unison. The most obvious differences
between these categories of dance relate to the dances, songs and
musical instruments involved. At basaria wi, songs and dance-steps
are drawn from one particular set and accompanied by bamboo
tubes thumped on the ground, or by seed-shell rattles held in the
hand; at bare ekaria wi songs from a different set are sung and
danced, accompanied by painted thumping tubes made of balsa
wood; and at nahu kutiria wi, other songs are sung, accompanied by
painted cane whistles. At Fruit House rites there is no singing during
the first section of the dance; instead, the sacred flutes and trumpets
are played. During the second section, a special set of songs are sung,
accompanied either by maracas or by solid wooden staves thumped
on the ground. Finally, during He House, the only ‘songs’ are those of
the spirit people, represented by the He instruments themselves.
In the absence of permanent villages, and with a population
dispersed in isolated inaloca communities of usually less than fifteen
adults, the dances provide the only occasions on which large numbers
of people gather together. In this sense, these rituals serve to create
what might be called temporary villages in which the relations of
the local group to a wider community are created and maintained.
Throughout the year, but especially during the long dry season,
the inhabitants of each maloca take part in a succession of dances in
their own and neighbouring houses. Dances are held on a variety of
pretexts: to celebrate the building of a new maloca, the end of the
hard work involved in felling forest to make gardens, the exit from
puberty seclusion of a young girl or the various stages of the initiation
process for young boys which will be described below. A series of
Fruit House rites mark the seasons of the different wild and cultivated
fruits which lend their names to the major calendrical divisions of
the Barasana year. Food exchanges are seen as both repayments
for previous gifts and as creating further obligations to exchange;
a successful fish-poisoning expedition or hunt, itself motivated by
exchange obligations, will provide a further pretext for a dance.
Aside from their importance as religious rituals, these dances
provide the context for trading, for the exchange of news and gossip,
for meeting friends and lovers, and for making and renewing social
contacts more generally. The people of one community will usually
attend the dances of their immediate neighbours, in any direction,
35
The rites in context
rarely travelling for more than a day at the most. This means that
the wider community of each maloca group is defined largely by
geographical propinquity. Within this wider local community, affinal
relations are equally important to those with agnatic kin. Beyond the
sib, members of the same exogamic group tend to be considered as
outsiders and strangers, and the closest relations of all are between
neighbouring malocas linked by marriage ties over several generations.
The holding of dances has significant political implications both
within and between local groups. The headman of the maloca is
described as the umato moari masu- which can be glossed as ‘the man
who initiates work projects’, and this is a fairly accurate description
of his role. He achieves this status initially by being the man who
successfully initiates the building of a new maloca which is then
known as his house. Its size, in part a function of the number of
workers and therefore of the future group, is thus also an index of
his prestige and following. Each adult man within the group will
act as host for a number of dances which add to his standing; usually,
it is the headman who most often acts as host. Similarly, the number
of dances held in a particular house, and the number of other house¬
holds that attend them, can be taken as an index of the standing
of that local group as a whole and of its sphere of influence over
others. Both the act of inviting to a dance on the one hand, and the
acceptance of the invitation on the other, indicate that two local
groups are on amicable terms.
The role of the shaman is also of great importance in inter¬
community relations. In any one area, there are usually one or two
shamans whose reputation for curing and for blowing surpasses that
of all the rest. These men, known as kumu, generally live in very
large and important houses where numerous dances are held, and
people from neighbouring houses will request their services for curing
and for the treatment of food. Frequently, these shamans are also the
headmen of the house in which they live and the community of their
clients is closely related to that of the people who attend dances in
the house. Beyond this community, these same shamans are often
feared and hated as dangerous men who send sickness and other forms
of mystical attack. The other major function of the shaman is to
officiate at communal rituals or dances; he must blow over tobacco,
coca, yage, and other substances that the participants consume, and
it is he who serves yage to the men, who makes the contact established
with the spirit world during these rites safe for the participants, and
36
The Barasana: land and people

who generally conducts and organises the rites. These various activities
are discussed in greater detail in the chapters that follow. Communal
rituals, and the contact with supernatural forces that they imply,
are considered to be beneficial for the participants both in the
general sense of maintaining the cosmic order and, more specifically,
in conferring protection on the people involved. Indeed, they are
considered to be necessary for the well-being of the group. Potentially,
they are also dangerous to the people involved and it is the shaman’s
responsibility to see that they come to no harm. He House, as the
most important and elaborate of all Barasana rituals, is the most
beneficial of all; paradoxically it is also the most dangerous. Unlike
the other dances, these rites are held only very occasionally and very
few shamans have the ability to conduct them. They are also the
supreme expression of the shaman’s power and influence over the
wider community, for during the rites, the participants place their
lives in his hands.
In daily life, the hierarchical ranking of sibs, and their association
with the specialised ritual occupations described above, are of almost
no practical significance. Difference in sib rank does not imply
difference in wealth, power or life-style and although specific indi¬
viduals do take on the specialist occupations of shaman, chanter and
dancer, their choice of occupation is in no way determined by sib
affiliation and each sib is self-sufficient in these respects. Indeed,
it would be surprising if rank and specialist occupation were of
importance in everyday life for, as mentioned above, the regular
social contacts of a local group rarely go beyond the sib and involve
members of affinally related sibs as much as they do agnatically
related kinsmen. Social dances (basaria wi), food-exchange dances
(bare ekaria wi) and Fruit House rites (He rika soria wi), tend to
involve relations between affinally related local groups and this is
reflected in their associated myths (see e.g. M.7.H, I). As will be
shown below. He House is more closely bound up with the structure
and values of the descent group. During this rite, the unity of the
sib, sib ranking within the wider descent group and specialised
sib occupations, all receive expression, not by whole social groups
but by individual male participants in the rites who, together with
thq He instruments they play, stand in a metonymic relation to
the society as a whole.
At one level, He House is a rite of initiation for young boys into
the secret men’s cult centred on the instruments used. But it is
37
The rites in context

much more than this. It provides a model for all communal rites
amongst the Barasana; the other Barasana rituals are all structured
according to a common pattern. This pattern reproduces, in a
simplified and attenuated form that of He House itself. As the
main expression of a secret men’s cult, focussed on the He instru¬
ments that women are forbidden to see on pain of death, it estab¬
lishes and maintains a fundamental division between the sexes. This
division implies the power and dominance of men over women and
a measure of antagonism between the sexes which is expressed in
myth. The division relates also to the position of women who marry
into a patrilineally based sib as outsiders from affinal groups. The
He instruments represent the sib and descent-group ancestors who
adopt each new generation of young men. He House thus serves to
integrate young men into the sib and also underlines the alien position
of their mothers. But the division expresses also the complementarity
between the sexes in production and reproduction. Though women
are excluded from the rites, female attributes and values form a
major element of the ritual symbolism. Barasana rituals, and He
House in particular, have also an ordering and life-giving role. Regular
contact with the world of spirits and ancestors, described and made
manifest in myth, imparts new life and energy to society and ensures
that the human world is attuned to a wider and more embracing
cosmic order. He House is intimately bound up with this order:
its timing, at the interface of the two major seasons, is based upon
the movements of the constellations and on changes in the natural
environment. As the most important rite, it forms the keystone to a
ritual cycle that punctuates the year. These themes, and others,
will be taken up and explored in the chapters that follow.

38
 PART II

The rites described

The rites described

Here, Barasana rituals involving the use of the sacred flutes and trumpets called
He are described and an account is given of the various dances, shamanic acts,
taboos and other activities that are associated with them. In order to present
as full and accurate a picture as possible, whilst at the same time avoiding
overburdening the text, the rites are described with a minimum of analysis
and explanatory detail. Part III will be devoted to an extended explanation
and analysis of these rites, drawing both on the material presented here and on
the myths presented in part V.
There are two different kinds of He ritual amongst the Barasana, one much
more extended and elaborate than the other. One kind, called Fruit House {He
rika soria wi), lasting no more than a day and a night, centres on tree-fruit
which is ceremonially brought into the house to the sound of the He instruments.
Many of these rites are held throughout the year, usually as ends in themselves,
but sometimes forming a phase or stage in the drawn-out process of male
initiation, and sometimes forming a preliminary stage of the main initiation
rite. The different aspects of these rites are described in chapter 3. The other
kind, called He House {He wi), is the main initiation rite. The rite itself lasts for
three days and nights, but it is followed by a period of restrictions on diet and
behaviour, brought to a close in an elaborate dance. In chapter 4, He House
and subsequent events are described and then compared with Fruit House.
I have avoided making a large number of forward references to the analysis
in part III. References of the kind ‘see M.6.A.17’ relate to the myths, divided
into numbered passages, that are presented in part V. The two kinds of He
ritual are presented synoptically in tables 2 and 3. These tables show the two
rituals as a series of events happening through time in a manner analogous to a
musical score; the events are divided up according to the categories of actors
involved. When informants described these and other rites to me, they did so
with reference to a division of the day into dawn, midday, dusk and midnight.
It is immediately apparent from the tables that the major events of the rites
cluster around these points. The shamans are responsible for the proper conduct
and ordering of rituals; after many conversations with them, it became clear that
it is through a mental picture similar to these tables (i.e. of a string of events
following each other in time and involving different categories of participant)
that they are able to organise the rites so that each event occurs at the proper
time and in the proper order.

40
1 Barasana longhouse
2 Fruit House
3 Men wearing feather crowns
4. Men wearing full head-dresses
Fruit House

Fruit House
In the Pira-parana region, the most frequently held communal dance
or ritual involves bringing large quantities of wild or cultivated tree-
fruit (He rika) into the house to the sound of the He instruments.1
Some authors have tried to link such rites with particular species of
fruit. Although there are preferences for some fruits over others,
in the Pira-parana area any edible tree-fruit that can be gathered in
sufficient quantity may be used, and generally two or three species
will be gathered for a particular rite. One of these species will pre¬
dominate and will lend its name to the occasion, so that Indians
might say, ‘They are bringing in miriti (or umari, or inga, etc.) at
Manuele’s today.’
The Barasana say that each household should greet the ripening
of each important fruit with Fruit House. In practice, the number of
these rites that each house puts on depends on many factors, such as
the number of inhabitants, their sex ratio, the amount of manioc
available for beer-making, the ambitions of the male inhabitants, etc.,
all of which are interdependent. The large and relatively prestigious
Barasana house in which we worked held twelve communal rituals
over a twenty-month period between March 1969 and November 1970.
1 Though I never saw one, I was often told about rituals at which, instead of fruit, animal
food collected in the forest is ceremonially brought into the house. Ants, termites,
palm-grubs, caterpillars and small fish obtained with poison were all mentioned in this
context. These foods were always raw, in contrast to dances at which food is ceremonially
given away, where the food is always cooked or processed in some other way.
During rites involving raw animal food, small tubular flutes, fitted with a plunger
and played according to the ‘key principle’, are used. These flutes, called rika bu- (arm/
fruit/appendage, hollow tube) are not considered to be ‘real’ He though women must
not see them; they are thrown away after use. Peter Silverwood-Cope (personal com¬
munication) states that similar flutes, called Bisiw’s Spittle, are used by the Makii of the
Makd-parana during a ritual at which raw eels are brought into the house.

41
The rites described

Of these, seven were Fruit House, one was He House, the main
initiation rite, three were social dances, including the dance fol¬
lowing initiation, and one was a ceremonial exchange of food. In
addition to this, the household attended a large number of other
rituals in neighbouring houses.
The decision to hold Fruit House, as with any other dance, may be
taken by any adult man of the house; this man then becomes the
chief host. He discusses his decision with the other men as they sit
together at night, smoking and chewing coca. If there is a shaman in
the house, he will be asked to officiate at the dance, otherwise a
guest from another house must be asked to do this. Also, a lead
dancer must be appointed, again either from amongst the men
of the house or from their neighbours and guests. Sometimes the
host himself will act as either shaman or lead dancer. The chief host
is also responsible for seeing that enough manioc beer is provided.
Normally his wife will use her own manioc for the beer though this
is often supplemented with that belonging to the other women of the
house. Sometimes manioc must be brought in from other houses.
The chief host will ask his wife (or an unmarried sister) to prepare
the beer for him, and she will in turn ask other women to help her.
A man’s social standing, and that of his maloca community, are
intimately linked with the scale and number of dances that he hosts.
A man without either a wife or unmarried sister will be severely
handicapped in this respect as it is difficult for him to persuade other
women to prepare beer for him. Similarly, a man with a lazy or
inefficient wife is also handicapped as she is unlikely to have suf¬
ficient manioc to make large amounts of beer. The men of highest
social standing generally live in large, spacious houses and have hard¬
working and efficient wives who cultivate large amounts of manioc;
such women acquire considerable prestige in their own right.
Table 1 shows the participation, by household, at the nine Fruit
House rituals and the single He House ritual that I observed. Each
rite was held either in Mandu’s house, or in a neighbouring house
at which members of Mandu’s house were present as guests (see
map 3). This table represents a large proportion of those rites in
which members ot Mandu’s household were involved (over a two-
year period). The names along the top of the table refer to the head¬
men of the households involved; the dates are those on which the
rites were held. The average number of men present at these rites was
twenty-one; the unusually large number of people attending the ritual
42
 present
men
No.
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(a) OpUBUJSH +
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Table 1 .Attendance at the He rites (longhouse of Mandu, Cano

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43
The rites described

on 29 March 1970 can in part be explained by the fact that it was

held in a maloca close to the Catholic Mission, from which people
either working or visiting were invited.
It can be seen from the table that there are always guests at these
rites and furthermore that these guests may be of the same sib as
the hosts, or of a different sib within the same exogamous group,
or members of sibs of one or more different exogamous groups.
Invitations to these rites go out to a household as a unit and on
really grand occasions people from all the categories mentioned
above will attend. Even at very limited affairs, because households
are invited as units, there are generally present representatives of
yet more households who have been staying in the houses of the
guests.
By relating the spatial distribution of the households (see map 3)
to the table showing attendance, it can be seen that, in general,
the participants in these rituals are people who live close to one
another in neighbouring houses (up to about one day’s travel apart).
Households within this distance do a considerable amount of mutual
visiting and usually invite each other to dances on a reciprocal basis.
Thus, throughout the region, there are a series of overlapping ‘social
spheres’, each one containing houses of both the same and of different
exogamous groups and it is within these ‘spheres’ that most inter¬
marriage takes place. The households of Mandu, Pedro, Christo and
Arturo form the core of one such sphere and this is reflected in
table 1. However, it must be emphasised that geographical propinquity
is not the only basis on which these spheres are formed: the current
state of relations between individuals, especially between men of
consequence, is another important factor and one which often
partially explains the location of different houses. Although Ignacio’s
house is close to that of both Pedro and Mandu, relations between
these households and that of Ignacio are strained and social contact
is limited. Again, this is reflected in table 1. The attendance of people
from Cano Tatii (Mario’s, Domingo’s and Ugo’s households) at a
ritual held at Pacho’s house but not at any held in houses on upper
Cano Colorado, reflects the fact that while they are within the social
sphere of Pacho’s household, they are outside those of the inhabitants
of upper Cano Colorado. Hernando’s household from Cano Komeyaka
came on a special visit to Mandu’s house as part of an exchange of
ritual property; normally there is no regular social contact between
these houses. When guests come from a long way away it is generally
44
45
Map 3 The Pira-parana drainage showing location of longhouse communities attending He rites
The rites described

part of an attempt to form new social alliances or to revitalise old

ones. The social spheres are fixed neither geographically, for people
may move house, nor socially, for political relations keep changing.
The attendance at He House is discussed in chapter 4.
Invitations are sent out between one and two weeks in advance.
The chief host and/or one or more people delegated by him travel
to the different houses where they deliver the invitation to the
headmen, first in the form of a ceremonial dialogue and then in
ordinary speech. He counts off the days on his fingers until he gets
to the day on which manioc is put down (ki rohorirumu-), i.e. brought
into the house. This is followed by the day of making beer (idire
moarirumu-), which is followed by the day of the small dance (basa
mutarumu). In the case of Fruit House this is the day the He are
brought into the house (see below). Having delivered the invitation
he usually departs soon afterwards, sometimes asking the people of
the house to convey the invitation to other more distant houses.
However, not all Fruit House rites take this form: sometimes a
man, X, of one household will decide to give fruit to another man,
Y, of another household. X may either take fruit to Y’s house, in
which case Y will be both recipient and chief host (who must provide
beer and send out invitations) or he may invite Y to receive fruit
in his own house, in which case X will be the host and donor and Y
the recipient. But by no means all Fruit House rites take the form of
an exchange of fruit between individuals of different households;
very often both hosts and guests provide fruit without any exchange
element. These details are naturally made clear in the invitations.
On the day on which manioc is put down, the women get up
large quantities of manioc and other roots and the men, especially
the host, often help them to carry the heavy baskets of manioc back
to the house. The chief host acts as the director of the proceedings,
asking, not ordering, the other men of the house to help him. He
takes the men out to pick large quantities of coca, from his own coca
bushes if possible, which they then process. Generally, the host and
owner of the coca does the toasting of the leaves. The women spend
the rest of the day grating manioc and preparing the other roots used
to make beer.2
On the day of making beer the men go out early in the morning,

2 The processing and preparation of coca, manioc bread and beer are described by Christine
Hugh-Jones (1979).

46
Fruit House

led by the host, to get firewood from the manioc gardens. They
return with huge logs on their shoulders and there is an atmosphere
of cooperative, friendly rivalry reminiscent of the log races of Central
Brazilian Indians. The wood is split and the men then pick and process
more coca while the women continue to prepare beer. During the day
fruit is gathered from the forest, generally by the younger men and
initiated boys; sometimes a pair of He trumpets is taken on these
expeditions and played in the forest. The fruit trees are felled with
axes and the fruit placed in palm-leaf baskets which are then left
near the house, usually on the path leading up from the port. Cul¬
tivated fruit may also be gathered from the gardens in which case
the trees are not felled.
After dusk the young men bring the He up from the river to the
front of the house where they are played until after midnight (see
table 2). Inside the house, the men process coca and the women
continue to prepare manioc beer. Once the coca has all been pro¬
cessed, the men assemble in the middle of the house where, after
eating the new coca, they are led in chanting by the chief host.
Later on, he leads another chant session, again involving all the men.
Throughout the evening the shaman (or shamans) sits by post 1
(see figure 2 for this and all subsequent references to precise locations
in the house), blowing spells into cigars and into gourds containing
tobacco snuff, coca, beer and lumps of beeswax mixed with coca.
When the blowing is completed, one gourd of coca and wax is
placed on a stand in the middle of the house and all the men come to
eat small pinches from it. One of the hosts then takes the lumps of
wax from the gourd and, putting them on burning embers in a
potsherd, he carries them twice round the dance path in a clockwise
direction, fanning the embers to produce aromatic smoke as he
goes. The wax is afterwards left smoking in the men’s doorway.
Sometime later the women are also invited to eat small pinches of
the blown coca.
Later on one of the hosts blows large quantities of tobacco snuff,
blown over by the shamans, up the noses of the men, using a long
bone tube.3 The snuff is then offered to the women who eat small
pinches. After midnight the He are taken back to the river by the
young men who play them till dawn. At the same time, they bathe

3 The administration of snuff as a prerequisite to seeing and touching sacred bark trumpets
is found also among Tikuna (Nimuendaju 1948 : 718)

47
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P
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£ cu P m U 05
Table 2. Fruit House and dance

EAT BLOWN COCA

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EAT BLOWN COCA

P

BURN BEESWAX
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48
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PC PC c/3 H
c W c PC u
p PC) c CO
S
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o o PZ o c > H
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- Division between small and big dance.

• cl -
X s — X - -4 pc- ■♦g W ^ S
H a, w Z S X H U HU H W H 2
CL n c H <D
Z > O < U Z U Z U Z Z LJ 03 Q o x ac
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x oa> u poi<i< n: < x ^ < X <£ 0) u u < u «
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] Involving iniates only.

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49
 m F
Women's area

Family compartment
-

■
Permanent wall

Non-permanent wall

• •• House post H 1— Doors

Women's door

Fig. 2 Plan of the longhouse interior. The shamans’ and initiates’ compartments are
only constructed for He House and for Fruit House as the first stage of initiation
50
Fruit House
in the river, thumping the water with their hands and vomiting, having
drunk water mixed with the sap from the rind of a forest vine called
foam vine (somo misi). The elder men sleep while the women finish
making the manioc beer. In spite of the air of increased excitement
and formality characteristic of these occasions, there is no marked
separation between the sexes and the women show no apparent interest
in the He being blown outside. If there are visitors present, the men
sit in a group near the front door while their hosts sit in the middle
of the house near the light-post. The visiting women help their hosts
prepare beer.
Soon after first light, when the beer is all made, the women sweep
the house clean and sprinkle water on the floor. A thick screen of
woven palm leaves is moved across the house beyond posts 7 and 8,
completely shutting off the rear end. Women, children and pets are
then confined in this screened-off area whilst the He are played into
the house. Later on the women may leave the house to go to the
gardens.
The men bathe and prepare the instruments at the river and then
walk back to the house playing as they come. They walk in pairs,
usually with the trumpets in the lead, with short flutes and then
long flutes behind them. The He players carry small bunches of
fruits on their shoulders and more men walk behind carrying baskets
loaded with fruit (see plate 2). The procession enters the door, goes
twice (clockwise) round the dance path and then up the middle of
the house to the screen where the baskets of fruit are deposited
alongside other baskets already there. Generally, several different
kinds of fruit are brought in. As the fruit is brought in there are
shouts of ‘hoo hoo hoo hoo’ and much joking, often of a sexual
nature and referring to mythical characters connected with forest
fruits.4 After this the trumpets and short flutes are played back and
forth round the dance path while the long flutes are played up and
down the middle of the house. For the rest of the day the instru¬
ments are played in this manner, always with the long flutes in the
middle and the trumpets and short flutes round the edge (see ap¬
pendix 3 for a detailed description of the movements associated with
the playing of He). In general, the long flutes are played by the

4 I found it very hard both to hear properly and to understand these jokes. An example
of one such joke is ‘Kaheoua (a small, black squirrel) has huge balls. The bastard has
eaten all our fruit.’ This was said to be an explicit reference to the squirrel in Myth
1.0.2.

51
The rites described

older men, the trumpets by the younger men and the short flutes
by the youngest boys present.
During the morning the men paint themselves with black paint
called we, made from the macerated leaves of a cultivated shrub of
unidentified species.5 The rather crude designs, mostly on the upper
and lower legs, are in marked contrast to the fine patterns applied
during social dances (basaria wi) and dances at which food is cer¬
emonially given away {bare ekaria wi). The men also paint their
faces with red paint called ngunanya (caraiuru, an extract from
the leaves of a cultivated vine, Bignonia chica). All morning the
shaman(s) sits, either by post 1 or post 7 next to the baskets of
fruit, blowing spells into gourds containing various substances which
are consumed during the rite. He blows over beer which is then drunk
off the ends of sticks from a gourd placed in the middle of the house,
before being consumed from gourds in the usual way. He also blows
over yage (Banisteriopsis) bark which is afterwards added to the rest
of the bark being pounded in preparation of the drink. He blows
over coca, over a large ceremonial cigar and over a gourd of snuff
from which the men eat small pinches when it is placed in the middle
of the house.6 Before the shaman blows over each of these substances,
one of the host elders does a short chant with him.
In the late morning all the men assemble in the middle of the
house between posts 1 and 2, sitting on ritual stools, and the senior
host elder leads them all in chanting. During this chanting the coca
and ritual cigar, blown over by the shaman, are handed round. At
the same time yage is served to all by the shaman. Following this the
He are played again. By this stage the long flutes will have been
decorated with a ruff of yellow and brown Oropendola (japu,
Icteridae sp.) feathers tied round the lower ends and the engraved
designs on them will have been filled with white manioc starch or
chalk which stands out against the black palm wood (see fig. 8).
Shortly after the end of the chanting, the elders playing the long
flutes chant briefly with the shaman and then they, together with

5 The use of we in the Pird-parana area corresponds to the use of Genipa americana else¬
where in the Vaupds region.
6 These cigars, called nykahua, are made from roe hU leaves wound into a conical tube in
the same way that the bark trumpets are constructed. The tube is then filled with tobacco
chips, often mixed with aromatic resin and beeswax. In the past they were held in a
carved hardwood holder. (See Koch-Grtinberg 1909/10, vol. I : 281—2 for photographs.)
They are lit at the narrow end and only a small amount is smoked at each rite, the rest
being wrapped in white bast and stored away in a large box in which the feather ornaments
are kept.

52
Fruit House

the other elders, go to the baskets of fruit at the screen. Then, as

the long flutes are played up and down the middle of the house, the
elders and shaman tip the fruit out on to flat basketwork trays,
throwing the empty baskets over the screen into the rear of the house.
This is done with shouts of ‘hoo hoo hoo’ and with exchanges of
ritualised joking.7 Once the fruit has been tipped into the trays, the
trumpets are periodically played with their ends circling directly
over the fruit, wafting it with their breath.
The tipping out of the fruit marks a distinct phase in the rite;
up to this point the long flutes are played only sporadically by men
wearing few or no ornaments. After this, the long flutes are played
in relay more or less continuously by pairs of elders wearing diadem¬
like crowns on their heads. These crowns, made from woven palm
leaf, have bright yellow Oropendola feathers radiating outwards
like the rays of the sun, and with a single red macaw tail feather in
the centre (see plate 3). They also wear monkey-fur bracelets on
their right elbows and belts of jaguar or peccary teeth round their
waists. As each pair starts and ends a session of playing they chant with
the shaman. Their style of playing also changes: whereas before the
players merely walked up and down, they now do a slow walking
dance with rapid turns at each end (see appendix 3) and their playing
becomes more refined and melodious. Overall, the rite becomes
more formal and the focus of attention is fixed upon the men
playing the flutes. It is to these men that most yage is given, as it is
to the main dancers during other dances. At the same time as this
change in atmosphere, the shaman begins to blow spells over a gourd
of coca mixed with lumps of beeswax.
The formal playing of the long flutes continues throughout the
afternoon with three or four changes of players who each time
salute the other men as they go out to play. The trumpets too are
played continuously, every so often being blown over the piles of
fruit. By mid-afternoon the playing of the long flutes reaches a
climax: as they get to either end of the house, the players raise
the ends of the flutes high in the air and then, playing ‘toooo toooo
toooo toooo too too to to ttt’ on a descending scale, they run down
the middle of the house with a short-stepped crouching run, accen-

7 This noise signifies approval and happiness. It is made also at the end of each session of
chanting, at the end of sessions of playing the long flutes and during the last part of each
dance set. The noise is specific to Fruit House; during ceremonial exchanges of food
the noise ‘ye ye ye ye ye ye’ is made instead.

53
The rites described

tuating the step of the right foot (see appendix 3). This action, called
encouraging the fruit, having the fruit (He rika yohagbeHe rika kudigu),
evokes cries of ‘hoo, hoo, hoo’ and ritual jokes from the audience.
When the shaman finishes blowing over the wax-coca mixture, it
is handed to an elder who places the gourd on a stand in the middle
of the space between posts 1, 2, 3 and 4. He then calls out, ‘Come
and eat the blown stuff.’ Everyone present, except the shamans and
the long-flute players, comes and eats a small pinch of coca. Then
they all line up clutching thin wooden staves in their hands like spears
and run up and down the edges of the house in a crouching position
making aggressive, grumbling noises.8 At each end of the house they
spring into the air with loud cries of ‘This is how I will kill you; now
I fear nothing; I will kill you; he killed my father by sorcery; I will
kill him,’ etc. This action, called acting-out spearing (besuurkesose),
is done with greatest enthusiasm by the younger men.
Immediately after this, one of the elders bums lumps of beeswax
in a potsherd, walking twice round the house clockwise, up the
middle to the fruit and then back down the house to the front door
where he leaves the smoking wax. As he does this he is followed
round by young men playing trumpets with the short flutes following
behind. From then on till dusk the He are played continuously. At
dusk, the feather ornaments used in dancing are prepared and the
main dancer and his partner put on the full complement of ritual
ornaments (see plate 4). On very formal occasions, the dancing may
start before the women enter the house; usually it starts afterwards.
At dusk, the short flutes and trumpets are played twice clockwise
round the dance path and then down the middle of the house and out
on to the plaza. At the same time the long flutes are played with
increased tempo and with the players now doing a fairly brisk walk.9
They are then played out of the house along the same route as the
trumpets. As the He are taken out, the men collect up the stools,
the yage pot and the various gourds blown over by the shaman and,
taking them with them, go and sit out in front of the house on the
plaza. There the shaman blows spells over bundles of panpipes and
after each person has blown a short puff into the ends, they are
handed round and played. At the same time, other whistles of deer
8 These staves are used in place of bundles of poisoned javelins, the use of which has
died out in the area. (See Koch-Grunberg 1909/10, vol. II : 271 for illustration.)
9 An increase in tempo marks the end of many different Barasana ritual acts: the end of
each dance set, the end of each session of chanting and the final playing of the flutes
and trumpets are all thus marked.

54
Fruit House

bone, cane and snail-shells are played — the first time since the start of
the rite.
While the men sit outside, the screen shutting off the rear of the
house is removed and the women once again re-enter the main part.
After they have come in, the men return from the plaza and the dance
begins.
In general, visitors arrive as household units, often accompanied
by the guests who have been staying with them. They travel by canoe
or on foot and often the men go ahead of the women. On arrival at
the house, the men stop at the port, where they bathe, paint their
faces and tuck sweet-smelling herbs under their bead arm-bands and
G-strings. Sometimes they also put on feather crowns and other
ritual ornaments. They they walk, in single file with the most senior
men at the front, up to the house. If they have brought fruit and
He instruments with them they enter the house in the manner
described above, after which they reassemble at the men’s door to be
greeted. Otherwise they go straight to the men’s door and stand in
line in order of seniority.
The greetings start with the senior guest chanting a greeting which
is repeated in chorus by those with him. The chief host receives this
greeting, repeating the last phrase of each line of the chant. Then the
chief host greets each man, in order of seniority, addressing him by
the appropriate kinship tenn and talking in normal speech. He is
followed by all the men present in the house who stand in line in
order of seniority and greet each guest individually. The men then go
off and greet the visiting women, in much less formal manner, while
the women of the house greet the arriving men. Finally the host
women greet their female guests. The men always enter through the
men’s door at the front of the house and usually the women come in
through the women’s door at the back.
Once the greetings are over, the visiting men are given beer to drink
and then they move as a group and sit to one side of the men’s door.
The most senior men sit on stools which they either bring with them
or which the hosts bring to them; the rest sit on long, low benches
placed on either side of the door along the front walls of the house.
There they are led in chanting (called ehakoadiaha mani — we have
arrived) by a member of their own group. After a short interval, the
chief host comes and sits in front of them and after an exchange of
coca and cigars, he leads them in another chant, telling them to rest
(usuhea rotigu). Once this is over, the guests begin to take part in the
55
The rites described
proceedings, though initially they tend to behave as a discrete unit.
As time passes, the divisions between guests and hosts and between
the different arrival groups become less and less marked.
Guests always arrive before the He are taken out of the house
and usually before the burning of beeswax (see above). If they are
bringing large amounts of fruit to present to their hosts they will
arrive either early in the morning before the tipping out of the
fruit (see above) or more usually on the evening of the start of the
rite. When they arrive at this time, the greetings tend to be less
formal and the fruit which they bring is left at the port, together
with their He.

The dance

The overall pattern of the dance, consisting of a series of dance sets

interspersed with sessions of chanting, is set out in table 2. What
follows is a short account of the dance taken as an event through
time.
Before going out to dance, the lead dancer does a short chant
ordering the dance (basa rotigu-), with the officiating shaman and the
other elders. He then starts to dance back and forth between posts
1, 2, 3 and 4 and is gradually joined by other dancers. Each man
dances with his left hand on the right shoulder of the one next to
him so that a long line, facing in towards the centre of the house, is
formed. In their right hands the dancers carry rattles or wooden
staves, depending on the particular dance being performed. The
dance line then moves off round and round the dance path, oscil¬
lating back and forth. As the dancing starts, the women partake of
a communal meal in the centre of the house. Soon after they are
offered the gourds containing snuff and wax—coca mixture from
which the men ate whilst the He were still inside the house.
The dancing as a whole is divided into a number of sets inter¬
spersed with periods of chanting. One named dance is danced and
sung throughout the entire night, but the words change for each set
though they centre on a common theme,10 Each dance set is in turn
divided into a seemingly variable number of sequences with periods

10 Each exogamic language group owns a different set of dances and songs.
Most of the words of these songs are incomprehensible to the Barasana themselves,
though they can generally pick out certain words in each phrase associated with a
particular dance set, to which they can give meaning.

56
Fruit House

of rest, drinking and talking in between. The final sequence of each

set, called ending, breaking the dance (basa tadi yigu) is marked by
a change in tempo and by different movements, both of the dance
line as a whole and of the steps employed. At the start of the dance,
the main dancers represent a more or less clearly defined group of
people who are essentially members of one particular household.
In some cases it is the hosts who dance, in others the dancers com¬
prise members of one or more visiting households who arrive in a
discrete group; in yet other cases, one visiting group may dance
together with the hosts while another plays an essentially passive
role. There is no clear correlation between the role of dancers and
the role of providers of fruit: sometimes it is the hosts who provide
the bulk of the fruit and who dance in their own house; sometimes
the hosts provide the fruit while the guests dance and sometimes it is
the guests who both dance and provide the fruit. This is in marked
contrast to dances at which the food is ceremonially presented by
one or more households to another, at which, whether the dance is
held in the house of the donors or the recipients, it is always the
donors who do the main dancing.
The main dancers are distinguished from the rest by wearing the
total complement of feathers, teeth belts, bark-cloth aprons, etc.,
which make up their dress (see plate 4); the others wear small woven
palm-leaf crowns decorated with feathers like the rays of the sun (see
plate 3). In Barasana categories the dancers wear maha hoa, while
the rest wear buy a bukurbedo. When not dancing, the dancers sit
on a row of stools between posts 1 and 2, facing into the middle of
the house. The others sit in two groups, roughly defined by house¬
hold or arrival group, along the front wall of the house on either
side of the male door; those on the left are generally more distant
and somewhat less active in the dance. As the dance progresses
throughout the night, more and more people join in the main dancing
and the discrete seating groups become intermingled so that by
morning they are no longer easily discernible.
While the main dancers dance and chant, the other men sit talking
and laughing and playing panpipes. Periodically groups of them,
especially the younger men, go out into the middle of the house and
dance with their panpipes. These dances are relaxed, individualistic
and with an erotic and exciting air which contrasts with the more
sacred and formal atmosphere of the main dance. As the night wears
on, the main dancers take a more active part in these panpipe dances
57
The rites described

which reach a climax in the morning and often continue long after
the formal dance is ended. On more formal occasions when there are
large numbers (forty plus) of people present, those not involved in
the main dance may form up into a separate dancing unit. They dance
a special category of dances called hia basa using very small rattles
and holding thin peeled wands high in their right hands. The overall
form of these dances is similar to the main dance but the dancing
starts and ends outside the house on the plaza. The tempo of these
dances is also faster than that of the main dance.
The women sit, apart from the men, in small groups along the
sides of the dance path and in the rear end of the house. After each
dancing session has started, they come up behind the dance line and,
tucking their heads and shoulders under the men’s arms and holding
on to their waists, they join in. They must leave the line again before
the end of each session, their exit being signalled by a slight change
in rhythm from the rattles or staves. When dancing in the formal
dances, a woman must dance each time with the same man and enter
through the same ‘slot’.11 In panpipe dancing, the men start to dance
alone and the women then come out and choose their partners.
There is often an air of friendly rivalry in these dances with the
young men of one household trying to outdo those of another. Often
there are three or more groups dancing at the same time, each playing
a different melody against the rest.
The main chanting sessions (see table 2) are held between posts
I and 2 and essentially involve the main dance line. One man, a
specialist chanter, and often also the lead dancer, leads the chanting
while the rest, seated in an oval round him, repeat each phrase in
chorus. Each session is preceded by a long period during which each
man receives coca, cigars and snuff from every other, starting with the
chanter who hands round coca and snuff and a cigar, all of which
have had spells blown over them by the shaman. Each session of
chanting is named and the verbal content of each is different12 The
II Dancing in different ‘slots’ is considered to be, in some ways, analogous to promiscuous
sexual behaviour. See M.4.D for the consequences of such behaviour in myth.
12 Limitations of space and of my own fieldwork data make it impossible to discuss the
content of these chants in detail. The language employed in chanting differs from that
of normal speech both in terms of syntax and in terms of the words used, many of which
represent archaic or special forms. It was only at the very end of my fieldwork that I
began to understand these chants.
The chants are based on myth but do not consist of simply chanting myth as a
connected narrative. Much of each chant concerns various kinds of ritual possessions,
coca, tobacco, yagd and manioc, and, in particular, how they were obtained and distributed
amongst the different sibs and exogamic groups in mythic times.

58
Fruit House

two longest and most important sessions, giving coca (kalii ekagu)
and pouring out beer (idire iogu) are held around midnight and
dawn respectively. The former chant refers largely to the mythical
origins of the various varieties of coca and how these were obtained
from the group’s ancestors, whilst the latter refers to the origins of
beer and the manioc used to make it. During these chant sessions
yage is served by the shaman. Once the dancer/chanters have been
served the rest of the people are given yage, but it is always the
former who receive most. Yage is also served to the dancers during
the pauses between sequences of dancing. At big dances with many
visitors present, there are many subsidiary chant sessions involving
the visiting households as discrete units, sometimes led in chanting
by their hosts and sometimes by their own headmen or chanters.
The He, which remain outside the house until first light, are played
occasionally throughout the night. They are always played during
the chant session ‘giving coca’. At first light they are taken back to
the river and hidden.
Throughout the whole dance, the officiating shaman remains more
or less permanently seated by post 1, except when serving yage or
chanting with the dancers. He does not dance with the main dance
line but may occasionally take part in panpipe dancing. He wears a
palm-leaf crown often topped by dollops of white duck down.
Most of his time is spent blowing spells on to various substances
which are later distributed to the assembled company. Very often
red paint is blown and each man and woman then wipes it on the
Most of the chants are based around the journeys of the first ancestors, ths. He
people, from their place of origin in the east to the areas in which their descendants now
live. The chants list off the named geographical locations where the first people stopped
on their journeys, describing how they danced and obtained various cultural items,
especially those used in ritual. Barasana myths, like many of their Australian aborigine
counterparts, are precisely located in topographical space. For the sake of brevity, I
have left out the geographical referents of the various incidents related in the myths. In
practice, each incident is tied to a precise, named location, and each time a character
passes from one place to another, all the places through which he travels are listed in
detail. This geographical framework forms the major articulation between myths and
chants.
During the chants, the specialist chanter, under the influence of yagd, is able to make
his soul leave his body so that it repeats the mythical journeys of the first ancestors. He
starts at Manao Lake (Manao UtarS), identified with present-day Manaus in Brazil, and
lists off all the named locations between there and the Pira-parand. The time sequence
of this journey corresponds, in part, to the sequence of the ritual so that, by the end,
the chanter will have ‘arrived’ back in the Pira-parana region, and, at different times
during the rites, informants will say, ‘Now he has got to such and such a place.’
Without first knowing well the myths that underlie them, it would be impossible to
fully understand the chants. During my fieldwork, I concentrated on knowing the myths.
I hope, in the future, to return and to work on the chants.

59
The rites described

legs as a protection against snake bite. At the end of the dance, after
the chanting called ending the dance (basa gahanongu-), the shaman
removes the feather head-dresses from the head of each dancer,
starting with the leader, and then wipes away the harmful effects
of wearing feathers with his hands, ending each wipe with a flick
and clap accompanied by loud blowings.13 This marks the end of
the dance proper, though panpipe dancing and beer drinking
usually continue until nightfall.
In cases where the hosts are the main providers of fruit of a kind
that can be eaten without further elaboration, there is very often
an informal distribution of fruit immediately following the dance.
(This distribution may also take place just before the start of the
dance when the sacred horns are removed from the house.) The
recipients, who are called up by name to receive the fruit from the
senior host, are generally those of a visiting household group who did
not provide any of the fruit at the start of the rite. If the fruit requires
further processing (cooking, maceration in water, etc.) it is given to
the host women who make it up into food or drink which is later
distributed to all present in the form of a communal meal.
Shortly after the end of the dance, all the men go down to the
river to bathe and vomit, having previously wiped snuff, blown by
the shaman, on their knees and legs to prevent aches and pains
caused by contact with water after dancing and wearing feathers.
On their return, the men are each given a small quantity of cassava
bread and meka (large ground-living termites), blown over by the
shaman, to eat. This is followed by a meal of the same. Soon after,
fruit, smoked chilli pepper, salt and small fish called fish children
(wai rfa), cooked with manioc leaves or ‘spinach’ (au, Phytolacca
iconsandra), are all blown over by the shaman and distributed to
each man, after which a communal meal, of fish and ‘spinach’,
is held. On the following day the shaman blows spells over various
species of larger fish (the category big fish, wai hakara), over meat
(wai bukura, meaning literally old mature fish) and over raw chilli
pepper; and in the days that follow, other categories of food will be
blown as and when they are available, each time preceding a meal.
On the day following the end of the dance it is customary for the
host men to take their guests to pick coca and then to process it so

13A filmed sequence of this action can be seen in War of the Gods, a film made by Brian
Moser of Granada Television with the assistance of myself and Christine Hugh-Jones.

60
Fruit House

that, when they leave the next day, their coca pots will be full. It is
during this coca picking that some of the host men are sent to the
forest to catch certain categories of fish and game so that they can
be blown over by the shaman.

Fruit House as the first stage of initiation

For the Barasana and their neighbours, male initiation is a long-drawn-

out affair.14 For a young boy, the process starts around the age of
eight years and continues often until he has reached the age of fifteen.
(These ages are approximate; the Barasana do not reckon .age in years.)
The process can be divided into two stages which correspond to
Barasana categories. The first stage involves the initiates (generally
between two and ten of them, hence the difference in ages of the
candidates) taking part in a Fruit House rite for the first time in
their lives. Between this and the next stage they will take part in
a number of these rites as they are held regularly, outside the context
of initiation, as each fruit comes into season. The second stage in¬
volves showing the initiates a different set of sacred musical instru¬
ments, the true He, during a longer ritual, He House, followed by a
period of two months fasting and other restrictions.
Two other writers on the Vaupes region, Amorim (1926/8 : 52—5)
for the Wanano and Coudreau (1887 : 198) for the Tariana, have
reported two stages in the process of initiation; I suspect that lack of
such reports from other authors on this region may reflect inadequate
data and that it cannot be taken to indicate that the same pattern is
not found among the other groups. Among the Tariana, the first
stage, for boys between ten and twelve years old, involves fasting and
seeing the Yurupary instruments. At the second stage, between
thirteen and fourteen years old, the initiates are shown the sacred
Yurupary masks called Macacaraua.
Among the Wanano, the first stage, for eight-year-olds, consists
of a month of fasting in a special compartment followed by whipping,
teaching by the elders and the showing of Yurupary. The second
stage, for those ‘who have shown the ability to impregnate’ involves
two months of fasting followed by the showing of the more sacred
Yurupary called Mahsankero.

14 Among the Barasana, a girl’s first menstruation is marked by ritual but there are no
female initiation rites.

61
The rites described

For the Barasana, the decision to hold the first stage of initiation
rests primarily with the fathers of the boys concerned and also with
the shaman(s) who live with them or are most closely related to them.
The rite is usually held in the house of the father of one or more of
the initiates, usually the most senior, but may also be held in the
house of the officiating shaman if he lives elsewhere. One of the
fathers becomes the chief host, helped by the other fathers; often
boys from several houses, not necessarily of the same exogamous
group, are initiated at the same time. The details of the preparations
are otherwise the same as those described above for a normal Fruit
House rite.
I am not entirely sure how often Fruit House as the first stage of
initiation is held. Informants state that, in the past, large numbers
of (up to about ten) boys were initiated at the same time. In saying
this, they are generally referring to the second stage of initiation,
He house. Today, the first stage appears to take place as and when
there are one or more boys of the appropriate age. Neither stage of
initiation is exclusive to one sib or even to one exogamous group
and it often happens that boys from different groups are initiated
all together in one house.
The details concerning the arrival of guests are much the same as
those given above except for the fact that when boys are being
initiated outside their own home, they must be brought to the house
where the initiation is held before the rite begins so that they can be
prepared. Apart from being rather more formal and elaborate, the
ritual and the preparatory activities are essentially the same as those
described above. That description is based upon observations of several
different rites; here my description is based on the observation of one
particular case. Reference should be made to the column headed
‘Initiates’ of table 2.
Both on the eve of the rite and during the rite itself, each time that
blown snuff, coca, etc. was eaten, the young boys ate first. When
blown tobacco snuff was administered through the bone tube on the
eve of the rite, the boys were given such large doses that they choked
and vomited and had to be forcibly restrained from running away.
The other men were also given unusually large quantities of snuff.15
In addition to the usual round of shamanism preceding the rite, the

15 See M.5.A tor a mythical account of the rites of initiation and, in particular, for the
effects of this snuff in a mythic context.

62
Fruit House

shamans blew spells over whips made from peeled saplings with the
twigs left on.
On the morning of the ritual, while the other men bathed at the
river, the three boys were given a special wash outside on the plaza.
The two shamans blew tobacco smoke over the heads and hands of
the boys who then washed their faces and hands from a bowl of
water. This was the only occasion I witnessed on which the men
bathed after the fruit had been taken into the house. Once washed
the boys painted their legs with black we paint, and were dressed
with newly ochred garters below their knees, clean white handker¬
chiefs round their necks and palm-leaf crowns on their heads. They
were afterwards led inside the house where they were sat down in
a group on a woven palm-leaf mat placed directly on the floor to
the right of the men’s door.16 Soon after this the senior host elder
and the officiating shaman came and handed the boys the ceremonial
cigar and the gourd of coca, blown over by the shaman. These were
then offered round to everyone else. There was a definite sense in
which the boys were being treated as honoured guests.17 The boys
came from two neighbouring houses, one of the same sib as the
hosts, the other of a junior sib within the same exogamous language
group.
Before the tipping out of the fruit, the initiates were each given
small pink berries of the kana (Sabicea amazonensis) vine to eat
which had previously been blown over by the shaman. They were
then called up to help tip out the fruit, but apart from this and
when they were playing the short flutes or taking substances blown
by the shaman, they sat silent and motionless on their mat. During
the rite the boys were given large quantities of yage, each time served
to them in a very ritualised and formal manner. This was the first
time they had ever taken yage. The yage used was also much stronger
than usual — a larger-than-usual amount of leaf yage (kahi uko) being
used.18 Each time it was the initiates who were served first. Whenever

16 In accordance with Barasana practice, the right- and left-hand sides of the house are
reckoned from the point of view of a person looking out from the front door.
17 The same is true for initiates among the Cubeo (Goldman 1963 : 196).
18 Most named varieties of Barasana yag& correspond to the species Banisteriopsia inebrians
Morton. One variety at least corresponds to the species B. Rusbyana (Ndz.) Morton.
The active principle of B. inebrians is harmine;#. Rusbyana also contains dimethyl
triptamine. It is probable that leaf yag£ (kahi uko) belongs to this latter species, hence
its use to make the drink stronger (Schultes 1972 : 141-4 and personal communication).
Even more leaf yag^ is added to the drink consumed at He House.

63
The rites described

the trumpets were played, the three initiates walked behind them
playing the short flutes.
The main difference between this and other Fruit House rites
observed by me came after the burning of the beeswax. All afternoon
the shamans had flicked their whips making a loud swishing noise
and once the wax had been burned this noise reached a crescendo.
A young man of about twenty went out to the middle of the house
near the screen where he was whipped by the two shamans.19 He
then ran up and down the house acting-out spearing. Then the two
shamans were whipped by two host elders, again followed by acting-
out spearing. Finally the two elders ran twice round the dance path
in an aggressive manner, down the middle of the house towards the
men’s door, and then hurled the bundles of whips against the end
wall with an angry shout. The younger men rushed forward and
grabbed the whips which they carried with them until the end of the
dance. While this went on, one of the host elders went to the rear
of the house where the women and children were, and there whipped
his two-year-old son gently across the legs and body. On the eve of
the rite, I had been told that the young boys were to be whipped
but in fact this never happened. This may have been because by the
time the whipping started, one of the boys had collapsed from the
effects of the yage and the other two were suffering from extreme
nausea and looked frightened and confused. Other boys who had
recently undergone this rite assured me that they had been whipped.
The dance that followed was in no way different from any other
that I saw except that, because whipping must always take place after
dark, the dancing started later and the women were allowed back into
the house much later.20 Informants’ descriptions of this rite correspond
closely to what I observed, except that the informants state that
usually a special compartment of palm leaves is constructed next to
the men’s door (see fig. 2). The He are placed inside this enclosure
and are not seen by the initiates until they are taken out and blown
in the middle of the house at midday. The initiates are then confined
in this compartment, together with the He, until the end of the dance.

19 See p. 80 for a description of whipping.

20 Among the Cubeo, the men whip the women during the dance that follows the main
rite (Goldman 1963 : 200). I did not observe this to happen among the Barasana or their
neighbours.

64
Fruit House

Fruit House rites preceding He House

Fruit House in preparation for He House

The cultivated tree-fruit mene (Inga dulcis) has two seasons, a major
one in February, March and April and a minor one in October and
November. During this latter season, a Fruit House rite is held at
which inga {mene) fruit are brought into the house and form its
focus. The purpose of this rite is to enable the shamans to carry out
protective shamanism (wanose) so that no ill befalls the participants
at He House, the main initiation rite. Unfortunately, I never wit¬
nessed this rite and it was only when I had left the field that I realised
its potential significance.
According to informants, the shamans blow spells over tobacco,
tobacco snuff, coca, coca mixed with beeswax, red paint, manioc
beer and yage which the participants then consume or wipe over
their bodies. This protects them from a series of harmful spirit
encounters through dreaming, as follows: (1) Dreams of beautiful
women who come to the sleeper’s hammock to make love. These
women are sickness women (nyase romia), women who fill one with
fat {u-ye soria romia), and who thus make the person ill or liable to
attack from jaguars or snakes. (2) Dreams of small girls being carried
on the sleeper’s shoulders. These dreams cause illness (nyase), and
cause pains in the back of the neck. (3) Dreams of a spirit (wati)
who clings to the back causing illness and backache. (4) Dreams of
eating an abundance of fish. These fish are Pleiades fish (nyokoaro
wai), illness fish (nyase wai), death fish (bohori wai), and sky-lake
fish (wnua utara wai) (see M.6.A.17) which cause sickness; the
shamans must send them back to the Water Door (Oko Sohe) in the
east from whence they came.
The major features of this rite are said to be much like any other
Fruit House.

Fruit House as a prelude to He House

The timing of He House is intimately connected with the movements

of the Pleiades (nyokoaro) across the skies. In November, when the inga
fruit are ripe and when the preliminary Fruit House rite is held (see
above), the Pleiades begin to appear on the eastern horizon at dusk.21
21 Virtually all observations of stars are done at dusk; relatively little attention is paid to the
position of the stars at other times of the night.

65
The rites described

In April, when the inga fruit are again ripe, the Pleiades are setting
on the western horizon at dusk. The Barasana say that He House
should be held when the pupunha (Gulielma gasipaes) are ripe
(February to March), when the umari fruit (wamu, Poraqueiba
sericea) are ripe (February to April) and when the inga fruit are
ripe (February to April). They also say that it should happen just
before the Pleiades rains (nyokoaro hue), the heavy rains that begin
the major rainy season and cause a dramatic rise in the rivers (see
Fig. 3).
Among the Wanano, the main initiation rite (kamoano ninde) was
preceded by the initiates having to spend two months secluded in
a specially painted compartment.22 There they lived on a diet, first

22 Such painted enclosures were also used by the Tariana to isolate young girls at first
menstruation (see M.8.10). They are also used for the same purpose among the Tikuna
(Nimuendaju 1948 : 718). Today the Barasana make the male initiates’ compartment of
woven palm leaves, though it may have been made of painted materials in the past.

66
Fruit House

of wasp eggs and cassava bread, then of sauba ants (Atta sp.). During
this time they were forbidden to see or talk with women (Amorim
1926/8 : 54). The Iurupixuna-Tukano at the mouth of the Vaupes
river also have a period of fasting prior to initiation but this time out
on the savannah (Ypiranga Monteiro 1960 : 38). There does not
appear to be any equivalent preliminary period of fasting or isolation
amongst the contemporary Barasana.
The stated purpose of the Fruit House rite immediately preceding
He House is for the shamans to carry out the necessary preparations.
In broad terms it is no different from the rites described above,
but certain specific features should be mentioned.
During the morning, the shamans construct a compartment of
woven palm leaves next to post 1 (see fig. 2). This compartment is
the shield and protection (kuni oka) of the shamans and in the past
it was made of painted tapir hide.23 The shamans spend the after¬
noon inside this enclosure, chanting together and blowing spells over
substances contained in gourds. They are surrounded by all their
ritual paraphernalia: gourds on stands, bundles of whips, boxes of
feather ornaments, lumps of beeswax, yage vines, etc.
The other important difference between this and other like rituals
is that different and more sacred flutes, trumpets and other ritual
gear are used. Before the start of the formal playing of the long
flutes (the ones used are called Maha Buku-, Old Macaw), tobacco
snuff is blown into the sound holes by one of the shamans; this is
food that the flutes eat.24 Snuff is then administered through a bone
tube to all present. While the long flutes are played, all the younger
people must sit absolutely still and not look at the players.
The dance that followed was not observably different from any
other that followed Fruit House except that it started somewhat
later than usual. Between this rite and the start of He House there
was a three-day interval. During this time the initiates and younger
men ate only cassava, sauba ants and ground termites — they had
already seen the sacred He. Each day they were woken before dawn
by the shamans and taken down to the river to bathe and vomit. On

23 The words weku-gase (‘tapir skin’) apply both to this enclosure and to the shields made
from woven vine (see Koch-Grtinberg 1909/10. vol. I : 346). It may be that such shields
were once made from tapir skin.
In relation to the use, by shamans, of tapir-skin protection, it is of interest that
shamans of the Orahone tribe (south of the Vaupds) used tapir-skin clothing (Whiffen
1915 : 73).
24 The Tariana also blew tobacco smoke into their Yurupary flutes (Coudreau 1887 : 167).

67
The rites described

the day before the start of He House, a young man was sent to the
forest to cut the tree bark used in the construction of the He
trumpets. In the afternoon of the final day, all the men painted
themselves with black paint. The initiates painted themselves from
toes to chin, the younger men painted up as far as their hips and
the elders as far as their thighs. Unlike that for Fruit House and
other dances, the painting was uniform, with no patterns or designs,
and it was stated that the more times a man has seen the He, the
smaller the area of his body that he paints.25
25 Under normal circumstances only the young men and elders would have painted them¬
selves at this point. The initiates would have been painted just prior to their entry into
the house during He House. It may be however that people seeing He for the second
time in the status of initiate (as was the case for two of the four initiates) are painted
at this point.

68
He House: the main initiation rite

Introduction

In the Pira-parana region, the rite of Fruit House, described in the

last chapter, is held quite often by any moderately large maloca
community. Most of these rites are not directly associated with
the initiation of young men, but as already shown, they sometimes
form the first stage of the initiation process and sometimes form a
prelude to the main initiation rite of He House. Relative to Fruit
House, this latter rite is held only very rarely. Together with the
secrecy that surrounds it, this may well explain why it is that, with
the possible exceptions of the Wanano (Amorim 1926/8 : 52-5)
and Tariana (Coudreau 1887 : 198), no ritual equivalent to He
House has been described from elsewhere in the Vaupes region
whilst being common to all the Indian groups (Barasana, Tatuyo,
Taiwano, Makuna and Bara) of the Pira-parana drainage. Just how
frequently it is held is hard to say: one informant said that the rite
could be held without the presence of initiates in the same way as
Fruit House, and that when this happened it was referred to as
house where shamanism is done (baseria wi). He added that in theory
it should be held each year but that in practice this rarely happens.
Today it seems that the rite is held only when there are young boys
ready for initiation. The rite is normally referred to as He wi, He
House, but may also be called house at which He are seen {He laria
wi) or house of initiate boys (ngamua wi).
As I have only seen one example of this rite, I present the descrip¬
tion that follows in the form of an extended case. The account has
been supplemented at certain points by informants’ descriptions of
similar rites partly because the rite that I witnessed was atypical in
certain respects and partly because certain parts of the rite are no
69
The rites described

longer carried out.1 I indicate, either in the text or in notes, where

the description differs from what I actually saw. I have no concrete
data on who it is that decides when He House should be held though
I would guess that the decision is taken by the shamans in con¬
junction with the fathers of the candidates for initiation. There are
relatively few shamans of sufficient power, knowledge and standing
who can officiate at He House which means that very often young
boys are initiated away from their natal longhouse community or
that shamans from other communities must be brought in to officiate.
In addition, a specialist chanter must be present and he too may have
to come from outside. Once it has been decided to hold He House in
a particular community, the full cooperation of all the inhabitants
is needed.
The He House that I observed was held in Mandu’s house on Cano
Colorado, an affluent of the Pira-parana (see map 3) on 2 June 1970.
(This was the only ritual of this kind that I observed over a twenty-
two-month period but I collected a number of different accounts of
these rites from informants both before and after the proceedings.)
The attendance by household is set out on the bottom line of table 1.
Essentially, the participants were made up of people from the houses
of Mandu, Pedro, Tuis, Christo and Pacho. Though only two young
people from Ignacio’s house attended, as one of them was one of the
two youngest initiates (both seeing the He for the second time in
their lives), that household is included in the table. The names and
kinship relations of the people involved are set out in fig. 4. The
dotted lines indicate a classificatory sibling tie (thus, Miguel is Mandu’s
classificatory FEB). The plus signs indicate a person living or staying
in the host maloca but of a different exogamic group. Thus Simon

1 The description of the main initiation rite and its prelude is based on my observation of
a rite which took place in a Barasana maloca at the beginning of June 1970. The officiating
shamans stressed that the rite was atypical in two respects: first, it took place at the
wrong time of year (too late), and secondly, the two main candidates for initiation,
instead of being young boys, were young men in their late teens or early twenties. They
had been away working rubber and for this reason had not previously undergone the
rite, even though one of them was already married. The other two candidates were boys
undergoing the rite for the second time - each person must undergo the rite two or
three times in the status of initiate. For these reasons, parts of the rite were either
shortened or omitted completely. There are also certain parts of the rite that are no
longer carried out today but which even quite young men had undergone and could
describe.
The description of the initial phases of the rite that concern the initiates is based on
my own observations together with informants’ accounts. I am also indebted to Tom
Langdon, who carried out fieldwork with the Barasana of Cano Tatu, for an independent
description, based on informants’ accounts, of the major features of He House.

70
He House: the main initiation rite

£“~
Miguel
Mandu’s household (initiate)
(Barasana)
(Gome)
~K
Feliciano
HTLuisa
A
Santiago Mandu
(not present) (masori) (musorio) (shaman) (shaman)

Pacho's household £ £ A
Pacho Manuele I Derio (Barasana)
(Barasana)
(chanter) (young man) (young man)

“£“ ~K “A
Christo Domingo Pau
Christo's household (elder) (young man/initiate) (young man)
(Barasana)
A £ A A
Siku Loki 4 Simon (Tatuyo) -Alberto (Tammuka)
(elder) (young man/initiate) (young man) (young man)

""A
Pedro
Pedro’s household (elder)
(Bara)
A
Poro
A
Bareto
A
Bolivar
k
Jesu
A
+ Atuni (Kabiyeri)
(elder) (young man) (young man) (young man) (young man)

£ "A
Rufino
Luis's household (elder)
(Tatuyo)
A
Luis
(elder)

Key
+ visitor

Ignacio's household
A--' "‘A
Juse Bosco
(Bara)
(young man) (initiate)

Fig. 4 Kinship relations and household affiliation of men present at He House

(Cano Colorado, June 1970)

lives in Christo’s house, Alberto was on a visit from the Popeyaka,

an affluent of the Apaporfs, Derio was visiting Pacho’s house and
Atuni lives in Pedro’s house. Pacho and Christo are both related to
Mandu as classificatory FYB. Pedro is related to Mandu as MB
71
The rites described

and Juse is Pedro’s classificatory YB. Lius is related to Mandu as MB.

The two youngest initiates were Miguel and Bosco; Loki and
Domingo were also in the status of initiate but older than they should
have been and one of them was already married. The officiating
shamans were Mandu and Santiago and the ritual guardian of the
initiates (masori — see below) was Feliciano, the elder brother of the
two shamans. Luisa, their sister, was the woman who provided the
special food for the initiates after the rites {masorio — see below).
All the guests arrived on the day of sitting out on the plaza, the day
the rite begins and the equivalent of the day of making beer at
Fruit House rites, except Pacho, Manuele and Derio who arrived the
day after.
The preparations for the rite were much the same as those already
described for Fruit House except that during the preceding two weeks,
the men went to great pains to stop up every single hole in the walls
of the house so that there was no possibility of the women seeing
the sacred He instruments. For the same purpose, a new, extra-thick
screen for shutting off the female end of the house was also made.

The rite
(Reference should be made to table 3.)

Day 1

From early morning there is a marked and increasing separation

between the sexes; the women remain in the rear of the house making
manioc beer whilst the men sit out on the plaza in front of the house.
The initiates remain with the women in the rear of the house.2 Early
in the afternoon, the young men are sent to the forest to prepare the
flutes and trumpets. In the late afternoon the shamans send the
women and children out of the house so that they can blow spells
over coca mixed with beeswax and over red paint. This blowing is to
protect the participants from a variety of illnesses (shaking, vomiting,
worms, coughing, flu, etc.). Later the women are called back to eat
pinches of blown coca and to wipe the red paint on their bodies.
At dusk the younger men play the He up from the river and arrive
outside the front of the house. Immediately, the women and children

2 They stayed with the men on the occasion seen by me. Informants said that, had they
been younger boys, they would have remained with their mothers.

72
He House: the main initiation rite

rush from the house to the surrounding scrub. For the rest of the
night till first light the flutes and trumpets are played round and
round the outside of the house. The flute Old Macaw (Maha Buku)
dances on the plaza singing, ‘Can you hear me? Are you well? Are
you free from sickness? Is the beer good? Don’t let the women
see me.’
As the He arrive the shamans chant together and flick their whips
aggressively, making a loud swishing noise. One of them then carries
smoking beeswax on a potsherd out to the plaza. There he fans the
smoke in the four cardinal directions to send away illness, disease
and shamanic attack. As soon as the He are present, all communi¬
cation is done in whispers and is kept to a minimum. The shamans
then lead the elders inside the house in chanting and then go and
lead the younger men in another session outside. Apart from the
shamans, there is no movement between the groups inside and
outside the house. During the night the shamans blow spells over
beeswax, coca, beer and tobacco to ward off illnesses that would
otherwise come with their consumption. The shamans also blow on
tobacco snuff which is then blown in large quantities up the noses
of the men, causing them to vomit.

Day 2

At first light the He are played into the house by those who have
spent the night sitting outside.3 They walk into the house, round
the dance path twice in a clockwise direction, down the middle and
out of the door again, right round the outside of the house, back in
through the door, twice round the dance path and then down the
middle of the house, stopping as the leader reaches the men’s door.
They then put the He down on the right-hand side of the house at
the edge of the dance path and go and sit in a group in front of the
shaman’s enclosure. The elders sit in two groups on either side of
the men’s door with the two shamans sitting inside their enclosure.
Only the shamans, and later the elders, sit on stools; the rest all sit
on mats on the floor.
As the He enter the house, the women again rush out and into the
scrub surrounding the house. If they failed to do this, when they
became pregnant they would be unable to give birth. The children
would remain in their wombs and they would die.
3 Which included the four initiates on the occasion I witnessed.

73
Women & children

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75
The rites described
Soon after entry of the He, the younger men are led in chanting
by the shamans who come and sit in front of their enclosure. Alter
this, the long flutes are played up and down the middle of the house
by relays of players and the trumpets and short flutes, played by the
young men, are periodically played round and round the inside and
outside of the house in a kind of ceremonial parade (see appendix 3).
Around 9.0 a.m. the shaman hands round a ceremonial cigar over
which he has blown spells, together with a gourd of blown coca. He
serves people in order of seniority, the youngest being served first.
Then two gourds are placed in the middle of the house. The first
contains blown snuff and the second red paint, both taken from small
sealed gourds kept in the feather box (see M.6.A.64). The snuff,
mixed with beeswax, is wiped on the legs and knees using a stick. If
it gets under the fingernails it causes intense pain. It is applied so that
when the men bathe, they will not suffer stabbing pains caused by
the water spear (oko besuu). Apart from ritual bathing all contact
with water during the rite is taboo. The red paint is described as the
blood or flesh of the He (He ri, He ruhreoko') and as that which
makes us live (mani katise). It is wiped over the body, especially on
the navel and temples to replenish one’s blood and make one strong.
If a woman has contact with this paint she will immediately start to
menstruate; the blood that flows is this paint.
Following this, everyone, including the shamans, goes to bathe
in the stream at the back of the house. The He are taken too and
played as far as the edge of the clearing round the house. At the
stream, the He are put into the water to make them sound well,
and the elders bathe. The younger men wash only their hands and
faces. Throughout the bathing, total silence is enjoined to avoid
attack from thq He jaguars. On the way to and from the stream, the
shamans lead and take up the rear of the procession flicking their
whips aggressively. This bathing is called washing the tree bark from
the hands (hea gase amo koera). After more playing of the He, a
special form of playing, called going to make the tree bark low
(hea gase bohoa wana), is due (see appendix 3).
After this each person drinks beer blown by the shamans from the
end of a stick and beer is then served in large gourds throughout the
rest of the rite. Before this time no one must touch the beer. Then
a long chanting session is held. During the afternoon the long flutes,
Old Macaw, are decorated with feather ruffs and the engraved designs
on them are filled with manioc starch. Two elders put on jaguar-
76
He House: the main initiation rite

teeth belts, feather crowns and elbow ornaments and then go out and
dance the Old Macaw flutes up and down the middle of the house.
Up to this point, those playing the flutes wear no ornament at all.
These flutes are now played continuously by a relay of players,
all elder men. Every so often the mouth-ends of the flutes are
dipped into a pot of water; this is to improve the sound quality and
also ‘to give them a drink’. The players must never walk in the middle
of the house except when actually playing the flutes; at all other
times they walk along the dance path to one side.
Towards dusk the initiates are brought into the house.4 The
shamans and elders go outside and call them. Their hair is cut by the
women who also paint them from head to toe with black paint.
Once their hair has been cut, the initiates are carried into the house
on the shoulders of the elders. This act establishes a pseudo-kinship
link between carrier and carried: each calls the other ‘yu-umari’ (my
carrier/carried), terms which replace the kinship terms that were
previously used between them.5 The initiates are placed standing in
a line by the men’s door with their little fingers linked together.
Then they are given shamanised kana (<Sabicea amazonensis) berries
to eat which makes them strong enough to withstand the rite.
Throughout the rite, the initiates are looked after by an elder
man who is called their masori (the root maso- means to make human,
to adopt or to bring up). During the rite and thereafter, this man
addresses the initiates as yie masori (my masori) and they address him
in the same way. Those Barasana who know Spanish translate masori
as padrino (godfather) and people who are related as masori to each
other are expected to be firm friends. The same term is used also
between an adopted child and its parents. The female form masorio
is applied to the woman who cooks special food for the initiates after
the rite.
When the initiates have eaten the kana berries their masori leads
them very slowly by the hand to a mat placed in front of the shaman’s
enclosure. They are sat down slowly and their bodies arranged in a
foetal position with their knees drawn up to their chests and their
arms clasped round them. They are instructed to remain absolutely
motionless and not to glance from side to side. If they move it is said
that their backs will break.
4 This is what should happen when young initiates see He for the first time. This paragraph
is based on informants’ accounts.
5 This carrying of the initiates was also done among the Wanano, and as with the Barasana
it gave rise to a pseudo-kinship link. Amorim (1926/8 : 53)

77
The rites described
Once they are seated, the initiates are served the ceremonial
cigar and blown coca. Outside the house, the shaman prepares
the yage. When he has finished, he draws a figure (Yage Mother)
in the doorway of the house using the pounded yage bark (see
fig. 5), throwing the rest of the poundings up on to the roof of
the house. Then he comes in and serves each initiate a small sip
of yage.

Fig. 5 Yage Mother (A) figure drawn on longhouse floor with pounded yage
bark; compare with (B) petroglyph on rock in Vaupes river above Jauarete
(after Stradelli 1900: 476)

All the men take up the He instruments and move very slowly in
front of the initiates, blowing the He with their ends held very close
to the ground.6 They parade in front of the initiates showing them
each instrument in turn and then circle slowly round and round the
house. This is the first time that the initiates see the He. Following
this a long session of chanting is held. After this, apart from the
playing of the flutes and trumpets and the chanting, almost total
silence reigns in the house. Towards midnight, the shaman takes the
pot of yage and walks with it to the female end of the house, standing
between posts 5 and 6 and facing the men’s end. He calls the people
to come and drink. They go up to him, youngest first, clutching
staves in their hands and acting-out spearing up the side aisles of the
house as they go. Each is then given yage and blown coca after which

6 This was not done on the occasion witnessed by me.

78
He House: the mam initiation rite

they go back to their places, again acting-out spearing down the side
aisles. There then follows another parade of the He (see appendix 3).
Soon after midnight, the two shamans chant together inside their
enclosure while the guardian of the initiates burns beeswax, taken
from the gourd of beeswax, in a potsherd round the house, taking the
same path as during Fruit House. As he does this he is followed
round by the younger men playing on the trumpets and the initiates
playing behind them on the short flutes. They walk very slowly,
crouching low to the ground with the ends of the trumpets almost
touching the floor. If the trumpets were held high, the players’ knees
would break and the He jaguars would be angry.
The burning of the wax is considered to be the climax of the rite
and during it the women must not be in the house for if they smelt
the smoke they would die. The women go out to the edge of the
clearing in the forest and listen for trees falling. The noise of falling
trees is an evil omen (yokero) which foretells the death of the
participants who will waste away and die. The women are sent as
sentries and they report back in the morning.7
After the burning of the beeswax, two elders put on the full
complement of ritual ornament — full head-dresses of macaw and
egret feathers (maha hoa and uga), the sacred elbow ornaments
(rika saria yasi) (see M.7.I.3—4 and M.6.A.64), hanks of monkey-
fur string worn on the back (umaria yasi), bark-cloth aprons (waso
boti), belts of carved rose-coloured shell (wai waruka), etc., and then
go out to play the long flutes called Old Macaw. These two are the
He spirits (Hewatia), fierce spirits (guari watia), the ancestors of the
living, and are very frightening and dangerous. Everyone, especially
the initiates, must sit absolutely still and on no account look at them
(see M.8.32). As the flutes play, everyone but the two shamans forms
up into two groups on either side of the house carrying staves and
whips. The flutes are then played with their ends raised in the air
(see appendix 3) while the others run up and down the side aisles, in
the opposite direction from the flutes, acting-out spearing. The flutes
are threatening to kill; they say, ‘I will kill you, I will kill you.’ They
are being fierce and teaching the initiates to be the same.
Immediately after this, two gourds are placed between posts 1 and
7 Brtizzi da Silva (1962 : 330 n. 26) mentions that Wax-ti (one of his names for Yurupary)
is held responsible for falling trees by the Tukano.
Among the Maku of the Parana Boa-Boa, if women should see the sacred flutes and
trumpets CBaritxai) there would be much thunder and lightning, lots of rain would fall
and many trees would come down (Schultz 1959 : 125).

79
The rites described

2. One, the werea koa, contains beeswax mixed with coca, the other,
the muno koa, snuff gourd, contains snuff. In order of seniority,
initiates first, the people come up and wipe snuff on their knees and
eat small pinches of coca. On no account must they look at the
gourds which are covered with brown bark-cloth wrappings. Then
the sequence of the flutes played with raised ends and the acting-out
spearing is repeated. Following this the two elders playing the Old
Macaw flutes chant with the shamans and then go back to playing
the flutes. During their playing, the blown coca, taken from the
beeswax gourd, is passed through to the older women behind the
screen. They eat the coca and apply blown red paint to their bodies.
Then, as the pair playing the long flutes chant with one of the
shamans, the other goes to the female end of the house carrying a
bundle of whips. All present run up the side aisles, acting-out spearing,
and stand in two groups by the shaman. One by one, starting with
the youngest, they go forward and, standing with their legs apart
and with their arms held above their heads clutching a staff hori¬
zontally in their hands, they are whipped on the leg, thigh, abdomen
and chest. Holding their arms out in front of them, these are whipped
too. After each person has been whipped, he runs back to his place,
acting-out spearing as he goes. Finally the shaman comes back to the
men’s end of the house where he too is whipped by another elder.
After this, more yage is served, the long-flute players being given
extra large amounts. This is followed by a very long chant session,
giving coca, held by the screen at the female end of the house, which
goes on till dawn.
Following the chanting, the shaman takes a pot of blown black
paint to the screen at the female end of the house. There the initiates
and younger men paint each other on the legs and body. Two men
should do the painting, one for the lower body, one for the upper
body. The people who paint each other call one another my painter/
painted (yu-suori) a term which replaces the normal kinship terms
between them from then on. People related in this way are seen as
being dike brothers’ and the relationship is seen as being the male
equivalent of the henyeri—henyerio relationship. I was told by one
informant that, in the past, at this point the initiates were then made
to stand in a row with their hands behind their backs. Their G-strings
were cut so that their penis coverings fell to the ground. The He
instruments were blown over their penises after which they went out

80
He House: the main initiation rite

and played the short flutes in the nude. Then new G-strings would
be blown for them to avoid rashes round the groin.
This mutual painting is followed by a parade of the trumpets
and short flutes. Apart from during the burning of the beeswax,
the trumpets and short flutes are hardly played at all during the
night. The focus of attention is on the flutes, Old Macaw. For the
rest of the day the flutes and trumpets are played rather sporadically.
At mid-morning there is another long chant session, pouring out
the beer, during and after which much beer is served. Many people
begin to go to sleep at around this point. For the elders it is tolerated,
but each time a young man shows signs of sleep, the shamans come
up to him and angrily flick their whips and shout to wake him.
Around midday there is a parade of all the flutes and trumpets
round and round the house. During this parade a pair of trumpets
called Old Callicebus Monkey {Wau Buku) are played by the two
shamans. This is the only time that these two trumpets are played.
All through the rite they are kept inside the shamans’ enclosure,
apart from the other He instruments. Then the shamans blow over
snuff and place it in the mouthpieces of the flutes ‘for them to eat’.
Following this, everyone, women too, is served the snuff to prevent
illness. Finally, just before dark, the flutes and trumpets are taken
on parade round and round the house and then the action of going
to remove the bark wrappings from the He is done (see appendix 3).
This is called ending the dance (basa tadiyigu). After this the He are
taken outside the house and the feather ruffs are removed from the
flutes. Then the shamans blow spells over their stools and invite
each person to sit momentarily upon them. This removes the pro¬
hibition on sitting on stools but it is only the elder people who in
fact sit on them. The younger people continue to sit on the ground.
Mats covered in white, plume-like grass (ta boti) are laid at the
end of the house near the screen and everyone but a few of the
elders goes to sleep on them. They must not sleep at the male end of
the house for the old He People {He bukura) sleep there. If anyone
sleeps there they will dream that the He People give them large
quantities of fish at a food-exchange dance. The fish would cause
one to waste away and die. The male end of the house is ideologically
(though not always actually) the east end and is identified with the east,
the Water Door (Oko Sohe) where the shamans send these fish.
The Sun and the He People want the participants, especially the

81
The rites described

initiates, to remain with them for ever so they give them fish to kill
them.

Day 3

At dawn the flutes are again played up and down the inside of the
house and the trumpets round and round the outside. While this
goes on the shamans blow spells over gourds containing snuff and
water. The snuff is then applied to the knees and the water is drunk
in small quantities by each person. This is to prevent harm coming
from contact with water, both in the form of dew at night and also
during the bathing to follow. Without this, the initiates’joints would
ache, and they would get fever and stabbing pains caused by the
water spear (oko besuu). Then everyone goes down to the main
river in front of the house to bathe, taking the He with them. Once
the instruments have been immersed, all, including the initiates and
young men, get right into the water and bathe. Then the shamans
fill the Old Macaw flutes and a trumpet with water. They do this in
such a way that water spurts out of the sound holes in the flutes;
this is the flutes drinking and vomiting. The initiates must drink water
from the flutes and trumpet, after which the rest of the water is
poured over them. This is to make them fierce. Each person is handed
leaves of the plant sioro hu (meaning literally adze leaves, sp. un¬
identified) which are used as soap. The leaves are crushed up in
water which is afterwards drunk, causing vomiting. The consumption
of these leaves makes the initiates and young men into good dancers
and singers. The vomiting is to clean out the He poison {He rima), the
effects of seeing He, from the body and to remove the residual yage
which would otherwise cause the body to heat up and become sick.
While the initiates bathe, two elders play the Old Macaw flutes.
Before the men return to the house, the women take all the food
and goods in the house out on to the plaza.8 If they were left in the
house the initiates (and others) would suffer aches and pains. The
men come into the house. The feather ruffs are put back on the
flutes which are played by various elders, ending with the two who
were the He spirits earlier in the rite. When the last two have finished
playing, the shaman comes up and takes off their feather head-dresses.

8 This information comes trom informants’ descriptions. The goods were not taken out
of the house on the occasion observed by me but I was assured that this would have
been done if there had been young initiates seeing the He for the first time.

82
He House: the main initiation rite

He blows spells on their heads and wipes his hands lightly over the
surface, flicking off invisible but harmful substances. He does the
same for each person who wore a full head-dress during the rite.
If this is not done, the men are in danger of attack from jaguars
and are also liable to suffer headaches caused by the silverfish that
eat the feathers.
Then the young men take the trumpets for a final blow round the
house while the shamans sit on stools blowing spells over small
portions of food in little gourds. They treat sauba ants, ground
termites and special cassava bread (sireria) made entirely out of
manioc starch, in this way. Each person, starting with the initiates,
eats a tiny portion of each of the blown foods after which a meal
of the same foods is held. This meal must take place outside the
house. The initiates and younger men eat their cassava bread from
the ends of ritual whips so that their hands do not heat the food.
They must also cover their mouths as they eat so that He jaguars
do not see them eating and become angry. Whilst they eat they throw
little pieces of cassava bread at the Old Macaw flutes as a kind of
augury — a hit foretells that the person will find a wife soon.9
Following the meal, the bark wrappings are removed from the
trumpets and after all the He instruments have been wrapped in
fresh leaves they are taken down to the river to be hidden once
again in the mud under water.10 The house is then swept out very
thoroughly so that no traces of the materials used to make the He
remain. Small fires are lit outside the doors of the house and leaves
of an unidentified shrub (kawia beurhii) are burned on them. The
smoke removes the smell of the He from the house. The whole house
is saturated with He poison, and this must be removed by shamanism
to prevent the women from becoming ill. In the past, the initiates
used to be held by the feet and shoulders and swung bodily over the
fires so that they were bathed in smoke. Their penises were stuck
into cecropia (wakubu-) wood tubes so that they would find wives
quickly. Today the initiates simply bathe in the smoke to remove
the ill-making effects of the He.
The shamans then construct a compartment of woven leaves just

9 The Makuna see the period following He House as a marriage season during which they
set out to get wives (Kaj Arhem, personal communication).
10 Informants said that properly the He should be left with the initiates inside their com¬
partment for some time after the end of the rite and that the initiates took the He with
them when they went bathing and gathering food in the forest. Others said that the He
used after the end of He House were not the true He but those used at Fruit House.

83
The rites described

inside the men’s door on the left (see fig. 2) and there the initiates
sling their hammocks. The shamans blow spells on to one of the
hammocks and wipe harmful substances from it. Each person lies
momentarily in the hammock which makes it safe for him to sleep
in hammocks once again. Since the start of the rite everyone but
the shamans and elders has remained sitting on the ground. Once the
initiates are installed inside their enclosure, the screen shutting off
the rear of the house is removed. The women still remain at the rear
end of the house and the initiates must be protected from their
gaze. Later on the initiates are sent to the forest to collect sauba
ants and ground termites as food. They go to sleep early and are
woken by the shamans well before dawn and taken to the port to
bathe and vomit water.

The marginal period

Immediately following He House, all the participants and especially
the initiates spend a period during which they are subject to rigid
restrictions on their diet and on other activities. For the initiates
the end of this period is signalled by the total disappearance of
the black paint applied to their bodies at the start of the rite. The
end of the period is marked by the eating of capsicum pepper,
blown over by the shamans. On seeing the He, the participants
become He People {He masa), and He enters their bodies. This
gradually leaves the body as the paint fades from the skin. For the
elders, the period lasts one month; for the initiates and younger
men it lasts for two months. Pepper is thus blown twice, once for
the elders and once for the initiates. During the period of restrictions,
the men are described as bedira, a state when people fast and undergo
restrictions. The same word also applies to menstruating women.
Throughout the period the initiates sleep and spend much of their
time secluded in their compartment. The compartment is built in
such a way that they can go in and out without seeing or being seen
by the women at the other end of the house. The women fear the
initiates for if they have any contact with them, He, in the form of
an anaconda, enters their bodies and they die. If they touch one of
the men, they become sick and waste away {wisi-)\ the man’s body
water (ruhu-oko) would enter the woman’s body and she would
get stabbing sickness (sarese) and die. The men are harmful and
poisonous ‘like menstruating women’ and they too are harmed by
84
He House: the main initiation rite

contact with women. Sexual intercourse is absolutely forbidden as

it would cause a broken back and the men fear possible contact with
poisonous menstrual blood.
The avoidance of women is reflected in the use of house space.
The adult men sleep in the middle front of the house (as do unmarried
men at all times) and not in their family compartments. During the
day the men must remain outside the front of the house on the plaza;
the women must stay at the rear of the house. At first all the men
must eat meals outside the house; later the elders eat just inside the
front door whilst the initiates remain outside. Each day, one woman,
the masorio or guardian of the initiates, brings food and water and
leaves them outside the initiates’ compartment. The containers used
by the men must be kept separate from those used by the women so
that indirect contact with prohibited foods is avoided, and again the
initiates use separate containers from those used by the elders. In
general, the restrictions apply with less force and for a shorter period
for the elders.
The diet of the men consists essentially of cassava bread made
entirely of manioc starch (sireria), toasted manioc starch (nahu siihu),
sauba ants, ground termites, forest fruit, especially umari - cultivated
roots (ote) and bananas. The food eaten by the initiates must be
especially pure and free from all traces of pepper, meat juices, etc.
This food is prepared by the masorio who must carefully wash her
hands and all the utensils she uses. She is also responsible for providing
ants and termites for the initiates’ diet. At the end of the period of
fasting, this woman is given lots of basketry in payment for her
services. Not only is the initiates’ diet severely limited; they must
also eat in a way that displays great control. They eat only very
small mouthfuls at a time and must cover their mouths with their
hands as they eat.
Each day the initiates are expected to get up before dawn and
bathe at the port.11 They must wash their faces with leaves that
produce suds so that the facial skin is changed and becomes white.12
These same leaves are mixed with water which is then drunk so as
to produce vomiting. The vomiting (and also the fasting) cleans out
the dirt (ueri) from the body; this dirt would otherwise cause list-

11 According to informants, the initiates should bathe to the sound of the He which they
take with them to the port (see n. 10 above).
12 This washing of the face to make it white is even more marked during the period of
restrictions that follows the rite of first menstruation for a girl.

85
The rites described

lessness and lack of strength (,gaha huase). The bathing and vomiting
is also said to make the initiates grow faster.
For the initiates, the marginal period is a time of education. Im¬
mediately after the end of He House they are sent to the forest to
collect large quantities of weaving cane (Ichnosiphon, a species of
Marantaceae). The pith from the middle is blown over by a shaman
and then eaten by all to prevent worms from eating the teeth and
also to prevent splints of cane, sent by enemy shamans (kumuanye
waka), from piercing the gums and causing inflammation. Then the
elders systematically teach the initiates to make all the different
kinds of basketry (carrying baskets, sieves, flat trays, cassava squeezers,
etc.). By the end of this period the initiates amass considerable
quantities of basketwork which they give away to the women at the
dance following the blowing of pepper. Basket making is seen as a
prerequisite of adult male status and the Barasana say that men
give their women baskets in exchange for the manioc bread that
this basketry helps to produce.13
In addition to basketry, the initiates are taught how to make the
feather head-dresses and other ritual ornaments used in dances —
ankle rattles, painted bark-cloth aprons, palm-leaf crowns, egret
plumes, frontal crowns of yellow macaw feathers, etc. (see M.6.A.46).
A considerable quantity of ornaments is made and used at the dance
following the blowing of pepper. Though the learning of hunting and
fishing skills is a never-ending process, there is a period of fairly
intense education in these matters after initiation; once boys have
been initiated their hunting and fishing becomes a serious matter.
Just before the blowing of pepper, the initiates are taught to weave
conical fish traps which they go and set in streams in the forest,
accompanied by their masori. The small fish that are caught are
afterwards blown over by a shaman and eaten after the blowing of
pepper; this is the first fish that the initiates eat. In the past the
initiates were also taught to use the weapons of war, especially the
throwing lance. They had their arms cut and the blood was mixed
with red paint and with yage and then drunk. This made them so
fierce that ‘they saw their enemies as game animals’. As well as this
practical education, the initiates are taught more esoteric knowledge
by the shamans and elders. Again, though such education is part of

13 Ypiranga Monteiro (1960 : 38-9) describes this post-initiation basket making among
the Iuripixuna-Tukano and Galvao (1959 : 50) mentions the same thing among the
Baniwa of the Iqana.

86
He House: the main initiation rite

an ongoing process, after He House the initiates are taught the names
and significance of the He instruments and the mythology associated
with them, as well as much other knowledge. They are also given
talks of the expected behaviour, etc., of adult men. Unfortunately,
my information on this aspect of their education is rather limited.
People who have seen He and are under restrictions are believed
to be inherently weak, lazy and soft; a Cubeo myth describes how
when the women had the Yurupary instruments ‘they danced all the
time and did no work’ (Goldman 1963 : 193).14 There is in fact a
real sense in which the men are lazy for after He House they are
forbidden to carry out the normal masculine tasks of hunting and
fishing and must do no strenuous work. The women fend for them¬
selves by fishing and will even hunt small rodents with dogs — they
thus become almost totally independent of the men. According to
Barasana myth (M.l.D), when the women stole the He from the
men, the women become dominant and the men began to menstruate.
The temporary independence of women after He House is remi¬
niscent of the matriarchal situation described in the myth and in
accordance with this men who are under restrictions are explicitly
compared to menstruating women. The Barasana say that a woman’s
hair is the seat of laziness; they also say that hair is the women’s
equivalent of He and that when they see it they begin to menstruate
(bedi-), just as when men see He they undergo restrictions (bedira)
(see M.1.B.5). Similarly, if a man copulates with a menstruating
woman he will become lazy.15
The relation between He and menstruation will be fully explored
in part III. For the moment I wish merely to draw attention to the
fact that much of what goes on during the marginal period is designed
to prevent the men, especially the initiates, from becoming permanently
soft and lazy and instead to make them strong and fierce. Bathing and
vomiting early in the morning when the water is cold make a man
hard and fierce (guamu-).16 The initiates bum scars on their arms to
show their endurance of pain and get up early so that they can do
without sleep. They must keep the restrictions and behave properly
otherwise they will become listless and lazy till they. waste away and
- -- ~ —— .. — .. - —

14 The Puinave share this belief (Rozo 1945 : 245).

15 The Cubeo believe the same (Goldman 1963 : 181).
16 Barasana informants drew attention to the fact thatgua, to bathe, ‘sounds the same as’
guamu-, a fierce man. They describe how, in the past, ‘when men were really men’,
a man worthy of respect would bathe early each day and how, in the summer when the
water was warm, he would bathe in cold dew instead.

87
 The rites described
die. But above all, they must be industrious and make lots of basketry
&
and feather ornaments, just as menstruating women must make
*^ string from silk grass (a cultivated Bromeliad) and then knot it into
garters.17

Prohibitions during and after seeing He

All the prohibitions described below are the direct outcome of seeing
or touching the He used at He House. They apply also, but in a very
much milder way, to people who have seen thq He used at Fruit
House. None of the restrictions apply to the women or children though
they must avoid exposing the men to indirect contact with forbidden
foods, etc. The restrictions apply with most force to the initiates; the
older a man is and the more times he has seen He, the less constrained
he feels to keep the taboos. I shall therefore write with particular
reference to the initiates.
From the time that the He are first seen at the beginning of the
rite until the time that pepper is blown, all contact with heat in any
form whatsoever must be stringently avoided. During the rite, the
initiates must not see, smell or have any contact with fire. The men
must not warm themselves by fires for fear of the fire women (hea
romia) who would enter their penises and cause them to have ex¬
clusively female children. Fire would also cause them to waste away
and die. The initiates must not smoke any tobacco except the ritual
cigars that have been treated by the shamans (the elders do smoke
however). Similarly, termites caught by blowing smoke down their
holes must be blown before the initiates eat them so that the smoke
does not harm them.
During the rite, the initiates must not expose themselves to the
heat of the sun and must therefore not go beyond the eaves of the
house, even to urinate. After the rite they are supposed to use big
leaves as sun-shades. The Sun’s heat would burn them to death just
as Manioc-stick Anaconda burned his brother Macaw to death (see
M.6.A.59 -60). The Sun would also poison and ensorcell the initiates;
their skin would become blotched with white patches and various
small creatures would harm them by tying up their hearts with
fibre or shooting darts at them.

17 The association between puberty- and initiation-rituals and a stress on the making of
handicrafts appears to be widespread throughout Amazonia and merits a comparative
study, especially in relation to the theme of laziness.

88
He House: the main initiation rite

The initiates must also avoid eating any food that is either physically
hot or classified as hot — capsicum pepper is most taboo of all. Im¬
mediately after the end of He House they must eat their cassava bread
from the twigs on their whips so that it is not made warm by their
hands. They must also avoid any food on which sunlight has fallen
for the Sun would put his sick-making fish into this food (see M.6.A. 17).
These restrictions on heat and fire remain in force throughout the
marginal period and in general the initiates must remain as cold as
possible.
Another set of prohibitions relates to being raised above the
ground. During the rite, only the shamans (and later the elders) can
sit on stools; everyone else must sit on mats on the ground. After the
rite, the initiates must not climb up trees or sit raised above the ground
on logs — jaguars would eat tree climbers and sitting on logs would
cause aches and pains. In the past, the initiates would sleep on the
ground on mats right up until pepper was blown; today they do so
only during the rite itself, after which their hammocks are made
safe again by the shamans.
During the rite, the initiates must try to avoid moving at all and
if they have to move they should do so as slowly as possible.18 Fast
movement would cause their joints to make cracking noises and
become weak. If they wish to urinate during the rite, they must be
lifted up by their masori or another elder, led by the hand out to
the eaves of the house and then gently replaced in their original
sitting position. After the rite they must not make any strenuous
movements with their bodies and such actions as throwing objects
are forbidden.
With the exception of the He, no musical instruments may be
played either during the rite or afterwards until pepper has been
blown. If panpipes were played during the marginal period, grubs
(hikoroa) would eat the teeth of the player. The use of deer- and
jaguar-bone whistles, snail-shell whistles and leg rattles would all
cause the player to become prone to attack by jaguars and snakes.
All these instruments must be blown over by a shaman before they
are used at the dance which follows the blowing of pepper.19
During the rite, all unnecessary noise and especially all laughter
18 The other occasion on which slow movement is enjoined is whilst lowering a coffin into
the grave.
19 In general the Barasana appear to associate high-pitched, fast music with frivolous
connotations while lower-pitched, slow music is sacred and solemn. The same is true of
the Cubeo (Goldman 1963 : 214).

89
The rites described

is forbidden; only the sacred sounds of chanting and of He , the

sound of the He People or first ancestors, is allowed. The making
of loud noises such as banging objects together is forbidden till
after pepper has been blown. Sexual intercourse is also forbidden.
All contact with human or animal blood would cause wasting away
(wisiose) and must be avoided at all costs. Looking in mirrors would
cause He jaguars to eat one’s heart/soul (usiT).
Finally, contact with water is also dangerous: during the rite,
when the men go to bathe (see above) the contact with water must
be mediated with snuff blown over by the shamans. At the end of
the rite the shamans blow spells on water in a gourd which is then
drunk by everyone present. Contact with rain or dew must also be
avoided both during and after the rite.

Prohibitions on food

Once the participants at He House have seen the flutes and trumpets
they must not take any substance into their bodies until it has first
had spells blown into it by a shaman. During He House itself, all the
substances consumed (coca, tobacco, tobacco snuff, yage and beer)
are those that the Barasana treat as ‘anti-food’, i.e. substances which
must not be consumed at the same time as ordinary food. All of these
substances, except beer, are produced and consumed only by men
(and old women) and all except beer are specifically associated with
night-time, the sacred time when men do not consume normal food.
The ancestors of humanity, the He People and the souls of the dead
eat no normal food at all; they live entirely on coca and tobacco as
did Yurupary in the myths of the Vaupes-Icana region.20
After He House is over, every single category of food, and in some
cases individual species of animals and plants, must be blown on by
a shaman before it is eaten. Immediately after the end of the rite,
manioc starch bread (sireria), water, sauba ants, ground termites and
toasted manioc starch are all blown. Freshly made coca is also blown
to remove the harmful effects of the heat employed in toasting the
leaves. The following day, termites caught by blowing smoke down
their holes are blown — again the blowing is to remove the harmful
effects of fire and heat; on this day tree-fruits are also blown. About
a week later maize and some kind of cultivated root (yams, sweet

20 See Bolens (1967) for a useful summary of these myths.

90
He House: the main initiation rite

potatoes, etc.) are blown so that the category cultivated roots (ote)
are safe to eat. This list then forms the total diet of the initiates and
elders until pepper has been blown. (Just before the blowing of
pepper, salt and boiled manioc juice are added to the list of permitted
foods.)21
The blowing of pepper and the drinking of boiling-hot manioc
juice (see below) removes the prohibition on taking foods that are
hot and at the same time frees people from the prohibition on contact
with fire and other sources of heat. Immediately after the blowing of
pepper, small fish (wai ria) caught by the initiates in funnel-traps
(see above) are cooked with manioc leaves and then blown. This dish,
together with the foods mentioned above, then forms the basis of
the initiates’ diet for the next month, being gradually supplemented
by other categories of food.
At the end of the third month for the initiates, and at the end of
the second month for the elders, fish caught with poison (huari wai)
are blown, followed by each of the species of fish that belong to the
category of large fish (wai hakara). At the end of the fourth month
(third month for the elders), the food category game animals (wai
bukura) is blown, each species being done separately in order of
increasing size and ending with tapir meat. Roughly the same pattern
of food blowing occurs after Fruit House but in this case it is done
over a much shorter period of time and the list of foods treated is
very much reduced. An even more reduced version is done after other
kinds of dances.
The order in which the categories of food are blown after initiation
corresponds more or less exactly to the order in which food is blown
for a new-born baby. The first food that it eats, its own mother’s
milk, must have spells blown into it by a shaman and from then on,
every new category of food to which it is introduced must first be
treated in this way. As a child grows up, the range of food that it
can consume gradually increases and there are some foods that only
old people can eat. However, after initiation, the period of time
between the blowing of each category of food is much less than that
for a young child.

21 These foods, in the order in which they are blown, are as follows: wasia wai - fish caught
with worms as bait; wisiose wai species of fish that cause wasting away of the body,
especially the species ewu wani (Chichlid sp.); oko kamo - mingao, boiled tapioca drink;
au - calaloo leaves; soeri wai - small fish roasted by the fire; besuu wai - fish which
possess spears (erectile spines?); wadoa and hikdroa - insect grubs; sai - a species of
catfish; osoa - a species of fungus; bia kati - raw capsicum pepper; and a few others.

91
The rites described

The blowing of food is done as follows: a small portion of the food

is placed in a gourd and given to the shaman. He sits on a stool, some-
times for up to an hour, muttering spells which he blows into the
food with short puffs of air. He then hands the gourd round to all
the people present who each eat a minute portion of the food. The
food eaten stands in a metonymic relation to all the food of a
particular category; once eaten it is safe to eat all foods of the cat¬
egory until the individual in once again placed in danger from such
food. After He House, the initiates are served this blown food first
and are then followed by the other men in rough order of seniority,
based on the number of times that they have been through the rite.
After He House, women do not keep to the same dietary regime
as the men (though some informants state that they should), but
generally they too eat the blown food after it has been handed to
the men.
Eating food that has not previously been rendered safe by blowing
causes sickness and death. Each category of food, each edible animal
and plant, has its own associated set of symptoms (sores on different
parts of the body, swellings, aches, boils, fevers, worms, etc.) to which
it gives rise. Most important after He House are the dangers from
wasting away (wisiose) and from being filled with grease or fat (uye
sahase). The symptoms of wasting away are general listlessness, lack
of breath, and a general debilitation of the body, the sufferer is
said to have an enormous anus through which he literally drains away.
Also mentioned as symptoms are madness, indecent sexual behaviour,
loss of hair, vomiting and eating large amounts of earth. This illness
is especially associated with contact with sources of heat, with
capsicum peppers, and with the eating of large fish and game animals
that have not been blown prior to consumption.
With fat filling the body becomes filled with fat or grease so that
jaguars and snakes, attracted by the fat, see the sufferer as a suitable
object of prey and attack him. In general, all fatty foods, especially
food from which fat runs whilst being cooked, cause this condition.
Foods such as toasted ants and termites, toasted palm-grubs, fish
cooked in leaf packets and raw pepper (which causes a layer of grease
to form when applied to the face) are particularly dangerous in this
respect.
Breaches ot these lood prohibitions affect only the individuals con¬
cerned; other people, crops, weather conditions, etc. are not affected.
In most instances, the Barasana emphasise that illness caused by the
92
He House: the main initiation rite

breach of these taboos cannot be cured by the action of the shamans

and a considerable number of deaths in genealogies, especially of
younger men, are attributed to breaches of food taboos following
He House.
A full account of these taboos would involve a discussion of
Barasana animal and plant taxonomy and also a knowledge of matters
that my shaman informants were unwilling to divulge. However,
certain general features can be seen from the data given above. The
first animal foods that are eaten after He House are very small insects
that live in the ground and are said to have no blood in their bodies.
Then, following the blowing of pepper, the smallest kinds of fish are
eaten, followed progressively by larger species culminating in the
category of large fish. Then the smallest game animals are eaten,
followed by progressively larger species culminating in the largest
of all, the tapir. Thus there is a progression from low to high, from
water to land, and from small to large. In view of this, the fact that
the Barasana call game animals old mature fish (wai bukura) seems
less surprising.
Foods are also categorised and blown according to the manner in
which they are obtained. Thus fish caught in funnel-traps, in large
traps, with worms as bait, in hollow logs, with sieves, with nets, with
poison and with bow and arrow are all shamanised as separate cat¬
egories. The manner in which food is cooked is also important so
that boiled food, smoked food, food cooked in ashes and roast food
must all be blown separately.
I have not attempted a full analysis of the food taboos that follow
initiation, partly because my data on this subject is not sufficient and
partly because these taboos form part of a much wider and more
complex set that would require extended treatment in a separate work.
The topic of the different shamanic categories of food, their effects
in terms of illness and disease, and the preventative and curative
treatment of illness through spells blown by shamans has been exten¬
sively treated by T. Langdon (1975) with reference to the Barasana
of Cano Tatu. In almost all respects, his work applies with equal
force to the Barasana of Cano Colorado.

The terminal rites

The blowing of pepper for the elders

At the initiation rite observed by me, pepper was blown for both the
93
The rites described
initiates and elders at the same time and the blowing was done only
one month after the end of He. It was emphasised by everybody
concerned that under normal circumstances when there are lots of
initiates seeing He for the first time, pepper is blown twice, once for
the elders and again for the younger men and initiates. This account
of pepper blowing for the elders is based entirely on informants’
descriptions.
One month after He House, smoked capsicum pepper is blown for
the older participants. The purpose of this blowing is to cool down
the pepper so that it is once again safe to eat; the blowing is called
cooling the pepper. A rite of Fruit House is held at which green,
unripe assai palm (.Euterpe oleracea) fruit is brought into the house.
Lots of cassava bread made entirely of manioc starch is prepared
beforehand. The initiates tie pieces of this bread on to either end of
strips of bark string and at midday they bring this and the assai fruit
into the house to the sound of the He trumpets. They throw the
pieces of cassava up into the roof of the house so that it hangs down
from the roof beams ‘until the house is white all over’. They then
leave the house again while the shamans blow over smoked pepper
which they distribute to the elders who eat it. As this goes on, the
initiates and younger men outside the house pelt the roof with green
assai fruit so that it sounds ‘boro boro boro’.
The dance that follows the playing of the He in the house is not
attended by the initiates who must remain outside the house separated
from the women inside. They walk round and round the outside of
the house blowing the He trumpets. They do not see the dancing in
the house but the elders periodically come out to dance on the plaza
in front of them. The dance that is danced and sung is called He
daroa munganyaro and is danced using gourd rattles. During the dance,
the shamans do protective blowing for the initiates and following it,
they blow spells over fish caught with poison, big fish and game
animals. These foods are eaten only by the elders; the initiates must
wait till after pepper has been blown for them before they can eat
these foods.

The blowing of pepper for the initiates and the dance that follows

According to the Barasana, though many people are invited to attend

He House, very few in fact do so as they do not want to be burdened
by the taboos and restrictions that follow it. They say however that
94
He House: the main initiation rite

house containing cassava bread (nahu kutiria wi) is the most popular
kind of dance there is and that everyone who can likes to attend.
They compare this dance to the fiestas that are put on in the Catholic
mission stations. During the period that follows He House the women
of the house make large quantities of cassava bread made entirely of
starch (thicker than the sireria mentioned above) which they then
store away. One woman is responsible for seeing that this bread is
made and she must keep a variety of alimentary and other restrictions
‘as if she was menstruating’. Invitations are then sent out for the
dance and in particular the guests who attended He House are invited
as it is at this dance that they receive the shamanised foods that end
their period of fasting.
Pepper is blown for the initiates two months after the end of He
House. Before dawn on the day before this is done, the shamans take
the initiates and younger men to the port to bathe and vomit in
preparation for the rite. That evening, the two shamans sit in their
enclosure blowing spells into gourds containing smoked capsicum
peppers mixed with coca, placed on hourglass-shaped stands. They
both dress ceremonially with their legs and thighs covered in intricate
patterns of black paint (in contrast to the uniform paint applied prior
to He House), feather crowns on their heads, necklaces of jaguar
incisors round their necks, garters below their knees, etc. This time,
rather than muttering their spells they chant them together and as
they do so they enter a trance-like state. They become He People.
Manioc-stick Anaconda and Old Callicebus Monkey, the ancestral
shamans. Their chants refer to the origins of all the different varieties
of pepper. The pepper is referred to as the ‘sun’s plant’ and they
describe how Romi Kumu, the creatress (see M. 1), gave it to the first
shaman. He Jaguar (He Yai), Old Callicebus Monkey (Wau Buku),
who gave it to all people. When the shamans have finished, the in¬
itiates are called up to eat the pepper. They must chew a small quantity
of pepper and at the same time drink very hot boiled manioc juice
(manicuera, nyuka).22 When the initiates have finished, the other
men, in rough order of seniority, come up and do the same.
In the morning of the next day the shamans again dress themselves
and blow spells into pepper but this time without the admixture of
coca. While they do this the initiates are taken to the forest by their
mason to collect small fish called hoa (unidentified sp.) from the

22 Tukano initiates are also made to chew peppers (see Briizzi da Silva 1962 : 438).

95
The rites described
traps that they have set in small streams. The elders go oft to pick
coca in the manioc gardens, accompanied by visiting men who have
arrived for the dance. While they are away from the house, the
shamans destroy the initiates’ compartment and place their hammocks
in the middle front of the house where they will sleep from now on.
They also remove the baskets of special food and generally reorder
the house. At midday, when the initiates return, they are once again
made to eat pepper and drink hot drink, this time in much larger
quantities. The women cook the small fish brought in by the in¬
itiates with manioc leaves and the shamans then distribute portions
of this food, into which they have blown spells. When each person
has eaten the blown food, a meal is served of these fish; two different
pots are used, one for the initiates and young men and one for the
elders.23
After this the initiates go to the men’s port to bathe. When they
return to the house they paint their legs with black paint, this time
with the intricate designs used at dances, and put feather crowns on
their heads. (The following section, not done at the rite seen by me,
is based on informants’ accounts.) The initiates and other men then
enter the house where they form a circle in the middle, holding hands.
The shamans call out, ‘Here are the ones we have blown, see how
their dirt (the black paint applied at the start of He House) has washed
away, who wants them? Come gahe masa romiri (brother’s daughters),
come buhibana romiri (brother’s wives and their sisters), come and
make them beautiful.’ The women come forward and paint each boy
and man from head to foot with red paint, paying special attention
to the initiates. They put strings of beads round their necks and new
garters round their legs below the knees and give them gourds and
packets of red paint. Then the initiates and other men go off to fetch
all the baskets that they have made during the period following He
House. Calling out ‘Here my henyerio’, they give the baskets to the
particular women who have painted them. This rite, called taking a
henyerio, establishes a special ceremonial friendship and trading
partnership between the man and the woman who paints him. From
then on the man calls the women my henyerio and the woman calls
him my henyeri. The significance of this relationship is discussed below.
In addition to giving basketry to these women, the initiates also give

23 One informant told me that in the past the initiates would have their ears and nasal
septa pierced on this day, but others said that ear piercing took place when children
were around three years old.

96
He House: the main initiation rite

baskets to their masori and masorio and to the two shamans who
officiated at He House. These gifts of basketry are seen as payments
by the initiates for the services of these people. As the initiates give
baskets to the shamans, they call they yu-gu, my tortoise. (End of
section based on informants’ accounts.)
Once this is over, the initiates begin to dance. They dance oko
wewo dance, holding small whistles in their hands. These whistles,
called oko wewo, are made from pieces of hollow cane painted with
geometrical designs in red and yellow and with conical basket-like
structures attached to the ends and decorated with white down. From
the end of these ‘baskets’ hang streamers, also decorated with down
and ending in tassels of yellow feathers. As the initiates and younger
men dance, more and more guests arrive. As each party arrives, the
hosts chant greetings with them and then join them for longer sessions
of chanting. The shamans blow spells into bundles of panpipes which
are then handed round so that each man present can blow into them
(compare p. 54 when the He are removed from the house at Fruit
House). Then the men begin to play and dance with the panpipes,
the first time that they are used after the end of He House. The
younger men dance on through the night whilst the others chant,
talk and prepare coca and the women prepare beer. Maize to make
beer is also prepared by the men who are assisted in this by the
women; this is the first joint activity since the start of He House.
The initiates sleep early to be woken the next morning to bathe and
vomit before dawn.
In the morning the shamans’ compartment is demolished and the
sacred equipment that was kept there is put away. Throughout the
day of the small dance, oko wewo dance is danced. A full set of dances
is danced, each interspersed with sessions of chanting as described in
chapter 3. The dancers, mostly the initiates and young men, wear
feather crowns (buya buku-bedo) and no yage is served. In the middle
of the house, inside the dance path next to post 6, there stands a
huge round pile of cassava bread about three feet in diameter and
more than four feet high. The whole pile is wrapped in brilliant
white leaves bound with bark string and into the top are stuck red
macaw tail feathers.
After dark, the shaman goes out to prepare yage on the plaza in
front of the house. As he does this, men begin to prepare themselves
for dancing. These men, mostly elders who have not so far been
dancing, will dance cassava dance (riahu basa) which forms the second
97
The rites described
section (the big dance) of the rite. They wear full feather head¬
dresses (maha hoa) and the full complement of ritual ornaments.
As the dance changes from the small dance to the big dance, so also
does the kind of beer being served. During the small dance beer
made from manioc and other roots is served but this now changes
to beer made from maize.
At around midnight, when the yage is ready to be served, the
dancers in full dress go out of the house where they form a long line,
each man with both hands on the shoulders of the one in front. The
leader of the line, the main dancer, plays on a whistle made from a
deer skull covered in resin. To the sound of ‘peeee-ru, peeee-ru,
peeee-ru’ from this whistle, the dance line moves slowly into the
house crouching and rocking in unison from one foot to the other
in imitation of the movements of a deer. As they advance, the
shaman walks slowly backwards in front of them down the middle
of the house to the female end, carrying the pot of yage. He stops
just beyond posts 5 and 6 and claps his hands, upon which the dance
line stands up. He hands yage to the first pair in the line who drink
and then shuffle with quick steps round the dance path to the middle
right of the house. The line slowly forms up as each pair is served.
When the line is complete, the shaman hands a gourd of coca and
the ceremonial cigar to each dancer. Then the line dances round post
5 and up the middle of the house, driving the shaman backwards in
front of them as they go. When they reach the male end of the house,
the line breaks up. This dance, called deer dance, is done only at
house containing cassava bread following He House. The initiates
must dance on the very end of the line. They must keep their heads
down and must not look in front or to either side, nor must they
rock from side to side as the other dancers do. If they look up they
would be eaten by jaguars in the same way that jaguars eat deer.
Immediately after this, the second section of the dance, the big
dance, begins. The cassava dance (nahu basa) is danced and sung by
dancers wearing full head-dresses — those who did the deer dance.
They hold oko wewo whistles in their hands which they blow in
unison from time to time. At the end of the dance line dance two
initiates, each holding a jaguar leg bone in his hand. These bones are
wound with ruffs of brilliant yellow Oropendola feathers (the same
ruffs that are placed on the He flutes) and look like sunbursts. The
dancers who earlier danced oko wewo dance now go out and dance
hia basa which starts and ends outside the house on the plaza.
98
He House: the main initiation rite

The dancing goes on through the night and into the next day.
At midday, the chant session, pouring out the beer, is held. The
senior hosts and guests walk to the female end of the house. The
chanter carries a long rattle-lance (murucu, besuu). This lance is
decorated at one end with engraved designs, white down and feather
streamers. At the other end there is a swelling filled with small
quartz pebbles.24 Standing between the two shamans, the chanter
holds the lance in one hand and hits it with the other causing it to
rattle with a rapidly increasing tempo ‘t t t t 11 tttt\ At the
same time, the young men of the dance line go to the long canoe¬
like trough of beer in the middle of the house and pound it with
their fists in unison with the noise of the rattle-lance. They take
beer from the trough and hand it round to the elders gathered at
the female end of the house. There is then a short chant session
after which everyone returns to the male end. There they sit between
posts 1 and 2 and a much longer session of chanting is held. After
chanting for more than an hour, the elders again return to the female
end with the chanter hitting the lance against his shoulder as he walks.
Another chant session is held there after which the elders return to
the male end of the house and dancing starts once more. After a
short period, the shamans call the initiates to give away their re¬
maining basketry to the women. This time different women paint
different initiates and give them more paint, beads and garters.
The dance ends just before dusk. After the shamans have removed
the feather head-dresses from the heads of the dancers, the pile of
cassava bread is distributed. The senior host calls up each person in
the house, starting with the most important elders, and gives them
a batch of cassava bread. Apart from the senior men, everyone
receives roughly the same quantity of cassava bread, even quite small
children. Soon after this everyone goes to sleep.
The shamans spend the following day blowing spells into gourds
of different kinds of food and then distributing them to the men. For
the elders, almost all of the remaining prohibited foods are made safe
to eat at this point but the initiates must wait considerably longer
until all food has been shamanised for them. The last food to be
blown is tapir meat; I have no data on what happens when this food
is blown among the Barasana but among the Tukano this occasion
was marked by a dance festival. During this dance, the dancers would

24 See Koch-Grtinberg (1909/10, vol. 1 : 345) for an illustration of this lance.

99
The rites described
imitate the movements of the tapir. At midnight, the shaman blew
spells over tapir meat and then distributed it to the initiates. As they
ate, the other men again danced in imitation of the tapir while
outside the house the Yurupary were played (Stradelli 1890a : 450).

Fruit House and He House compared

The Barasana say that all the items of ceremonial equipment used at
Fruit House are simply man-made imitations of sacred objects, created
in mythic times together with the universe itself, that are used ex¬
clusively during He House. These sacred objects each have their own
myth of origin whilst their man-made counterparts have none. Thus,
for example, the sacred elbow ornaments used during He House are
the ones made by the Red Squirrel Timoka during the dance at which
Yeba, the ancestor of the Barasana, gave fruit to his father-in-law Fish
Anaconda (Wai Hino) (see M.7.I.4); those used at Fruit House were
mostly made no more than two generations ago. The relationship
between the ceremonial equipment used at the two rites will be further
discussed in part III.
Informants also state that the rite of Fruit House is itself simply a
reduced and attenuated imitation of He House. Limitations of space
make a point-by-point comparison of the rites impossible, but I
think it is safe to say that if the reader compares the descriptions
given above or compares table 2 with table 3, he will see that what
the Barasana say is indeed true. The parallel is most obvious between
the rites themselves; it is less obvious between the subsequent events
in each case. I shall therefore attempt to make this more explicit.
At the end of He House, the screen separating the men from the
women is removed and the women once again enter the main part of
the house. Their contact with the men is however very limited and
as soon as they enter, the men retire to the plaza in front of the house.
For the rest of the marginal period that follows He House the men
remain at the extreme front end of the house and spend most of
their time out on the plaza. During the whole of this period it is
forbidden to play panpipes or any other musical instruments except
the He. At the dance of house containing cassava bread that marks
the end of the marginal period, the men and women are once again
fully reintegrated, the men no longer spend their time at the front
of the house and the taboo on musical instruments is lifted.
During Fruit House, as soon as the He are removed from the house
100
He House: the main initiation rite
at dusk, the screen separating the men from the women is again
removed and the women re-enter the main part of the house. As the
women come in, the men leave the house to sit out on the plaza.
After a short time, the shaman blows over panpipes thus making
them safe to use, and then the men come back in again. This brief
period out on the plaza between Fruit House and the dance that
follows it corresponds to the period, also spent largely outside the
house on the plaza between He House and the dance, house of
cassava bread, that follows it.
The correspondence between the two rites can also be shown
in another way: all Barasana dance rituals are divided into two
sections called the small dance and the big dance. During the small
dance, the dancers, mostly younger men, wear simple feather crowns;
during the big dance, a different group of dancers, mostly older men,
wear the full complement of ritual ornament, including elaborate
feather head-dresses. The end of each section is marked by the
chant session called pouring out the beer and by the change in dress
and groups of dancers outlined above. The overall pattern of He
House corresponds exactly to the division of a dance into these two
sections: during the first part, young men dressed in feather crowns
play trumpets; the end of this section is marked by the chant session
pouring out the beer and after this elder men, wearing full head¬
dresses, play the long flutes.
In one sense, the whole period during which the He are in the house
at Fruit House corresponds both to the small dance of ordinary
dances and to the first section of He House during which young men
play trumpets. Similarly, the dance which follows Fruit House cor¬
responds both to the big dance of ordinary dances, and to the second,
flute-playing, section of He House. This correspondence is in terms of
the sequence of chant sessions. However, I have argued above that
Fruit House as a whole corresponds to He House, also as a whole, and
that the dance following Fruit House corresponds to the final dance
that follows He House. If this is so, then one would expect to find
that Fruit House would itself be divided into two sections, corre¬
sponding to those of He House. Here the correspondence is only
partial: during Fruit House, the chant session pouring out the beer
(which marks the ends of both the small dance and the big dance) is
held only once, whilst at He House it is held twice. Thus, in terms of
sessions of chanting, Fruit House is not divided into two sections.
But in other terms it is so divided, for during the first part it is the
101
The rites described

young men, wearing either feather crowns or no ornament at all,

who play the trumpets, whilst in the second part it is the elders,
wearing either feather crowns or full head-dresses, who play the
flutes. Thus, the contrast between feather crown and feather
head-dress that marks the transition between the small dance and
the big dance, may be weakened to that between no ornament at
all and feather crowns, but the contrast itself remains operative.
During Fruit House, the transition between the two sections, marked
at He House by the chant session called pouring out the beer, is
marked instead by the tipping out of fruit.
This argument is somewhat condensed; to make it otherwise
would require an extended description and analysis of Barasana
dances not involving the use of He instruments. In itself, it is not of
great significance for the discussion that follows; it merely sub¬
stantiates what the Barasana themselves say: that Fruit House is
an attenuated replica of He House. I have gone into some detail in
order to demonstrate that I am not being misleading when, in some
sections of part III, I use arguments concerning He House to cover
Fruit House as well. Whilst it is relatively easy to interpret certain
features of Fruit House in the light of He House, it would be virtually
impossible to work the other way round. Yet, assuming that a rite
equivalent to He House occurs elsewhere in the Vaupes region, this
is exactly what other writers have tried to do, for their analyses are
based upon accounts of rites that correspond to the Barasana Fruit
House. Many people have emphasised that the Yurupary cult is of
central importance for an understanding of Tukanoan religion, but
their analyses have not so far offered a convincing account of why
this should be so. Having described these rites in detail, I shall now
try to analyse them and to place them in the wider context of Barasana
society, religion and cosmology.

102
 PART III

Explanation and analysis

Explanation and analysis

Here, the rites of Fruit House and He House, described in part II, are analysed
from a number of different perspectives. I attempt to account for the details
of the rites themselves, and having done so, to relate them to a wider picture
of Barasana religious life. In order to do this, I make frequent reference both
to the accounts of the rites given above, and also to a corpus of myth from the
Barasana and their neighbours, presented in part V. In addition, I introduce a
considerable amount of explanatory detail, some derived from informants’
statements relating to the myths, the rites and to Indian society in the Vaupes
more generally, and some from observations made in the field.
My basic argument is first, that many features of the rites only become
fully comprehensible when related to myth, a view shared by the Barasana, and
secondly, that it is through ritual that the myths, held to be of such central
importance by the Barasana, are articulated with social structure and action
‘on the ground’. Thus, by focussing selectively on a particular ritual complex
rather than attempting to describe and analyse mythology and religion in general,
important insights can be gained about the Barasana religious system and its
place in the society at large. In chapter 5, I show how the different categories
of participants attending the rites relate to the wider structure of Barasana
society. Chapters 6, 7 and 8 are devoted to an extended analysis of the sig¬
nificance of certain material objects used in the rites. Certain themes, such as
the role of the shaman, the relation between the sexes, symbolic menstruation,
the relation between ritual organisation and social structure, the role of the
He instruments as representatives of sib and descent-group ancestors, etc.,
raised in chapter 5, are taken up again and expanded in the light of this analysis.
In chapter 9, the spatio-temporal structure of the rites is examined in relation
to that of their associated myths, and the theme of symbolic death and rebirth
is discussed. Chapter 10 is exploratory in nature; in it, I try to show how the
rite of He House relates to wider aspects of Barasana cosmology, and how some
of my conclusions concerning the significance of the objects used in the rites
relate to some of the arguments presented by Levi-Strauss in his analysis of
South American Indian mythology (1968, 1970, 1971, 1973).

104
5
The participants

During the rites of He House and Fruit House, five major categories
of people are involved: initiates, young men, elders, shamans and
women. These categories, recognised by the Barasana themselves,
are the same as those employed in tables 2 and 3 which summarise
the two rites in synoptic form. The object of this chapter is to
describe the attributes of these different categories of people and to
show their significance in relation to their different activities during
the rites.

Initiates

The initiates are referred to as ria masa, an expression that more

generally means children of either sex. Children live in an undifferen¬
tiated, asexual world: both sexes play together and spend most of their
time with their mothers and with other adult women. They are tied
to their immediate nuclear family and to the female world in general.
They sleep next to their mothers and fathers inside the family com¬
partments situated along the side walls of the house towards its rear
end (see fig. 2). They are not expected to take part in productive
activities and most of their time is spent in playing. They are called
by their proper names (basere wame, shamanism name) or by nick¬
names (ahari wame). They are not expected to know, to have knowl¬
edge (masi-), and frequently make incorrect use of kinship terminology,
especially when applied to outsiders. In general, they are considered
to be young and irresponsible.
Around the age of six or seven, female children are increasingly
expected to take an active part in the productive work of women,
especially with regard to the cultivation and processing of manioc.
At the same time boys begin to devote more time to playing at the
105
Explanation and analysis

masculine pursuits of hunting and fishing; these activities are en¬

couraged by the men who begin to take them on hunting and fishing
trips to the forest. They also begin to teach the boys skills and
techniques and knowledge about their environment. An integral
part of this teaching is the telling of myths. Fathers begin to watch
their sons for signs of increasing maturity and the decision to start
the process of initiation is taken when the child is deemed ready.
One of the reasons given for initiation is that it starts the process
of growing up and that if it were not done the boys would not
become adult.
Fruit House, as the first stage of initiation, does not bring about
any dramatic change in the life of a young boy. Around the age of
eight or nine, when boys undergo this rite, they will already have
begun to show signs of maturity. This gradual process of growing
up continues as the boys repeatedly take part in Fruit House rites.
They remain classed as na masa but there is a gradual incorporation
into adult male society with a corresponding break in ties with the
women. The boys play less and less with girls and begin to attach
themselves to the company of older boys.1 They hunt and fish in a
more serious manner but instead of contributing to the communal
supply of food, they give their catch to their mothers to cook and
then eat it on their own. Increasingly they spend time in the company

begin also to take an active part in ritual, playing the short flutes
during Fruit House and dancing, half jokingly, on the ends of the
dance line at this and other dances.
As they get older, boys begin to resent being addressed in public
by their proper names or nicknames and begin to demand that they
be called either by their Colombian names or, more usually, by the
appropriate kinship terms. Correspondingly, they themselves begin
to apply correct kinship terminology to a wider social universe. They
are however still basically tied to their nuclear families and continue
to sleep in their family compartments.
For Barasana men, the process of education and learning, especially
in matters related to religion and ritual, continues throughout their
lives. However He House, the main initiation rite is considered to be
1 Among the Cubeo, boys of between about eight and fourteen years old form discrete
play-packs (Goldman 1963 : 177). The small size and scattered distribution of long-
houses in the Pira-parana area probably preclude the formation of such play-packs, but
the kind of semi-isolated young boys’ society described by Goldman does tend to form
whenever many households gather together for dances or other communal activities.

106
The participants

both the climax and end of a more intensive period of education.

It also marks a fairly abrupt change in the life of a boy. The can¬
didates for He House, aged between twelve and fourteen, are still (I'L-Uf)
referred to as children. Immediately after the rite they are referred fiUiWLwM*
to as ngamua (sing, ngamu). Ngamo, the feminine form of the word,
is applied to a girl who menstruates for the first time and, in a
general sense, from then on till she marries. It is also applied more
generally to menstruating women. After their first Fruit House rite,
the initiates are said to be ‘a little bit ngamu-', but only after He
House are they truly ngamur. The initiates remain ngamu- until the
end of the period of restrictions following He House. During this
period they are said to be bedira, in confinement and under taboos;
menstruating women are also bedira. At the end of their period of
confinement the initiates are then classed as young men (mamara).

Young men

The word mamara (sing, mamu-), is applied to all initiated young

men who are not yet married. The feminine mamo applies to nubile
but unmarried women.
After He House, the final stage of initiation, the ties that a young
man had to the world of women and children and to his nuclear
family are realigned towards the wider society of adult men. At the
same time he is initiated into a secret cult, exclusive to adult men
and centred on the sacred flutes and trumpets. During the period
following He House, the initiates sleep in a special compartment
constructed at the extreme male end of the house next to the men’s
door (see fig. 2). This stands in opposition to the rear of the house,
the women’s section. After the initiates’ compartment has been
destroyed (during the shamanism of pepper) they must sleep in the
middle of the men’s end of the house. They continue to sleep in this
area until they get married, whereupon they build new compartments,
for themselves and their wives, along the side walls towards the rear
of the house.
Schaden (1959 : 159) has suggested that the ‘religion of Jurupari’
should be studied in relation to the institution of the men’s house
across the whole South American continent and to its corresponding
myths and rites. I think it can be argued that the unmarried Barasana
men sleeping in the middle of the front part of the house are in a
homologous position to the bachelors in the men’s house located in
107
Explanation and analysis

the centre of the circular villages of Central Brazilian Indians. In

these villages, the central area is associated with exclusive male society
and with sacred, ritual life whereas the periphery is the domain of
family life, women and profane activities such as cooking. The same
is true of a Barasana longhouse: the central area is associated with
sacred, ritual activities, dancing and extra-longhouse social life. At
night the men sit between posts 3 and 4 (see fig. 2), conversing
and taking coca and tobacco, both ritual ‘non-foods’. The edge of
the house is the area of domestic, family life and of women and it
is here that cooking and other profane activities are carried out. At
night, as the men sit in the middle of the house, the women sit
towards posts 7 and 8, often eating snacks of food. The very centre
of the house, the area between posts 3, 4, 5 and 6, is considered to
be semi-sacred and is rarely used at all, except for the eating of
communal meals. When very large amounts of meat or fish are
served, and when there are no visitors present, the men and women
eat together from a pot in the very middle of the house. At other
times they usually eat from different pots, slightly apart and off
centre, towards the rear of the house.
These oppositions can be summarised as follows:

Centre of house / Periphery of house

sacred / profane
men / women (and children)
social life / domestic life
ritual activity / non-ritual activity
consumption of food (daytime) / production of food (daytime)
cooked food / raw food
‘non-food’ (night-time) / food (night-time)

This system is homologous to another which opposes the front of

the house to the back. The front is the men’s domain where they sit,
work and talk during the daytime and it is here that all ritual activity
takes place. When visitors are staying in the house, their men do not
normally go beyond posts 1 and 2 except when specifically invited
to do so (usually to eat). At night, they sleep along the side walls
of the front of the house if accompanied by women and children or
in the middle front of the house if alone. The back of the house, the
women’s section, is the centre of domestic life. It is here that the
family compartments are located, where the processing and cooking
108
The participants
of manioc takes place and where women and children are confined
during secret male rites involving He. The preparation of coca,
tobacco and snuff, all ‘non-foods’, involves cooking which is done
by men along the side walls towards the front of the house.
Thus:

Front of house / Back of house

sacred / profane
men / women (and children)
social life / domestic life
visitors (guests) / residents (hosts)
ritual activity / non-ritual activity
consumption of food / production of food
cooked food / raw food
‘non-food’ / food

This digression about the symbolic significance of spatial arrange¬

ment in a Barasana longhouse is required, in this context, to demon¬
strate that the difference between a child sleeping in a family com¬
partment at the rear and side of the house and an initiated young
man sleeping in the middle and front of the house is of more than
simply practical significance. During He House this opposition is
elaborated upon, for on the final night of the rite the initiates and
younger men must sleep as far towards the rear of the house as
possible, but when the rite is over the initiates must sleep as far to
the front of the house as is possible, inside the initiates’ compart¬
ment. From then on till the end of the marginal period they must
remain at the front of the house at all times. Thus the break between
the initiates and the female world is expressed in terms of space.
In sleeping in the front middle of the house, the young men are
in a sense identified with visitors or outsiders. Young men are neither
fully adult, as they are as yet unmarried, nor are they children. They
are thus in a real sense in a liminal position and form a definite sub¬
group within Barasana society. The most notable feature of this is
that they spend a considerable portion of their time travelling around
and visiting other houses, often up to a week’s journey away. Today,
this travelling period is often spent working on mission stations or
tapping rubber for Colombian rubber gatherers. Apart from seeing
the world and widening their social universe, young men also travel
to make contact with unmarried girls for sex and ultimately for
marriage. In particular, they try to attend as many dances as possible
109
Explanation and analysis

as it is at dances that most liaisons are made. A man must not marry
nor have sexual relations until he has been initiated. At initiation,
there is thus a passage from the asexual world of childhood to the
sexual world of adults. From an outsider’s point of view, one of the
most noticeable manifestations of this is the incidence of joking
sexual play among initiated but unmarried men. Before initiation, a
boy’s closest ties, to people of his own age group, will be those to
his brothers (own Bs and FBSs). After initiation these ties become
increasingly more formal and restrained while those with ‘brothers-
in-law’ (tenyua, male affines of the same genealogical level) become
increasingly close and familiar. A young man will often lie in a ham¬
mock with his ‘brother-in-law’, nuzzling him, fondling his penis and
talking quietly, often about sexual exploits with women.2 True and
close classificatory brothers never indulge in such activities with
each other. In addition to this play, ‘brothers-in-law’ very often
assist each other in sexual escapades involving each other’s true or
close classificatory sisters.
Young men are given over to personal display, bathing frequently
and encouraging the formation of a greasy covering on their faces
by anointing them with pepper juice and pouring this same juice into
their nostrils through leaf-funnels. They also paint their faces each
day with red paint, an activity called making new or fresh (mamongu-)
and stick sweet-smelling herbs under their G-strings and under the
bracelets of black beads they wear on their biceps.3 The handsome,
well-painted and sweet-smelling youth is one aspect of the Barasana
concept of the warrior (guamu). The other aspect is an emphasis on
the qualities of hardness, strength, endurance and the ability to do
without sleep. Each morning, the young men are expected to get up
before dawn and go to the river to bathe and vomit to clean out
their stomachs. They also thump the water with their hands and arms
producing a loud noise that can be heard in the house and which tells
2 Ldvi-Strauss (1943) has described similar ‘homosexual’ play between ‘brothers-in-law’
amongst the Nambikuara. Such play probably does not entail sexual satisfaction and
continues, as it does amongst the Barasana, after the partners are married. Nevertheless,
it appears to provide unmarried men with an outlet for sentimental effusions (Ldvi-
Strauss, personal communication).
Missionaries working in the Pira-parana area are frequently shocked by the apparent
homosexual behaviour of Indian men. However, the Barasana distinguish between this
playful sexual activity and serious male homosexuality, regarding the latter as repugnant.
This play, rather than coming from a frustration of ‘normal’ desires, is itself seen as
being normal behaviour between ‘brothers-in-law’ and expresses their close, affectionate
and supportive relationship.
3 The smell of these herbs is said to attract women.

110
The participants

the world how strong they are. Bathing makes the men strong and
hard in particular by making them cold. Coldness and hardness are
linked together and associated with men; heat and softness are
similarly linked and associated with women. Young men are ex¬
pected to remain as cold as possible at all times.
Unlike uninitiated boys, young men hunt and fish in a serious
manner, putting their catch to the communal food supply; they devote
much time to these pursuits as they are keen to display their skills.
They also take an active part in such activities as house building and
felling the forest to make manioc gardens: a young man of sixteen or
seventeen will very often fell his own garden which is then used by
his mother or sister. People who have been initiated at the same
initiation rite call each other my kamokukbh,4 a term which replaces
the normal kinship terminology between them. They are expected
to be particularly close companions, and in a more general way,
young, unmarried men as a whole form a close and friendly group.
This is especially noticeable at dances where they are the ones who
play panpipes most of all, dancing with them in a stylised, prancing
manner in order to attract the attentions of the women. They drink
as much as they can. dance for as long as possible (often well after
the formal dancing is over) and behave generally in a boisterous,
energetic and slightly aggressive manner.
The wearing of ritual ornaments is reserved for initiated men.
After their first Fruit House, boys can wear feather crowns (buy a
buku-bedo) (see plate 3); during this rite these feather crowns are
placed on the boys’ heads after the ritual washing outside the house.
After He House, fully initiated young men can wear the head-dresses
called maha hoa (see plate 4). Thus the contrast between feather
crowns and feather head-dresses signals the contrast between younger
and older. Finally, it is only after they have been initiated that
young men may begin to eat coca, smoke tobacco and take snuff
in a regular way, and at the same time, it is then that young men
begin to take part in the adult men’s conversational circle where,
each night, these substances are consumed. At Fruit House boys
consume these substances, in a ritual context, for the first time.
The distinction between the category young men and elders is
essentially that between unmarried and married and it is not until
a man is married that he is considered to be fully adult.5 The Barasana
4 I am unable to give a translation for this term.
5 This is true as a generalisation, though an obviously mature and elderly man would

111
Explanation and analysis
do not have a marriage ceremony as such but during the dance of
house containing cassava bread that marks the end of the initiate’s
period of confinement there is a ritualisation of adult relationships
between men and women.6 This is the rite of taking a henyerio, in
which the women paint the initiates who give them basketry in
return; though other men may be painted during this rite, the focus
of attention is upon the initiates. This rite sets up an exchange
partnership between the initiate and the woman who painted him
which endures throughout his adult life. As described above, the
man calls the woman my henyerio and she calls him my henyeri,
terms which replace the usual kinship terms between them.7 Men
give their henyerio basketry (carrying baskets, sieves, manioc presses,
etc.) and today, merchandise obtained from Colombians, especially
salt, cloth and combs. In return, women give packets of red paint,
gourds, garters and occasional gifts of food such as smoked ants or
caterpillars. They also paint their henyeri with red and black paint
before and during dances, and paint their garters with yellow ochre
and red paint. In addition to this, men often give raw fish or meat
to their henyerio to cook for them and they should make friendly
conversation with, and tell news to, these women.
Certain comments should be made about the objects exchanged;
first, women make garters at all times, but in particular they weave
them during menstrual confinement. Similarly, men make baskets
at all times, but in particular they make them during the marginal
period following He House. This period is a period of confinement
(as is menstruation) and the same term, bedigie, bedigo applies to
both. Secondly, basketry is used as a gift between affines (see M.4.E.1)
and in particular, men make basketry for their mothers-in-law. The
Barasana also say that men give basketry to their wives in exchange
for the labour involved in making cassava bread from manioc and that
the ability to make basketry is a prerequisite of adult status — it is
for this reason that basket making is systematically taught to the
initiates after He House. Thirdly, the act of cooking food for an adult
man is taken, in other contexts, to be one indicator of the fact that

certainly be considered to be adult. The restrictions on adult but unmarried men among
the Waiwai (Fock 1963 : 138) do not apply among the Barasana.
6 Marriage among the Barasana is treated in full by Christine Hugh-Jones (1979).
7 Informants would not translate this term beyond saying that it is the name of a ceremonial
trading partner. However, the verb root heni- means to catch alight (of a fire) and in
nyango heni- means to talk together or converse. In both cases there is the connotation
of something passing between objects or people.

112
The participants

the man and the woman who cooks for him are related as man and
wife. It is for this reason that the refusal of Manioc-stick Anaconda’s
wife to cook fish for him (see M.6.A.56—9) was of such importance.
Finally, at dances, men may be painted by one of three categories
of women: their wives, their sisters or their henyerio partners.
In saying all this, I do not wish to imply that the rite of taking a
henyerio is in any sense a marriage ceremony. The Barasana say that
a man’s henyerio is like his sister and that the relationship has no
sexual connotations. Furthermore, a man’s henyerio may be of an
affinal group but may also belong to the same exogamous group or
even the same sib as himself; his wife must always be from a different
exogamous group. What I am saying is that the henyerio relationship
introduces the initiates to a general form of socially approved and
recognised relationship between men and women, of which marriage
is a particular case.8 In this light it is interesting to compare the
Barasana to the Akwe-Shavante and Kayapo. At the end of Shavante
initiation, by lying momentarily with young girls who later become
their wives, the initiates enter into what Maybury-Lewis (1967 :
75—90) calls ‘a communal state of wedlock’. At the end of Kayapo
initiation, the initiates spend a night next to young girls but these
girls rarely if ever become their actual wives. Turner (n.d.) describes
this as ‘a symbolic dramatization of the boy’s assumption of affinal
ties which has no binding implications for his marriage in real life’.
The henyerio rite could be said to be the weakest form of a series,
the strongest form of which is Shavante marriage and the intermediary
form, the Kayapo rite. But unlike the Shavante and Kayapo who
stress both affinity and a potential sexual relationship, the Barasana
stress merely the aspect of exchange. Finally, it should be added
that the suori relationship, created during He House when men paint
men, is a ceremonial friendship, seen as equivalent to the henyerio
relationship but one which does not involve institutionalised trading.9

8 Riviere (1971) argues that marriage as an isolable phenomenon of study is a misleading

illusion and that it should be studied as one of the socially approved and recognised
relationships between the conceptual roles of men and women.
9 The Cubeo hiku—hiko relationship is virtually identical to thehenyeri-henyerio relation¬
ship of the Barasana. However, among the Cubeo the relationship is always between
members of the same sib or phratry (i.e. the same exogamous group); this is not necessarily
true of the Barasana. Nor do I have any evidence to suggest that henyeri and henyerio
form a team in an exchange marriage and try to arrange the marriage of their children to
one another, as they do among the Cubeo.
Among the Cubeo, the relationship is also formed by the women painting the man with
red paint, referred to as ‘blood’. This is done at a drinking party (what I call a social
dance (basaria wi)), but there is no indication given as to which particular drinking party,

113
Explanation and analysis

Immediately after they have given basketry to the women who

become their henyerio, the initiates call up the two officiating
shamans and present them with basketry too. This is in payment for
their services during initiation. At this point, they address the shamans
as my tortoise (yu-gu). From then on the initiates will use this term
instead of kinship terms, each time they address these men. (The
reference form is a guga.) In turn, the shamans now address the
initiates as my pepper (yurbia: the reference form is biaga and the
plural biase batia). Shamans who officiate at rites of birth and first
menstruation are also called gu,guga by the people for whom they
acted. In none of the cases recorded by me was either of the of¬
ficiating shamans at He House the father of one of the initiates,
though the Barasana say that he may be. In most cases the shaman
was of the same sib as the initiate but of a different household, but
in some instances he was of a different sib or of a different exogamic
group. (This follows from the fact that young boys of different exo¬
gamic groups are often initiated together.)
It can now be seen that at initiation, as at birth and first menstru¬
ation rites, a set of ties of ritual kinship are established between the
subject(s) of the rites and the most important actors, each one ex¬
pressed by terms of reference and address which replace the usual
kinship terms. For an initiate, these are as follows: between the
initiates and the officiating shamans (guga—biaga); between the
initiate and the ritual guardian (masori—masori) and between him
and the woman who provides pure food after the rite (masori—
masorio); between the initiate and the elder who carries him into
the house at the start of He House (umari—umari); between the
initiate and the woman who paints him and to whom he gives bas¬
ketry (henyeri—henyerio); between the initiate and those who paint
him with black paint during He House (suori—suori) and between all
the initiates who go through He House together (kamokuku-
kamokuku). The initiate’s guga, masori and umari are all said to be
like fathers or father’s brothers and his masorio like a mother (Spanish¬
speaking Indians say these relationships are like those between a
child and his padrino and madrina, godfather and godmother). The
henyerio is compared to a sister and the suori and kamokukir are
both compared to brothers. It is as if, after initiation, the initiate
is reborn with a new set of elementary kin. These ties of ritual kinship
if any, is involved, and no indication of a specific association with initiation, as there is
among the Barasana (Goldman 1963 : 130-4).

114
The participants

cross-cut those between the initiate and his nuclear family and long-
house community. This corresponds to the fact that, at initiation, a
person’s social universe is opened out to embrace people outside the
local group.

Elders

I have translated the Barasana category bukura as ‘elders’ to emphasise

their distinction from the younger men. The word buku does indeed
mean old as opposed to mama, young or new, but it also means adult,
mature or big. Objectively quite young people, particularly white
people with whom Indians are on familiar terms, are often addressed
or referred to by their name with buku- as a suffix. In this context
buku-is a mark of familiar respect. Long-dead ancestors and mythical
heroes are also referred to as bukura and myths are called bukura keti,
the tales of the ancients. But in general usage, the term bukura is
applied to adult, married men whatever their age may be.
The elders as a group are those who control Barasana society. They
are the people with knowledge and experience (masise), especially
with regard to matters of religion and ritual. The core of each long-
house consists of a group of married brothers or parallel cousins,
together with their wives and children. Often there will be one or both
parents still alive who are referred to as buku- (masculine) or bukuo
(feminine) without further clarification. In each house, the adult
men form a kind of informal council which arrives at decisions which
are then expressed by one of their number, the headman (usually the
eldest brother). These men are the ones who decide to hold dances
and who decide that their sons are ready for initiation. In this sense
they are the actors, the initiators, which the boys are those acted
upon, the initiated. During Fruit House and He House, it is the
elders (including the shamans who fall within this category) who are
the main actors and who fulfil the most important roles. They are
the lead dancers (baya) and the core of the dance line (baya koderi
masa, the people who accompany the dancer), the chanters (yoamara),
the chief hosts and principal guests, it is they who burn the beeswax
and distribute the substances blown over by the shamans, who carry
the initiates into the house at He House and who look after them
during initiation (see especially the role of masori, the ritual guardian
or father) and it is they who play the long flutes which are the focus
of attention throughout these rites.
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Explanation and analysis

At He House, there are four main categories of participant who

can be identified according to the different roles that they play.
These are elders, young men, initiates and shamans. Also added to
this list should be the non-participant women and children confined
in the rear of the house. The initiates occupy an intermediary status:
on the one hand they are identified with the women and children
from whose world they have been removed, but on the other hand
they are associated with the young men whom they will join.
These categories of participant correspond to the age-grades of
child, young man and elder through which each man must pass.
The elders who play the long flutes are all older men, married and
with children (bukura)\ the young men who play the trumpets are
initiated but unmarried (mamara); and the uninitiated boys, confined
in the rear of the house are the children (ria masa).10 Though the
shamans are technically married men belonging to the age-grade of
elders, during He House they are in many ways identified with the
initiates. Like the initiates, intermediary between children and young
men and between the male and female worlds, the shamans also have
intermediary characteristics. Thus we have:

Participants: elders young men initiates women and children

(shamans) shamans

Age-grades: elders young men (initiates) children

In chapter 2, it was stated that the Barasana, as an exogamic

descent group, are divided internally into a number of sub-groups,
each one ideally comprising five sibs ranked in seniority according
to a model of five brothers of decreasing age. Each sib is associated
with a particular ritual occupation: the top sib, Koamona, are chiefs
(bthara), the next, Rasegana, are dancers and chanters (bayaroa,
keti masa), the Meni Masa are warriors (guamara), the Daria are
shamans (kumua) and the Wabea are cigar lighters or servants (niuno
yori masa).

Sibs: Koamona Rasegana Meni Masa Daria Wabea

Occupation: chief chanter/ warrior shaman servant

dancer

10 According to Biocca (cit. Schaden 1959 : 154), the Tukano of the Rfo Tiquid are divided
into three categories (apart from women and children): (1) caciques and chiefs,

116
The participants

Within the local group, the men who form the core, as brothers
or parallel cousins, are also ranked according to order of birth. Patri-
lateral parallel cousins, treated as brothers, are ranked according to
the birth order of their fathers — so that a man’s father’s elder brother’s
son is his own elder brother, regardless of who in fact was born first.
The Barasana say that a group of brothers should take on specialist
occupations according to the order of their birth and, during the
rites of birth and name giving, they are differently treated by the
shaman to ensure that this happens. The eldest should become the
headman of the maloca (equivalent to chief), the next should either be
a chanter (yoamu-) or a dancer (baya), the next should be an exemplar
of the Barasana ideals of bravery and hardness and equivalent to a
warrior, and the last should be a shaman (kumu). In connection with
this last category, people usually cite the mythical precedent of
Kanea, the youngest of the Ayawa brothers, the Thunders, who was
their shaman (see M.2.A.4).11 This ideal correspondence between
birth order and specialist occupation does not always work out in
practice, but when it does, the fact is commented upon with approval.
The correspondence between the age-grades of Barasana society
and the participants at He House can thus be extended to include
that between birth order and specialist occupation at both an indi¬
vidual and sib level:

Sibling
order: 1 2 3 4 5
Sibs: Koamona Rasegana Meni Mas a Daria Wabea

Occupation: chief chanter/ warrior shaman servant

dancer
Participants: elders young men initiates women
(shamans) shamans and
children

Age grades elders young men (initiates) children

From this it can be seen that the structure of the male core of the
maloca community reproduces in miniature that of the wider descent

(2) the general population, (3) recently initiated young men, in ranked order. This strati¬
fication can be observed during Yurupary dances.
11 The youngest Thunder of the Tariana Yurupary myth is called ‘the Thunder that does
not give rise to hunger’ (see M.8.6). It is reasonable to assume that he too is a shaman on
the basis that shamans are the ones who oblige others to fast, either during rites of
passage or during the curing of illness. See also M.8.9.

117
Explanation and analysis

group, a theme that will be taken up again and amplified when the
significance of thq He instruments is discussed.
During He House and Fruit House, the age-categories of elders,
young men and initiates are marked off from each other in terms
of dress, in terms of the He instruments they play and in terms of
vertical and horizontal space. During the first part of He House,
the young men wear no feathers or other ritual ornaments at all
whilst a few of the elders wear simple feather crowns, and during
this section the predominant instruments are the trumpets played
by the younger men. The elders then put on full feather head-dresses
and other ritual ornaments while the younger men put on feather
crowns, and from then onwards the predominant instruments are
the long flutes played by the elders. Correspondingly, during the
first section of He House, the long flutes are undecorated whilst
during the second section, the engraved designs are filled with white
paint and ruffs of yellow feathers are put round the ends. The same
pattern can be observed at Fruit House, although, particularly on
the less formal occasions, the contrasts may be weakened.
Throughout both He House and Fruit House, the initiates and
shamans wear feather crowns. At other dances, the first section
(the small dance) is danced by younger men wearing feather crowns
whilst the second section (the big dance) is danced by elders wearing
feather head-dresses. I have already stated that after their first
Fruit House young initiates can wear feather crowns and that after
He House they can wear feather head-dresses. The above information
can now be summarised by saying that the contrast between feather
crowns and feather head-dresses signals the contrast between small
and big, younger and older, before and after, earlier and later.12
During He rituals, the long flutes are always played by the elders,
the trumpets by the young men, and the short flutes by the initiates
(or by the youngest boys present when Fruit House is not part of
an initiation). Thus:

elders : young men : initiates (boys)

long flutes : trumpets : short flutes

In addition to this, further contrasts should be noted: the long flutes

are played as a single pair at a time; the trumpets and short flutes are

12 According to Biocca, among the Tukano the difference in social position (see n. 10
above) was marked by a difference in dress.

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The participants

played as many pairs in a group. The long flutes play melodically and
harmonically with a slow, complex rhythm and with the players
moving slowly; the trumpets and short flutes play a single note with
a fast simple rhythm and with the players moving fast13 (see appendix
3).
In terms of horizontal space, the long flutes are played in the middle
of the house (except on entry and exit) while the trumpets and short
flutes are played round the dance path on the edge of the house and
during He House also round the outside of the house (see appendix 3).
At rest, the long flutes are placed vertically in the middle of the house
by post 3 while the trumpets and short flutes are placed horizontally
on the ground on the edge of the dance path. (During He House there
are certain exceptions: the short flutes are also placed upright in the
middle of the house together with one pair of trumpets, Old Star
(Nyoko Bukbt).)
In terms of vertical space, the shamans and elders sit on stools
during He House while the young men and initiates sit on mats on
the floor. Similarly, on the final night of He House, some of the elders
sleep in hammocks while all the young men and initiates sleep on
mats on the ground. In addition to the contrast between vertical and
horizontal when the He are not being used, during He House, when
the beeswax is burned, the trumpets are played with their ends as
low to the ground as possible, while during the acting-out of spearing,
the long flutes are played with their ends raised high in the air.
All this can be summarised as follows:

Elders Young men and initiates

feather head-dresses feather crowns

long flutes trumpets and short flutes
single pairs many pairs
melodic—harmonic unison
complex rhythm simple rhythm
slow fast
centre periphery
high low

13 The word for fast,guaro, contains the same root gua- as guamu-, a fierce man. Fastness
and fierceness are seen as being connected and it is therefore appropriate that the young
men (warriors) should move fast.

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Explanation and analysis

In conclusion it can be said that the age-grades of elders, on the

one hand, and young men and initiates, on the other, play distinct
roles during He rites and are marked off from each other by a series
of opposed attributes. The full significance of these oppositions will
be discussed below after more explanatory data has been introduced.

Shamans

The role of the shaman in Barasana society was briefly discussed in

chapter 2. Here, I shall confine my discussion to the attributes and
role of the shamans who officiate at He House.
Very few shamans have the necessary power and knowledge to
officiate at this rite. Those who do are known as kumu or as werea
koa baseri masa, the people who blow over the gourd of beeswax.
Officiating at He House is considered to be an onerous and dangerous
task. The successful outcome depends on the shamans’ abilities and
if they fail the results are disastrous, causing the deaths of many
people, in particular of the initiates. Objectively it is also a physically
exhausting task. For these reasons, the two officiating shamans are
paid in basketry and other goods by the other participants at the
dance that follows the rite. The shamans are the ones who know the
correct procedure and sequence of events for He House and they are
in control, as ‘masters of ceremony’, throughout the rite and sub¬
sequent events. Their task is to bring about a change in state in the
initiates, called changing the soul or spirit (btsu- wasoase), and also
to protect them and the other participants from illness and other
danger that may result from undergoing the rite. This danger comes
partly from contact with the ritual objects themselves, and partly
from mystical attack from enemy shamans and from the spirit world
upon the initiates, who are in an especially vulnerable condition. This
condition is compared to that of crabs and other animals that have
shed their old shells or skins. This is both a simple analogy and also
an allusion to the fact that He House is believed to bring about a
change of skin.
As the shamans blow spells during the rites, their souls are said to
leave their bodies and to travel between the different layers of the
cosmos (basically those of sky, earth and water). This ability to
mediate between different cosmic levels is seen as the key to the
shaman’s ability. Whilst telling the myth of Manioc-stick Anaconda
(M.6.A), an informant explained,
120
The participants

The whole of this myth is about shamanism. This is how the shamans travel, as
they see with their thoughts and cross between the levels of the world. At the
point where Macaw dug a hole and got rid of Manioc-stick Anaconda and went
away (M.6.A.5—7), the shaman goes down (to the Underworld) as he blows.
They go down to the Underworld as Manioc-stick Anaconda went down; then
again, as Manioc-stick Anaconda came up (after visiting the Ka People’s (termites)
house — M.6.A.41—2), so they come up again. This is the blowing and spell
against disease, everything, the blowing for food, the blowing for coca. This is
the real shaman’s path.

Thus, as they blow the spells, the shaman in spirit form relives the
myth.14
At He House, except when whipping the participants, serving the
yage, or accompanying the people as they bathe in the rivers, the
shamans remain secluded inside the palm-leaf enclosure constructed
during the Fruit House rite immediately before. The enclosure is
by post 1; at other rites involving the He instruments, no enclosure
is built but the shamans always sit in the same position (see fig. 2).
Inside their enclosure, the shamans are surrounded by gourds placed
on hourglass-shaped stands containing coca, snuff, beeswax, and
kana berries, by large ceremonial cigars, boxes of feather ornaments,
whips, bundles of yage and by a pair of He instruments called Old
Callicebus Monkey (Wau Buku). They wear feather crowns on their
heads and necklaces of jaguar canines and large cylinders of polished
white quartzite (called ‘stones’ but identified with jaguars) around
their necks. They sit on special old stools reserved for use during
this rite. The stools, called shamans’ things (kumuro), are identified
with mountains, the abodes of spirits and the houses of spirit humans
and animals that are called people’s waking-up houses (masa yuhiri wi).
Sitting on such a stool is sitting high up and is an essential element
of the shaman’s visionary powers; blowing and other shamanic acts
are always done sitting on a stool.
In the past, the shamans’ enclosure was made of tapir skin; the
enclosure is the shamans’ protection, symbolised by the thick, pro¬
tective hide. This in itself suggests that shamans and tapirs are associ¬
ated together. This same identification of shaman with tapir is found
in the myth of Manioc-stick Anaconda (M.6.A), one of the key myths
behind the spells used at He House. In this myth, Tapir carries Manioc-

14 The same is true of the specialist chanter whose soul/spirit leaves his body as he chants
and retraces the mythical journeys of the first He people from the Rto Negro to the
Vaupds and Pira-parana.

121
Explanation and analysis

stick Anaconda across a wide river and, while so doing, teaches him
the shamanic spells used to ensure a safe birth and to treat maternal
milk before it is given to the newly born (M.6.A.28—30); this same
Tapir is the shaman who then officiates at a dance in the termites’
house which is explicitly compared to initiation (M.6.A.35). But it
tapirs represent the good aspects of shamanism, they also represent
the bad: Macaw, the brother of Manioc-stick Anaconda, and also
a shaman, becomes a tapir in order to kill his brother and to steal
his brother’s wife; he thus represents the ‘tapir seducer’, incarnating
the seductive power of nature, a theme widespread in South American
Indian mythology and discussed extensively by Levi-Strauss (1973).
Again, in the myth of He Anaconda (M.5.A), the tapir that took the
flute made from the top of the palm tree that sprang from He
Anaconda’s ashes, threatened to use it to suck new-born babies into
his body and to kill them (M.5.A.18). The Barasana say that the
tapir is a taking-in person (sori masu) who is jealous of the baby’s
transition from the He or spirit state to the human state and who
tries to suck it back into his anus. A Barasana myth (not presented
in part V) centres on a tapir who sucks a menstruating girl into his
anus, later to be killed by a tortoise that the girl kept as a pet. The
wife of the Tapir shaman in the story of Manioc-stick Anaconda,
whose farts are interpreted as a sexual invitation, is a ‘tapir seducer’
in the literal sense of the word (M.6.A.36—7). Finally, the Tatuyo,
neighbours and affines of the Barasana, make the association between
shamans and tapirs yet more explicit in having Wekua kumu, Tapir
shaman, as their ancestor (Bidou 1976). The tapir in the instances
mentioned above acts as a mediator: across a river, from land to water
and back again (tapirs live near water and, according to the Barasana,
can literally walk under water); between the termites in their under¬
ground house and those who fly off in this world (M.6.A.35); between
this world and the Underworld in the ‘death’ of Manioc-stick Anaconda
who falls to the Underworld through a pitfall trap for a tapir; and
between the He, spirit state, and the human state, between nature
and culture, as a taking-in person (see above). The shaman is also
such a mediator.
Shamans are not only identified with tapirs; they are also identified
with monkeys. Throughout He House, the trumpets called Old Cal-
licebus Monkey remain with the shamans in their enclosure. During
the rite, the souls of the shamans become the ancestor Old Callicebus
Monkey, represented by the trumpets; they also become Manioc-stick
122
The participants

Anaconda. The link between shamans and monkeys is also illustrated

in myth. The youngest of the Ayawa or Thunders, Kanea the shaman,
became a callicebus monkey (wau) in order to steal fire from his
grandmother and for this reason, the callicebus monkey is known as
‘Fire Callicebus’ (Hea Wau) (M.2.C.2). Fire Callicebus, together with
Fire Howler Monkey (Hea Ugu), appears in another myth as one of
the people who paddle the Sun’s canoe up the Underworld River at
night (M.6.A. 16). Apart from their common association with fire
in Barasana myth, there are good behavioural reasons why howler
and callicebus monkeys should be linked together: both make very
loud and similar-sounding noises during the early morning and at
dusk. The howler monkey also figures in the myth about the tapir
who threatens to suck new-born children into his anus. He tells the
tapir that he is abusing his He instrument (= voice) and that far
from being used to impede birth, it should be used to ‘open the He
People’s doors to make men’, i.e. to facilitate birth by making the
vaginas (= doors) open. The monkeys then remove the tapir’s deep
and powerful voice and replace it with their own high-pitched
squeak (M.5.A. 19).
In this myth, the howler monkey and the tapir are being opposed
in terms of low, loud voice and high, quiet voice or oral incontinence/
oral continence. In myth, the tapir uses its anus to ingest people, and
in life the tapir marks its territory by defecating in the same place.
This anal continence is opposed to the incontinence of the howler
monkey whom the Barasana consider to be a proverbial shitter. In
addition, whilst howler monkeys and callicebus monkeys are associ¬
ated with fire (see above), the tapir, as an amphibious creature, is
associated with water. Shamans are associated with both fire and
water. Manioc-stick Anaconda, the prototype shaman with whom
contemporary shamans are identified, is the master of the Sun’s
fire, obtained in the Underworld in the form of snuff and used to
burn his brother Macaw to death (M.6.A). Today, this snuff plays
a crucial role at He House. One method of curing serious illness,
known only to the most powerful of shamans, involves throwing
water over the patient. Men who know this treatment are known as
water throwers (oko yueri masa) and are generally the shamans who
officiate at He House. According to a Yurupary myth from the
Baniwa, the two brothers of Amaru, Yurupary’s mother, were called
Dzuri, ‘blow’, andMariri, ‘suck’ (Saake 1958a : 272). Both were
shamans and their names are a neat summary of shamanic activity.
123
Explanation and analysis
Tentatively, I would suggest that the actions of blowing (of spells and
of pathogenic agents to kill) and sucking (for the removal of pathogenic
agents from the patient’s body) correspond to the opposition between
oral incontinence and oral continence mentioned above. Thus in the
character of the shaman are combined a set of complementary but
opposed attributes, represented by his identification with the tapir
on the one hand and with the howler and callicebus monkey on the
other. In different contexts, these attributes relate to different
shamanic techniques, to the ambiguous moral position of the shaman
as killer and curer, and to the different cosmic layers in which he
operates.
shaman
monkey/tapir
(howler + callicebus)
oral incontinence/oral continence
anal incontinence/anal continence
fire/water
shaman

In addition to his association with tapirs and monkeys, the Barasana

shaman is above all identified with the jaguar. Very powerful shamans
of wide repute are sometimes referred to as ‘jaguar’ (yai), and are said
to be able to change into jaguars at will, to keep jaguars like other men
keep dogs, and to become jaguars on death. The Barasana word yai,
which I translate as ‘jaguar’, has the wider connotation of ‘predator’.
Thus, from the point of view of termites, termite-eating birds are
their ‘jaguars’ (see M.6.A.39). Within each of the three basic divisions
of the Barasana cosmos, there is one large and dominant predator:
the eagle in the sky, the jaguar on land and the anaconda in the water.
Each of these animals is seen also as a mediator between cosmic
domains: eagles come to land and fish in rivers, jaguars swim and
climb trees, and anacondas come out of the water on to land. According
to the Barasana, if an anaconda wants to eat birds, it sheds its skin
and becomes an eagle. These animals, as predators, control the passage
from life to death amongst the other animals in their domains. In myth,
as the ancestors of humanity, they are also given creative powers.
The Barasana and their immediate neighbours the Bara and Tatuyo
are each descended from an anaconda ancestor: the Bara from Fish
Anaconda, the Barasana from YebaMeni Anaconda, and the Tatuyo
from Sky Anaconda. The word yeba means ‘earth’ in Tukano and some

124
The participants

other Vaupes languages; Yeba, the ancestor of the Barasana, was him¬
self a jaguar (see M.6.A.62 and M.7). Sky Anaconda, the ancestor of
the Tatuyos, is identified with Rame, the giant eagle of M.4.F,H who
is also called Eagle Jaguar. Thus we have a ‘totemic’ system in which
three intermarrying groups, Bara, Barasana and Tatuyo, are alike in
having a large predator as ancestor, but are differentiated as sky,
earth and water people by the appropriate domains of their respective
ancestors. Jaguars are thus conceived of as mediators: between the
three cosmic divisions of the world, between life and death, between
the human world and spirit world of the ancestors, and between nature
and culture. These are also the attributes of the shaman who travels
between cosmic levels, who as killer and curer controls the passage
between life and death in the human world, and who mediates be-
ween the worlds of humans and spirit ancestors in ritual. Manioc-
stick Anaconda, ancestor of the Barasana, shaman and killer of his
own brother, was also a jaguar (M.6.A).
In addition to being a mediator who combines opposed qualities,
there is a sense in which shamans are also conceived of as sexually
ambiguous. First, there is an ideal that they should remain celibate
and unmarried as contact with women diminishes their powers.
Secondly, whilst today all shamans are men, Romi Kumu, Woman
Shaman, the female creatress identified with the sky (M.l), was the
first shaman and it is from her that all shamans derive their powers.
She herself is also sexually ambiguous and described as being like
a man.
The Barasana see shamanism and the ability to menstruate as being
mutually exclusive but also closely linked. In myth, Romi Kumu was
called ‘Vagina Woman’ before she stole the He instruments from the
men; after the theft, she became Woman Shaman and the men began
to menstruate (M.l.D). According to Barasana shamans, the hair
of women is their equivalent of the He instruments. When women see
their hair falling in front of their faces they menstruate; when men see
the He instruments they undergo a period of restrictions seen as
equivalent to menstrual confinement; by controlling the He instru¬
ments, shamans thus control menstruation.
According to the Trio Indians of Surinam, shamans are like menstru¬
ating women (Riviere 1969a : 268); the Barasana would well under¬
stand this statement. At the onset of puberty, a girl becomes ‘opened
up’ and from then on she is ‘opened up’ during each menstrual

125
Explanation and analysis
period.15 Shamans are also ‘opened up’ in that the positive aspects of
their activities are associated with oral and anal incontinence. Finally,
shamans are also like menstruating women in that they are confined
in special enclosures during He House just as women are so confined
during menstruation; the painted enclosure in which Tariana women
were enclosed at first menstruation (see M.8.10) sounds remarkably
like those in which Barasana shamans used to be confined during
initiation rites.
We are now in a position to explain in part why it is that initiates
and shamans are associated together. During He House, shamans and
initiates are identified together in the following respects: both wear
feather crowns throughout the whole proceedings, and both are
confined in enclosures situated symmetrically on either side of the
front end of the house (see fig. 2).16 Initiates, shamans and menstru¬
ating women are all confined in enclosures. It has been established
that shamans are like menstruating women and some evidence for
an association between initiates and these women has also been given.
A full account of this latter association depends upon further ex¬
planatory data concerning the sacred objects used at He House which
will be given below (pp. 178ff). Riviere (1969a : 268) argues that
shamans and menstruating women are both in a betwixt-and-between
state ‘the one suffering from an excess of power and the other from
an excess of fertility’. Shamans are also in a betwixt-and-between
state as mediators characterised by complementary but opposed
attributes. Finally, initiates are half-way between the age-grades of
child and young man. Barasana myth provides evidence that shamans
too are seen as being half-way between genealogical levels: Kanea,
the youngest of the Ayawa brothers, the Thunders, was born after his
elder brothers had impregnated their mother with their own semen
hidden in a fruit. As a child of the same mother, Kanea is in the same
genealogical level as his elder brothers, but as their son, he is in the
one below (see M.2.A).
I shall return to the theme of open and closed bodily orifices and
to that of the link between He House and menstruation below, each
time presenting data that amplifies and substantiates the arguments
presented above.

15 This is both objectively true and also corresponds to Barasana ideas concerning the
physiology of menstruation.
16 A distinction in seniority is however maintained in that the right-hand side of the house,
where the shamans’ compartment is situated, is the side on which the headman of the

126
The participants

Women

According to a Barasana myth, the He instruments were originally

the property of the men. Romi Kumu and the other women stole the
He from the men, and when this happened the men became like
women: they became the cultivators of manioc and they began to
menstruate (M.l.D). The version of this myth given in part V is in
some respects a ‘weak’ version; in most of the versions told to me it
was stated that when the women were in possession of the He, the
men did not merely cultivate manioc but were also subject to the
political dominance of the women. This theme of social revolution
in which women overthrow the power of men is common to all the
versions of the Yurupary myth from the Vaupes—Icana region and is
also widespread amongst the Indian groups of lowland South America.
These ‘myths of matriarchy’ (Bamberger 1974) are generally associ¬
ated with secret men’s cults centred on the use of esoteric musical
instruments, notably bull-roarers, flutes and trumpets. This same
cultural complex, showing striking parallels with South America,
is found also in New Guinea and Australia.
The theme of male menstruation, frequently associated with secret
men’s cults in New Guinea and implicit in variants of Yurupary
myths from the Vaupes—Iqana region, is made explicit in Barasana
myth. In other Yurupary myths it is frequently explained that the
reason why the women were able to steal the Yurupary instruments
was that they heard young men being told by their father to get up
early in the morning to bathe and play the instruments at the river.
The men were lazy and remained in their hammocks so the women
seized the opportunity to steal the flutes (see for example Fulop
1956 : 359 and compare with M.l.D.l). This refusal to bathe in the
morning can be linked to menstruation in two respects: first, it
has connotations of laziness, itself connected with confinement during
menstruation and after He House, a confinement described by the
same word bedira. Secondly, amongst the Barasana at least, the
most common way of describing a menstruating women is to say she
is ‘one who does not bathe’, for such women are forbidden to bathe.
Hence, by their refusal to bathe in the morning, the men in the myth
were behaving as if they were menstruating.

house has his family compartment. The headman is, in theory, and usually in practice,
the eldest brother.

127
Explanation and analysis

It should be noted, with regard to the social revolution of women,

that two themes are expressed concurrently in Barasana mythology.
One myth (M.l.C) presents a picture of an original state of matriarchy
which was overthrown by the men: Romi Kumu, who controlled the
He instruments and was thus dominant over the men, was going to
initiate the first people by showing them the instruments. Another
myth (M.l.D) implies that it was the men who originally controlled
the He; the women stole the He and thus usurped male power but
the ‘normal’ order was re-established when the men got back the
possession of the instruments. In discussing such myths throughout
South America, Schaden (1959 : 162) comes close to seeing the
difference between original matriarchy and the usurption of power
but fails to see its full significance. I shall show below that the
theme of usurption stresses the political relations of dominance and
submission between the sexes whilst that of an original state of
matriarchy stresses also the distribution of creative power between
them. Bamberger is probably right in seeing ‘myths of matriarchy’ as
an ideological prop for the dominance of women by the men but is
certainly incorrect when she states that the unique ability of women
to conceive, bear and nurse the young of the species, so important
to group survival, is celebrated in female puberty ritual but over¬
looked in myth (1974 : 279). Whilst there is no question as to who
rules today in Barasana society, the question as to who creates
remains unresolved and in private the men will admit that in this
respect their victory over the women was at best double-edged.
In addition to being a rite of passage into adult life, Fruit House
and He House also involve the initiation of young men into a secret
men’s cult from which women are systematically debarred. Women
must never see the He instruments and are excluded from participating
in rituals where these instruments are used. The He instruments are
the symbols and means of the subjection of men and women and the
Yurupary myths make this point quite explicit.17 The Barasana do
not say that if the women saw the instruments they would once
again become dominant over the men, but they do say that there
would be a period of chaos during which the men would fight amongst
themselves and kill each other. It is concerning the Yurupary instru¬
ments as the means of male dominance that Schaden suggests that

17 Both Livi-Strauss (1968 : 138) and Schaden (1959 : 157-9) make this fact a major
part of their interpretations of the Yurupary cult.

128
The participants

the cult that surrounds them should be seen in relation to the insti¬
tution of the men’s house, and according to this author, myths con¬
cerning the rebellion against a primitive matriarchy form the back¬
ground to male initiation rites over a wide area of South America.
It is with this point in mind that I drew attention to the parallel
between the Barasana maloca and the circular villages of Central
Brazil.
In accordance with their use as the symbol and means of male
dominance, many authors writing about secret men’s cults have
claimed that the musical instruments on which they focus are used
to terrorise and frighten the women, and the impression is often
given that the women are simply excluded from the proceedings and
know nothing about what goes on. One of the problems involved in
the interpretation of secret men’s cults is that they are generally
seen, described and analysed by male ethnographers who give little
or no attention to the part played by women. Where information is
available on this aspect, it frequently suggests that female ignorance
is a fiction maintained by both sexes and that women often connive
and collaborate with the men.18 According to my wife, who re¬
mained with the women during the He rites described in part II and
to whom I am indebted for much of the information that follows,
young Barasana women are indeed afraid of the He instruments
and it is they in particular who rush out from the house when they
are brought to the outside from the river and when they are brought
inside early the next day. But this fear is actively induced by a kind
of mock hysteria from the elder women. To say that all Barasana
women were afraid of the He would be to confuse ideal with practice.
In fact, most Barasana women know in precise detail what the He
look like and know more or less exactly what is going on on the
other side of the palm-leaf screen that separates them from the men
during the rites, even to the extent of being able to say which par¬
ticular named instruments are being played by which individuals.
The women say that they are not so much afraid of seeing the He
themselves as of the reaction of the men if they do. Nor do they
feel any desire to see the instruments even if they could, a reaction
echoed by the fact that when missionaries have exposed the Yurupary

18 This point has also been made by Gourlay (1975) with reference to secret men’s cults
in New Guinea. His work presents a useful comparative survey of these cults and their
associated mythology in this area.

129
Explanation and analysis

to women elsewhere in the Vaupes as part of a war against ‘devil

worship’, these women have tried to resist seeing the instruments.
However, the fact that the women know about the He and
express no desire to see them should not be taken to suggest that
the women are therefore in any way contemptuous of the cult that
surrounds them.19 In fact the women are proud of the He instru¬
ments owned by their own and their husbands’ groups and are
positively committed both to the fact that these rites should be
held and to their successful outcome, which is considered ben¬
eficial to the community as a whole. In a very real sense the women
are also actively involved in the proceedings. When the. He arrive
outside the house at the start of He House, the women should
begin to mourn because the initiates (their sons) are to be exposed
to the He which, coming from the spirit world, may make them
waste away and die. They also consume the magic substances that
are given to the initiates so that they too should benefit from the
protection that they confer, and during the rites they leave the
house at certain crucial points. Finally, it should be noted that
during and after He House, the women are supposed to keep to the
same taboos as the men. Thus the women may be excluded from
the rites but they are very definitely involved.
If the women do happen to see the He, it is said that they would
die but that they may be saved by treatment from a shaman.20 The
He used at Fruit House are not considered to be the real He, and if
women see these they merely become ill. According to other writers
(Biocca 1965 : 23; Costa cit. Schaden 1959 : 151 n. 5.), if women
should see the Yurupary they would be afflicted by the ‘three major
defects of women’ — licentiousness (given as ‘incontinentia’’ in the
Portuguese original), curiosity and a proneness to reveal secrets.
These defects have the common feature of implying that the women
would become excessively open in either a literal or figurative sense:
their eyes and ears become too open (curiosity), their vaginas become
too open (licentiousness) and their mouths become too open (talk¬
ativeness).21 The belief, from other parts of the Vaupes area, that
women become excessively open as the result of seeing Yurupary

19 An argument along these lines has been suggested for the Munduruch men’s trumpet
cult (Murphy and Murphy 1974).
20 Ypiranga Monteiro (1960 : 37) describes the shamanism of a woman who had seen
Yurupary among the Iurupixuna-Tukano.
21 Bolens (1967) bases a considerable portion of her interpretation of Yurupary myths on
the opposition between open and closed bodily orifices. She uses some of the data that

130
The participants

is entirely in accord with the Barasana belief that women menstruate

(a condition in which their vaginas are open) as the result of seeing
their hair. Furthermore, this same theme is found in the punishments
that the men inflict on the women for stealing the Yurupary or He:
the women are gang-raped, have the flutes rammed up their vaginas
and are made to menstruate (see M. 1.D.7). Again the women are
opened up and made to bleed from their vaginas. The above data
implies first, that the condition of having seen Yurupary is in some
sense the same as that of menstruation, and secondly, that this
condition involves an excessive openness of bodily orifices.
Yurupary, the hero of the myths, was a divine legislator and
among his laws the following were to be taught to girls: that they
should remain virgins until puberty, that they should remain faithful
to their husbands and not prostitute themselves, that they should
not see the Yurupary and that they should not be curious nor talk
too much and reveal secrets (Stradelli 1890b; Costa cit. Schaden
1959 : 151 n.5). All these laws imply the ability to control the
orifices of the body, especially the vagina, and it is significant that
it was during a period of intense education at rites of first menstru¬
ation that these laws were taught to young girls.22 It would seem
therefore that women are thought of as in danger of becoming ex¬
cessively opened up and that this danger becomes acute at puberty
when, in a very real sense, they become more open. This suggestion
receives confirmation from the fact that, in the Tariana Yurupary
myth recorded by Stradelli (1890b), the Sun sent Izy to the earth
to find a ‘perfect woman’; one who was dumb, patient and who
lacked curiosity. Such a woman would be one who obeyed to the full
the laws of Yurupary mentioned above.
M. 1 .D makes it clear that the possession of He (instruments) and
the ability to menstruate are seen as being complementary but
mutually exclusive: when woman had the He (instruments), the men
menstruated and when the men regained the He they punished the
women by making them menstruate. Also implied is the fact that
the sex that controls the He (instruments) and which does not
menstruate will be the one that is politically dominant. But M.l.B
I have used but arrives at somewhat different conclusions. I do not entirely agree either
with her interpretation of the data being considered here (largely because she fails
totally to take into account the theme of menstruation) or with her more general con¬
clusions (see also ch. 8). However, I have found that the way in which she has looked
at the data has helped me greatly in my own analysis.
22 See also Ldvi-Strauss (1968 : 420-1) on the education of young girls at rites of first
menstruation.

131
Explanation and analysis

implies that the women still have the He and that it is this that
causes them to menstruate; the He is their hair. It is for this reason
that when the men took back the He from the women, their victory
over them was double-edged (see above). They regained only one
kind of He (instruments) which implies political dominance but they
lost another (women’s hair) which implies menstruation and the
power to create children.
It will be argued below that in some senses He House can perhaps
be interpreted as a symbolic act in which adult men give birth to the
initiates. In order to give birth, men must first be opened up and
made to menstruate. I have already stated that people who see the
He are in some sense in the same condition as menstruating women.
It is entirely appropriate therefore that after He House, the initiates
should be confined in a compartment, as are menstruating women,
and referred to by expressions which, in their feminine form, refer
to women in this condition. After the introduction of more evidence,
it will be shown that, during He House, the initiates are symbolically
opened up and that this is done in part by showing them women’s
hair. If, after He House, the men are in a condition equivalent to that
of menstruation then, according to the argument above, the women
should temporarily become dominant. In relation to this, it is sig¬
nificant that during the marginal period following He House, some¬
thing very like the social revolution of women described in Yurupary
myths occurs.
Finally, there is another possible interpretation of the mythical
incident in which the women steal the Yurupary. In most of the
Yurupary myths, immediately after he is born, Yurupary is stolen
from his mother by the men. He is later burned on a fire and from his
ashes grows the palm from which the Yurupary instruments are
made. These instruments represent the bones of Yurupary (see e.g.
M.8). By taking back the Yurupary instruments, the mother of
Yurupary is effectively taking back her own son, represented by his
bones. In this sense the story may be seen as an expression of tension
between men and women, the women resenting the loss of their sons
who are taken from them by the men at initiation.

Guests

The part played by He House, Fruit House and other communal

rituals in intercommunity relations was discussed briefly in chapter 2,
132
The participants

and information concerning the role of the guests at He rituals was

presented in part II.
During Fruit House, the guests are distinguished from their hosts
by their seating positions, though the importance of this should
not be overstressed. They may also bring their own He instruments
and if they do, they will tend to play these rather than those of their
hosts. During He House, the distinction between hosts and guests
is even less marked and in general, the guests act in terms of the ritual
roles appropriate to their age-grades rather than in terms of their
position qua guests. At the He House that I observed, the members
of the most important visiting household (that of Pedro) brought
their own He instruments with them, and also their own yage vines
which they prepared separately, and drank from their own yage
pot.
Perhaps the most significant thing that can be said about both
these rituals in relation to the guests is that at all the rites I observed,
guests from affinally related groups were present. This means that
neither stage of initiation is exclusive to either one sib or to one
exogamous group.23 In addition, it has already been seen that a
boy may be, and often is, initiated by being shown He instruments
that belong to an affinal group. This point will be taken up again
below.
23 Among the Cubeo also, the Yurupary cult is not an exclusive sib cult (Goldman 1963 :
195).

133
6
The flutes and trumpets

The musical instruments

From an observer’s point of view, the He instruments may be divided

into two classes: flutes and trumpets (in fact large megaphones). This
division corresponds to one way in which the Barasana classify these
instruments: the flutes, called the form of a palm (ruha nyo) or the
form of a post (ruha bota), are distinguished in terms of shape from
the trumpets, called hotiri or rihoa, depending on the manner of their
construction.
According to Izikowitz (1934), the flutes are duct flutes with
deflectors, lacking stops but with a partially covered sound orifice.
They consist of a straight tube, about 50—100 mm thick and with an
internal diameter of between 5 and 7 cm, made of highly polished,
black wood — a section of a trunk of the paxiuba (Iriartea exorrihiza)
palm. This is the only permanent part of the instrument and when
not in use it is kept, wrapped in palm leaves, under water in the mud
at the bottom of a small stream or river. The rest of the instrument
(leaf vibrators, clay plug and vine bindings - see fig. 7) is made
freshly each time it is used. The length of the flutes, always in pairs
with one slightly shorter than the other, varies from approximately
60 cm to 160 cm. The long flutes are called long {yoese) in Barasana
also. Fig. 6 shows a flute of medium length.
Some of the longest flutes have incised geometric designs on the
lower end which are filled with chalk or manioc flour when in use
(see fig. 8). The extreme ends of the flutes are painted uniform
white. The shorter flutes do not have such designs but are also painted
white on the bottom end. During He House, and sometimes at Fruit
House, a string of yellow and brown feathers (from the tail of the
Oropendola bird) is tied in a ruff round the ends of the long flutes.
134
The flutes and trumpets

(After Koch Griinberg 1909/10, vol. I : 314)

Fig. 6 Yurupary instruments

The permanent part of the trumpets consists of a tube of black,

polished paxiuba palm wood about 45 cm long and about 5 cm internal
diameter. When not in use, this part, like the flutes, is kept under
water. Before each ritual, strips of bark, from the trees hau-, ria hau-
and kahe rokou- are wound round the ends of these tubes to form an
elongated cone.1 The Barasana divide the trumpets into two cat-
1 According to Brtizzi da Silva (1962 : 306), the bark comes from the chibaru (Eperua

135
Explanation and analysis

Fig. 7 The construction of a Barasana He flute

egories according to their shape. One category, called hotiri (hoti

means a wrapped bundle) consists of trumpets made from a conical
spiral of bark, expanding out from the wooden tube. The other
category, called head (rihoa), are trumpets of more rectangular
appearance made by winding the bark round upon itself before
extending it forwards to make the bell of the instrument. Both
types of trumpet are shown in fig. 6. In both instruments, most of
the wooden tube remains inside the bark wrapping with only the
end protruding as a mouthpiece. On hotiri trumpets, the bark spiral

grandiflora) tree. Galvao (1959 : 47) gives the same identification and adds that this
tree sprang up from the ashes in the place where Yurupary was burned, together with
the first paxiuba palm (see M.8.63).
McGovern (1927 : 144) says that, among the Waikano (Pira-Tapuyo), only old men
may cut the bark from the trees and only after they have asked permission of the tree’s
spirit. They must also blow tobacco smoke over the wound they make. I was never
present when this bark was cut by the Barasana so 1 cannot say if this is true of them
also.
In general, the Barasana refer to the cut bark as tree covering (/tea gase), or as cotton
covering (yuta gase). This latter name is an allusion to the fact that the bark on the
trumpets is seen as the equivalent of the garters (yuta gasero) worn by men below the
knees.

136
The flutes and trumpets

Fig. 8 Engraved designs on Barasana He flutes

is sometimes supported by two sticks running along the length of

the instrument.
The length of hotiri trumpets varies between about 60 cm and
250 cm. The very long trumpets are played with a man walking
in front supporting the ends and raising them up and down in alter¬
nation. The rihoa trumpets are generally about 100 cm long or less.
Like the flutes, the trumpets are in pairs.
With the exception of some trumpets used in the Icana area,
which are made of basketwork with a resin covering, the descriptions
of the flutes and trumpets given above appear to apply to all Yurupary
instruments used in the Vaupes/Ri'o Negro/Icana region.2 According
to Humboldt (1966, vol. V : 232, 273), the Indians of the Atabapo
and Inirida area (north of the Vaupes) used trumpets made of clay,

2 Photographs of Yurupary instruments may be found in the following sources: McGovern

1927 : 152; Paes de Souza Brazil 1938 : 68; Allen 1947 : 572; Biocca 1965 : 220-1
and Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971 : 168. This last photograph shows a Barasana hotiri trumpet.

137
Explanation and analysis

called botuto. He states that these trumpets were exactly like those
illustrated by Gumilla (1963 : 162—7) and used by the Saliva further
to the north (see fig. 9).

The concept of He

The Barasana refer to these flutes and trumpets as//e, a word probably
related to hea, meaning fire, firewood and by extension dead wood in
general. The association with fire and wood is suggested in part by
the material from which the instruments are constructed, and also
by the fact that the instruments were created by the burning of the

Fig. 9 Instruments used by the Saliva Indians during mortuary rites (after
Gumilla 1963 : 165)

138
The flutes and trumpets

body of a mythical hero (see M.5.A. 12-17 and M.8.56-62) and

that when Manioc-stick Anaconda was burned, his bones (identified
with the He instruments) became the burned logs of a manioc
garden created by felling and burning the forest (see M.6.B). In
conversation with non-Indians, the Barasana refer to these instru¬
ments as Yurupary.
The word He is also used in a more general sense as a concept
which covers such things as the sacred, the other world, the spirit
world and the world of myth. Used in this latter sense, the word is
often added as a prefix to other words. Thus He river (He riaga), or
He water path (He oko ma), is the river up which the ancestral ana¬
conda Yeba Meni Anaconda swam to give birth to humanity (see
below); He People (He masa) are either the first ancestors of humanity,
represented by the He instruments, or the people who take part in
He House,He possessions (He gaheuni) are the objects and items of
ceremonial dress used at dances, etc.
He pertains to the world of myths. This world is timeless and
changeless and persists as another aspect of everyday existence. All
living creatures have their He counterparts which live in stone houses,
the rapids in the rivers and the mountains and outcrops of rock.
Human beings too have their He or spirit counterparts that live in
stone houses called people’s waking-up houses (masa yuhiri wi). The
souls of new-born babies come from these houses and the souls of
the dead return to them. The idea of waking-up house puts in mind
the Australian aborigine concept of the Dreaming, and indeed
Stanner’s account of this concept among the Murinbata (1960 :
246—7) can be read, almost word for word, as an account of the
Barasana concept of He.
The He world was created in the distant past but persists as another
aspect of reality. As the generations succeed one another, or, as the
Barasana view it, as they pile on top of one another like the leaves
on the forest floor, human beings are in danger of losing touch with
the beginning and source of life, the world of myth. According to
one informant, the object of He House is literally to squash the pile
so that the initiates, described as people of another layer (gahe
tutiana), are brought into contact with, and adopted by, the first
He People. Ordinary human beings enter into involuntary contact
with the He world when sick and also when asleep. Such uncontrolled
contact is potentially dangerous. Controlled contact is both desirable
(though again potentially dangerous) and also necessary for the con-
139
Explanation and analysis

tinuance of the world and human life. Shamans are able to perceive
this other-world aspect of existence at all times and it is they who
act as mediators for the rest of society. Adult men enter into voluntary
contact with the He world by wearing ceremonial dress and by taking
the hallucinogenic drug yage. One informant summarised the use of
this drug by saying that under its influence the house becomes the
universe itself so that a man can see and know everything. At Fruit
House, and more particularly at He House, young boys enter into
controlled and voluntary contact with the He world for the first
time.
In chanting, the He are referred to as minia, a word which means
both birds and also pets. In Tukano, the Yurupary are called miria
pora and in Desana, minia poari. According to both Briizzi da Silva
and Reichel-Dolmatoff, the root mini- (Pira-Tapuyo) or miriye-
(Tukano), means to submerge or to go under water. Briizzi da Silva
(1962 : 337) argues that this indicates that the Yurupary are secret,
occult and hidden and therefore ‘submerged’. A more obvious
interpretation is that the Yurupary are ‘submerged’ precisely because
they are kept hidden under water. According to Reichel-Dolmatoff,
(1971 : 171) the Pira-Tapuyo compare sexual intercourse to the act
of ‘submerging oneself in water’ and he adds that poari means ‘hair,
pubic hair’. These facts are used as evidence in his argument that the
flutes have a sexual character and that the men who play them
‘represent those who are “drowned”, those who committed the sin
(of incest)’, the cult of Yurupary being interpreted as a warning
against the sin of incest and an exhortation to obey rules of exogamy.
Again, a more obvious interpretation of the ‘drowned’ flutes is that
they are kept under water.
Whilst I do not doubt for one moment that the root mini- or
miriye- means to drown, I feel that Reichel-Dolmatoff and Briizzi
da Silva have both ignored overwhelming evidence in favour of trans¬
lating minia poari and miria pora as ‘children/descendants of birds’.
The evidence is as follows: (1) the word pura/pora, in both Tukano
and Desana, means children or descendants and it may well be that
Reichel-Dolmatoff has confused poari with pura/pora. Significantly,
in a later work, Reichel-Dolmatoff writes, ‘In most of the Tukano
dialects, yurupari is called miria-pora, from miriri (to suffocate or
drown oneself or to submerge oneself), and pora (children, descendants)’
(1972 : 94). (2) To emphasise that poari means pubic hair is to beg
the question, for it also means feathers which, by the same kind of
140
The flutes and trumpets

argument, would redress the balance in favour of birds. (3) In every

Tukanoan language spoken in the Vaupes region, minia, miria or
something close to it (memea — Karapana; miua — Cubeo) means
bird (Koch-Grtinberg 1912—16). (4) the Baniwa, like the Barasana,
identify the sound of the Yurupary with birdsong (Galvao 1959 :
49). (5) The Tukano Yurupary were originally birds kept in a cage
(Fulop 1956 : 360). (6) The Tanimuka and Yahuna of the Apapon's
called Yurupary wekoa, Amazona parrots. (7) A large proportion
of the specific names of individual Yurupary instruments, published
in the literature of the Vaupes—Ipana region, are the names of
species of birds. (8) Finally, the Iurupixuna-Tukano called their
Yurupary mimbaua, tamed animals or pets (Ypiranga Monteiro
1960 : 37), the word for which, in Barasana, is minia.
The He world described in Barasana myth is one in which human
beings and animals are not as yet differentiated from one another;
the myths in fact describe a gradual process of differentiation. The
Barasana would often start to tell a myth in this way, There was a
man called X (the name of an animal); at that time there were no
people . . . ’ The He world is thus, in one sense, the world of the
forest and of animals, nature. I say ‘in one sense’ because whilst the
Barasana see human souls and spirit people as being like animals,
they emphasise that they are not identical. The situation can be
represented as in fig. 10.
The life cycle of each person repeats this process of differentiation
between men and animals. At birth, a child’s soul changes from the
spirit, He, state to that of a human being. That an unborn soul is
part of a world that includes animals is evidenced by the fact that
tapirs and other Taking-in People (soria masa) try to suck the child
into their anus — a reversal of birth — as they are jealous of the loss
of one of their number (see M.5.A. 18). Birth is thus like a passage
from the animal world (nature, He) to the human world (culture).
If new-born babies are on the side of animals and nature, adult
men are on the side of spirits and the He world. By taking part in
rituals, especially He rituals, the.men are constantly entering into
contact with the He world. It will be shown below that the He
instruments are animals and birds. These instruments are kept in
rivers in the forest so in this sense they are closely associated with
human beings and, at Fruit House, they enter the house bearing
gifts of fruit from the forest. This fruit, called He fruit, is the food
of animals and birds (see M.7.I). The He are thus mediators between
141
Explanation and analysis

HE WORLD

Animal world Human world Spirit world

(nature - He) (culture) (He-nature)

I
Women and children Men

Secular life Ritual life

(He)

|-► Birth -► Initiation >■ Death

4_ ◄-

Fig. 10 The He world

nature and culture, between animals and men and between the forest
and the house. They are therefore exactly like pets or tamed animals
and it is entirely appropriate that the Barasana should call them
minia which means both birds and pets. The fact that the Tukano
and Iurupixuna-Tukano also identify their Yurupary with pets (or
caged birds) (see above) suggests that they also can be seen in this
light.
In addition to being identified with animals, the He are also
identified with characters in myth. Like pets, these characters are
neither fully human nor fully animal. They are He People belonging
to a world in which men and animals are as yet undifferentiated.
During He House, the participants become He People. They also
become like animals on the side of nature: they wear bird feathers,
bird beaks, animal fur, teeth, bones and claws. Thus when the He
are brought into the house, a passage from nature to culture, from
animal to human, the men in the house change from culture to
nature, from human to animal.

The true He: the instruments used at He House

At the He House I observed, a total of twelve pairs of He instruments

142
The flutes and trumpets

were used (see table 4). Two of the pairs, Old Parrot fWeko Buku)
and Old Deer (.Nyama Buku), were brought by Bara guests; all the
rest belonged to the Barasana sib Meni Masa and were kept at the
maloca where the rite was held. A pair of long flutes called Old
Guan (Kata Buku) should also have been used but had rotted away
and no longer exist. As the He were created in the mythic past and
are not man-made, the Barasana say that they cannot remake these
instruments. All the flutes, together with the short trumpets called
Old Star (Nyoko Buku) were placed vertically over sticks stuck in
the ground in a line stretching down the middle of the house from
post 3. The other instruments, all trumpets, were laid on the ground,
with their mouthpieces towards the middle, on the right-hand side
of the house beyond the dance path.

Table 4. The instruments used at He House (Cano Colorado, June 1970)

Name of instrument Barasana name Type of instrument

Old Macaw Maha Buku Long flute

Tree-Fruit Jaguar He Rika Yai Long flute
Old Sloth Kerea Buku, Shorter flute
WunuBtuku
(unknown) Bosoro Huria Short flute
Old Amazona Parrot Weko Buku Short flute
Old Deer, Old Muscovy Nyama Buku, Very long trumpet
Duck Ria Kata Buku (hotiri)
Manioc-squeezing Woman Buhe Romio Long trumpet (hotiri)
Dance Anaconda Basa Hino Long trumpet (hotiri)

(unknown) Wenadurika Shorter trumpet {rihoa)

Sabicea Flower Kano Goro Shorter trumpet {rihoa)

Old Callicebus Monkey Wau Buku Shorter trumpet {rihoa)

Old Star, White Star Nyoko Buku, Short trumpet {hotiri)

Nyoko Boku

143
Explanation and analysis
These instruments are the He People, or ancestors, and their names
are the names of the people created by Romi Kumu (see M. 1 .C),
the ancestors of the Barasana sibs Koamona, Rasegana, Meni Masa,
Daria and Wabea. According to the Barasana, the large communal
houses in which they live represent the universe: the roof is the
sky, the house posts are the mountains that support the sky, the
men’s door is the Water Door in the east where the sun rises and
the women’s door is the door in the west where the sun sets; the walls
of the house are the edges of the world. Shamans see the house like
this, as do other men when under the effects of yage. At He House,
all the animals in the world come to dance; they are He People, the
He instruments and the other items of ritual equipment.
Old Macaw (Maha Buku) is Manioc-stick Anaconda’s brother, the
shorter of the pair of flutes being his ex-wife (see M.6.A). He is the
lead dancer and he dances in the middle of the house, just as, in a
normal dance, the lead dancer dances in the middle of the dance
line with the other dancers, his helpers, on either side. The other
long flutes are these other dancers. Likewise, the elders playing the
long flutes are dancers. The melodies of the flutes, to which the
shamans can put words are the songs that these dancers sing.
It will be noticed that during both Fruit House and He House,
there is no singing by humans when the He are played in the house,
but that during the second part of Fruit House, when the He are
silent, the people sing. The sound of the flutes is also the sound of
chanting, for, at dances, when the dancers are not dancing they chant.
Old Macaw leads this chanting and is the specialist chanter.
The identity of the trumpet, Old Star, White Star, is problematic
but there is circumstantial evidence that the star(s) in question may
be part of the constellation Orion. Levi-Strauss has shown that the
Pleiades and Orion are diachronically related, since the Pleiades rise
within a few days of Orion and announce the coming of the latter,
but that they are also synchronically opposed, since the Pleiades
are connected with the continuous and Orion with the discontinuous
(in terms of the shape of the two constellations). He has further
shown that in South American myth, Orion is frequently associated
with either a man whose leg has been cut off or with the cut-off leg
itself (Levi-Strauss (1970 : 220-30; 1973 : 266—70). It has already
been established that the Pleiades are used as a time-marker (i.e.
announce He House and the use of the He). It can be shown also
that the He are identified with bones (see M.5.A. 11 and M.6.A.63),
144
The flutes and trumpets

in particular with the paired long bones of the upper and lower leg.
(The word for leg, niku-, also means ancestor; the He are leg
bones and also ancestors.) It will later be shown that the gourd of
beeswax used at He rites is associated with viscera, the head and
with the Pleiades. It is opposed to the He by the fact (among others)
that it is round and continuous as opposed to long and discontinuous.
Thus we have:

Pleiades : Orion :: viscera (+ head) : long bone

and
Gourd of wax : He instruments :: O :-

The Barasana call part of the constellation Orion the Adze (Sioruhu-).
The part concerned is the belt together with the two shoulders
(Bellatrix and Betelgeuse — see fig. 11).
The myth of origin of the Adze constellation is as follows: when the
Oa Suna, Opossum Tatuyo People, saw He for the first time, there
were three men standing in a line (the three stars of Orion’s belt).
The middle man was bitten in the leg by a snake. This is why the
middle star is smaller than the other two. The man’s leg became bent
and shrivelled and became the ceremonial adze which the Tatuyo wear
on their shoulders during dances, called dance adze (basa sioro). These
adzes, originally used for wood-working, were used as a dance ornament
during Yurupary rites among the Tukano, Tariana, Bara and Tatuyo.
They were worn, slung over the left shoulder, by chiefs, shamans and
lead dancers (Koch-Grtinberg 1909—10, vol. I : 350; Brtizzi da Silva
1962 : 315).3

Fig. 11 The Adze (Sioruhu), part of the constellation Orion

3 Neither author seems aware that the ceremonial adze is identified with a constellation,
though Brtizzi (1962 : 260) does mention a constellation called 'adze handle’.

145
Explanation and analysis
The theme of the shrivelled, atrophied leg is found also in the
character of Warimi (see M.4.A—H). In part of the Warimi cycle,
(not included in the myths in this book), Warimi is bitten by a
snake which causes one leg to shrivel up. This would suggest that
Warimi should be identified with Orion and, in fact, at the end of
the myths, Warimi took leave of this world and went into the sky,
hence his name Warimi, He-Who-Went-Away. Finally, Warimi is
himself a variant of the character Yurupary of Vaupes mythology.* * 4
To summarise: it has been shown that there is evidence to link the
He instruments as a whole with Orion; that the Adze constellation
(= Orion) is identified with an adze used as an ornament in Yurupary
rituals; that Warimi’s shrivelled leg can be linked with both Orion
and the Adze and that Warimi is a variant of Yurupary from whose
bones, represented by the paxiuba palm, the Yurupary instruments
were made (see M.8.62—3 and compare M.5.A. 17 and M.6.A.63).
It seems therefore reasonable to conclude that Old Star may also
be Orion.
Old Star is called the fierce one, the fierce He, the fierce thunder
jaguar. He is the jaguar at the dance and is the protector of the He
People. The trumpets as a group are described as warriors (guamara)
and as the people who make others frightened. (Spanish-speaking
Barasana say they are soldiers and policemen.) Old Star is the leader
of the trumpets, their chief and, as a group, they accompany Old
Macaw and the other long flutes (the dancers) to protect them. They
walk round the edge of the house, both inside and out, forming a
protective shield around the dancers and shamans in the middle.
It is therefore appropriate that, during He House, it is the younger
men, the warriors, possessed of the qualities of strength and courage,
that play the undecorated trumpets walking round the edge of the
house while the elders, decorated themselves and playing decorated
flutes, dance in the middle. The sound of the trumpets, identified
with the noise of thunder and the roar of jaguars, contrasts with
the sound of the flutes, identified with birdsong. This contrast is
part of a set:

Long flutes Trumpets

birdsong jaguar and thunder noise

high pitch low pitch

4 See ch. 7 for further evidence for this assertion.

146
The flutes and trumpets

decorated undecorated
players dance players walk
centre periphery
elders young men

The pair of trumpets called Old Callicebus Monkey, identified in

particular with Manioc-stick Anaconda (see M.6.A), are the shamans
at the dance who sit inside their enclosure blowing spells, and at
He House they remain inside the shamans’ enclosure on top of an
hourglass-shaped stand made from palm-wood splints. This stand is
Old Callicebus’s stool, and just as at the start of He House only the
shamans sit on stools (later to be joined by the elders), so only Old
Callicebus is placed raised above the ground on a stand; the flutes,
representing the elders stand vertically with one end resting on the
ground, whilst the trumpets, representing the young men, are laid
on the floor. Old Callicebus Monkey represents Manioc-stick Ana¬
conda sitting upon his stool.
I have no direct information as to whom the short flutes represent
and am unable to fully translate the name Bosoro Huria (huria
means ‘piece of). However, in line with the data presented above,
it is not unreasonable to assume that they represent the initiates
themselves. With the exception of the trumpets Old Star, they are
the smallest He instruments and their sound is neither the melody of
the long flutes nor the thunderous roar of the trumpets, but a single,
quiet and high-pitched noise which would fit well with the qualities
of the initiates. These flutes are always played by the initiates (or
the youngest boys present) and always in conjunction with the
trumpets. That the very youngest should be taken under the wing of
the young men, represented by the trumpets, seems highly appropriate,
for once the initiation is over, the initiates too will be young men.
In the last chapter, I showed that there is a correspondence between
the Barasana sibs (Koamona, Rasegana, Meni Masa, Daria and Wabea),
their specialist occupations (chiefs, chanters/dancers, warriors,
shamans and servants), the participants (elders, young men, initiates
and shamans, and women and children), and the age-grades (elder,
young men, child). It is clear from the data presented above that the
He instruments can also be fitted into this schema in the table on
p. 148.
The correspondence between the ranking and specialisation of the
sibs and that of the He instruments follows from the fact that the
instruments are the dead ancestors of the sibs concerned. The cor-
147
Explanation and analysis

Sibling order 1 2 3 4 5
Sibs Koamona Rasegana Meni-Masa Daria Wabea
Occupations chief chanter/ warrior shaman servants
dancer
He instruments long flutes trumpets trumpet short flutes
(Old Star) (& other
wives)
Participants elders young men initiates women &
(shamans) shamans children
(initiates)
Age-grades elder young man (initiate) child

respondence is only partial. The Barasana say that there are no true
chiefs amongst thq He instruments just as there are no true chiefs
in human society, but they add that the flutes Old Macaw are ‘like
chiefs’. Again, there are no instruments that can be directly identified
with servants. Amongst the Barasana, the servant sib Wabea are seen
as equivalent to, but not the same as, the semi-nomadic Maku who
act as servants to some other Tukanoan groups in the Vaupes region
(Tukano, Desana, Cubeo and Pira-Tapuyo), but who are not present
in the Pira-parana area. Amongst the Tukano, who do have Maku
servants, some of the Yurupary instruments are said to have wives
and some of these wives are the Maku servants of the other instru¬
ments (Bruzzi da Silva 1962 : 307). According to Reichel-Dolmatoff
(1971 : 19), the Desana also consider their Maku servants as rep¬
resenting a female element. Of the Barasana He instruments, women
are represented by the trumpets called Manioc-squeezing Women
(Bbdie Romio), the daughter of Romi Kumu, by the shorter of the
two Old Macaw flutes, Old Macaw’s wife and by the short flutes
played by the initiates, described as the wives of the other instru¬
ments in general. If servants or Maku are represented by the wives
of the Yurupary instruments in other parts of the Vaupes, then the
wives of the Barasana He instruments, notably the short flutes, can
be identified as servants. Finally, the guests at He House are also
represented by thq He instruments they bring with them. At the
He House I observed, the most important group of guests, members
of Pedro’s household and representatives of the Bara sib Wai Masa,

148
The flutes and trumpets

close afflnes of their hosts, brought with them the trumpets called
Old Deer or Old Muscovy Duck.
The division of sibs into a ranked series associated with specialist
ritual occupations and the corresponding division of the He instru¬
ments into the roles of chanter/dancers, warriors and shamans, is
found also amongst the Bara, Tatuyo and Taiwano. The only evidence
for such a system outside the Pira-parana area is as follows: the
Baniwa have a hierarchy of ranked patrilineal sibs and some at least
are associated with particular named Yurupary instruments; they also
recognise the category of cigar lighters or servants as corresponding
to the most junior sib (Galvao 1959 : 22, 42, 49). The ranking of
sibs into a hierarchical order appears to be common to all Tukanoan
groups in the Vaupes. The Tukano have Yurupary instruments which
are described as being the Maku of the others. The Cubeo Yurupary
instruments bwu and onpwenda kudju-we, described by Goldman
(1963 : 193) as the ‘strongest and fiercest’, may correspond to the
Barasana category of fierce He and be represented by Old Star,
the warrior. It may well be that the very fact that throughout the
Vaupes—Iqana region the Yurupary instruments are divided into
two classes, trumpets and flutes, can perhaps be taken as evidence of
a division into ritual occupations, for amongst the Barasana at least,
this division corresponds in broad terms to that between chanter/
dancers and warriors. Finally, according to Biocca (cit. Schaden 1959 :
154), the Tukano of the Ri'o Tiquie are divided into three categories:
(1) caciques and chiefs, (2) the general population and (3) recently
initiated young men, in ranked order.

The significance of the true He

Romi Kumu is called the mother of He. The He are her children (also
her grandchildren) (see M. 1 .C.2). The Barasana say that the He are
ancestors (nikua). In theory at least, the different He are the different
ancestors of each of the five Barasana sibs mentioned above. In
practice, while informants repeatedly stressed that Old Star, the
warrior, was the particular ancestor of the Meni Masa sib, also warriors,
they were unwilling or unable to assign other individual instruments
to the other sibs. I was also unable to obtain data on this matter
from informants of sibs other than Meni Masa. However, there is no
doubt that, as a group, the He are the ancestors of the five sibs, also

149
Explanation and analysis

as a group. This statement is true also of the other groups (Bara,

Taiwano, Tatuyo and Makuna) in the Pira-parana area. It can be
said, therefore, that one interpretation of He rituals in the Pira-
parana area is that they represent an ancestor cult and that it is this
cult into which young boys are initiated. Goldman reached this
same conclusion concerning the Cubeo Yurupary cult, adding that
no other ancestral cult had been reported for the entire Northwest
Amazon. It is certainly true that Goldman has, till now, remained
alone in associating Yurupary with such a cult (Goldman 1963 :
190ff).
According to the Barasana, the He instruments, the He People,
are as if alive. They have names like ordinary people but are the
living dead. As such they are very cold (like dead people) and this is
one reason why they must be kept under water. They also smell
strongly (my informants would not say of what they smelled but
my guess is of rottenness). Because they are the living dead, ordinary
people are very afraid of them and they themselves are very dangerous
as they tend to make people waste away and die. The He People
want the living to join them permanently so they encourage the people
who see them to break the taboos so that they too will die. When
people become ill after seeing He, they can hear the He People
calling them to join them. One way in which the He try to kill the
living is by giving them fish to eat — these are the fish that the
shamans send away at the Fruit House in preparation for He House
and the fish that people dream of if they sleep in front of the house
on the last night of He House. The Barasana say that the He People
give the fish at a ceremonial exchange-of-food dance which is He
House itself and there are striking parallels between the overall
pattern of the two rites: at ceremonial food exchanges the donors
come to the recipients’ house. On the day they arrive, they do not
enter the house of their hosts but sit out all night on the plaza. At
He House too, the He are brought to the house on the evening of
the day of sitting on the plaza and there they remain till dawn. As
they arrive, the people in the house say, ‘The old people have arrived.’
At food-exchange dances, the donors enter the recipients’ house early
in the morning, carrying bundles of food and blowing on clay trumpets;
they walk twice round the dance path in a clockwise direction then
up the middle of the house, depositing the food between posts 7
and 8. At He House, the He enter as real trumpets and walk in the
same manner. The parallel is even more striking at Fruit House, for
150
The flutes and trumpets
again the He remain outside on the first night, but in the morning
they come in bringing food, but, unlike the cooked food at food-
exchange dances, this food is raw. The He, like food givers, are
outsiders and guests but from another world rather than another
house. The He represent the ancestors of the Barasana. These ancestors
were jaguars and the He too are jaguars as many of their names
suggest; as jaguars they are also shamans. The sound of the trumpets
is the roar of the jaguar and the Barasana say that when the He
are not in use, their souls wander in the forest in the form of jaguars.
Thq He are also anacondas; they have their origin in the burned bodies
of He Anaconda and Manioc-stick Anaconda (M.5.A., M.6.A); their
sound is that of the anaconda that makes a terrifying guttural roar
when provoked; lying hidden under water, they are the anacondas
that live in the rivers. I have already signalled the importance of
breath and blowing in the activities of Barasana shamans. Breath is
the manifestation of the soul (usit-) and can be used to cure and
impart life and vigour. It is this same breath that imparts life to the
He instruments: they are blown, they make sound and they live.
Tobacco snuff is blown into the He by the shamans to feed their
souls and to impart life. The roar of the jaguar and the anaconda is
the sound of their breath; by blowing into megaphone trumpets,
the Barasana amplify their breath to a roar. They say that their house
is a person and that when there are people inside, its heart and soul
become alive. The He instruments, brought from the forest, breathe
life into the house. At Fruit House, this same life-giving ancestral
breath is blown from the trumpets over the piles of fruit so that its
soul is changed and becomes ripe and abundant, and at He House,
it is blown over the initiates themselves to change their souls and to
turn them into strong adults.
As mentioned above, the Barasana maloca is a microcosm of the
universe itself: the roof is the sky, the house posts are the mountains
that support the sky, and the floor-space is the earth. Malocas are
conceptually, though not always actually, oriented along an east-
west axis so that the men’s door represents the Water Door in the
east where the sun rises, and the women’s door is the door in the
west; the centre of the house is the Pira-parana area, the centre of
the world. The earth is thought of as being bisected by a river running
from west to east and conceptually the house, as a microcosm of
the universe, is also bisected by a river. Thus, on a cosmic scale, there
is only one house, the universe itself. In the beginning, this universe—
151
Explanation and analysis

house had no people inside. The anaconda ancestors of the Bara,

Barasana, and Tatuyo were the sons of the Primal Sun, Yeba Hakhe.
Yeba Meni Anaconda entered the world through the Water Door in
the east and from there swam upriver towards the west. He travelled
up the Milk River (the Amazon?) to the Apaporfs and thence to the
Pira-parana, the middle of the world. Undifferentiated and as yet
not human, the head of the anaconda represented the top-ranking
sib and its tail represented the lowest sib; the head was towards the
west, the tail towards the east. On arrival at the centre of the earth,
the anaconda reversed its position so that its head now faced the
east and its tail the west, and then it gave rise to human beings, its
sons, either by vomiting them out of its mouth or by transforming
its body. These human beings were the He People whose names are
those of the He instruments, and their order of emergence, or creation,
gave rise to the ranking of the different sibs. This explains why
ideally the highest-ranking sibs live at the river mouth and the
lowest at the headwaters for, in the Pira-parana region, the rivers
flow east. The universe—house now contained people, the anaconda-
father representing the unity of the group, and his sons its internally
segmented and ranked parts.
Myths from elsewhere in the Vaupes region (see e.g. M.8.25) tell
much the same story but in some, rather than giving rise to different
sibs within one exogamic group, the anaconda ancestor gives rise
to all the different exogamic groups in the region. These myths, like
the Barasana origin myth mentioned above and like the myth in
which Romi Kumu creates the He People from Her own body (M.l.C),
all describe a process of differentiation and generalisation from a
common source. The Primal Sun, Yeba Hakie, the creator of the
universe, gives rise to three anacondas, his sons, associated respectively
with sky, earth and water, the ancestors of three intermarrying
descent groups. These ancestors give rise in turn to their sons, the
ancestors of the ranked sibs of each descent group. Romi Kumu, the
sky, and creatress of the universe, gives rise to the He People, the
ancestors of the Barasana sibs. Exactly the same process of differ¬
entiation from a common source is described in the myths of origin
of the Yurupary instruments. In each case, one individual dies or is
killed, after which his bones become the instruments, sometimes
directly as in M.6.A, sometimes by way of the paxiuba palm that
springs from his ashes as in M.8 or M.5.A. Some versions concern
the origin of the instruments belonging to one descent group (M.6.A,
152
The flutes and trumpets

M.4.H), others explain how all the different groups obtained their
Yurupary (M.5.B), just as some of the origin myths cited above
concern the origin of a specific descent group and its component
sibs, whilst others concern the origin of all such groups.
The journey of the ancestor anaconda and its subsequent division
into sons, the apical ancestors of the different sibs, is paralleled by
the sequence of events at He House where, through the powers of
the shamans, hallucinogenic drugs and contact with sacred ritual
objects, the maloca becomes the universe and the people inside
become the He People or first ancestors. The He instruments are
taken from their hiding-places under water in the forest. They are
inert (dead), and outside the house and thus outside the world.
The women and children are confined in the rear of the house so
that an exclusively male society is brought about, just as in ancestral
times there were no women. As the He enter the house, they are
played by a column of men, walking two abreast, the front of the
column representing the head of the anaconda and the rear, its tail.
They enter through the men’s door, equivalent to the Water Door
in the east through which the anaconda ancestor entered the world.
The column proceeds from the men’s door towards the women’s
door, from east to west, as the anaconda swam upriver from the east.
Once inside, the column goes around the edge of the house and then
comes down the middle from the rear end, stopping as the head
reaches the men’s door. The men then put their instruments down on
the floor in two parallel rows lying end to end up the middle of the
house and representing the anaconda lying along the middle of the
earth. The head of the column now faces east with its tail to the
west, as did the anaconda at the end of its journey. Then the column
is broken up and the instruments dispersed, just as the anaconda’s
body was divided into its component sib ancestors or sons.
If Yeba Meni Anaconda’s body gave rise to the different Barasana
sib ancestors and if Manioc-stick Anaconda’s body gave rise to the
different Barasana He instruments, then this would suggest that
Yeba Meni Anaconda and Manioc-stick Anadonda are the same person,
for the He instruments represent the He People and bear their names.
Informants agreed with this mutual identity, stating that both are the
sons of Yeba Hakur, the Primal Sun. The He instruments are the bones,
especially the paired long bones of the legs and arms, of Manioc-
stick Anaconda (M.6.A.62-5). They are also said to be the bones
of the Sun. The other items of ritual equipment are also parts of
153
Explanation and analysis

Manioc-stick Anaconda’s body: the gourd of beeswax is the lower

half of his skull; the snuff gourd is his skull cap; the beeswax is his
liver and tongue; the snuff is his brain; the ceremonial cigar is his
penis; the small gourds used to contain the snuff used at He House
are his testicles; the elbow ornaments are his elbows; the metal ear
ornaments that hang from the ears of the dancers are his eyes; the
black colour of the He instruments is the paint on his legs; the engraved
designs on the flutes are the patterns of the paint on his body, and
the feather ruffs around the ends of the flutes are the garters below
his knees (see M.6.A.63—4). When all these items are assembled
together at He House (the only time that this ever happens), then
Manioc-stick Anaconda’s body is once again complete. By blowing
snuff down the blow holes of the flutes, the shamans bring Manioc-
stick Anaconda back to life — snuff is the food of spirit people and
makes their souls alive.
The two men, dressed in the maximal amount of ritual ornament,
who play the Old Macaw flutes at the climax of He House immediately
after the burning of beeswax, represent Manioc-stick Anaconda and
his brother Macaw brought back to life. These are the He spirits,
the fierce spirits (He watia, guari watia) who shine bright like the Sun
and from whom the participants must avert their eyes. It is above all
the presence of the He and these two spirits that makes He House so
dangerous, for the participants are brought into direct contact with
the living dead, the spirits of the first ancestors. Thus, the process of
differentiation and generalisation mentioned above is reversed so
that the initiates and other participants are brought into contact with,
and adopted by, the anaconda ancestor as his sons. They are also
brought into contact with the Sun and the sky, the common sources
of all life, for the He are both the bones of the Sun and the children
of Romi Kumu, the sky.
At He House, the macrostructure of the universe and its people
is made coterminous with the microstructure of the maloca and the
local group that it contains. In myth, the universe is presented as a
single house; in it, the unity of the descent group is represented by
the anaconda ancestor and the differentiation of its component parts
by his sons, the He People. The core of a longhouse community con¬
sists of a group of male siblings united as the sons of one father. At
He House, the maloca becomes the universe, and the anaconda-father
Yeba Meni Anaconda is brought to life by assembling the parts of
his body. This anaconda adopts the participants as his sons and they
154
The flutes and trumpets

become He People, equivalent to the first sib ancestors. Thus He

House can be considered as a symbolic statement of Barasana social
structure in its wider setting, a structure that is largely inoperative
in daily life. The different age-grades are represented by the partici¬
pants themselves and by the differend kinds of He instrument they
play; and the sib structure and ranking is represented by the He
instruments and also by (at least some of) the ritual roles of the
participants which correspond both to the age-grades and to the sibs
with their specialist ritual occupations (see ch. 5). Women (both
sisters and wives) are represented by some of the He instruments and
by the women confined in the rear of the house. Affines are rep¬
resented by the participating affinal groups, by the He that they
bring with them and by the wives, external to the descent group and
excluded from the rites.

The instruments used at Fruit House

At most of the Fruit House rites that I observed, there were only
three pairs of He instruments used: one pair of long flutes, one pair
of short flutes and one pair of trumpets. These instruments belonged
to the hosts. When more instruments were present they were brought
by the guests; usually only trumpets were brought but at the Fruit
House held as the first stage of initiation the guests, from whose
households the initiates came, also brought a pair of long flutes.
The trumpets used at Fruit House, all hotiri trumpets, are col¬
lectively known as sori bukur, and do not have individual names like
the He used at He House. The long flutes are known collectively as
He rika samara. The pair of long flutes used by the Barasana at these
rites is called Tree-Fruit Jaguar {He Rika Yai) (see table 4) and also
called Old Cotinga Bird (Rasuu-Baku-). Only at the Fruit House
immediately preceding He House were the long flutes Old Macaw
used. The short flutes used at Fruit House are called Bosoro Hulia
(see table 4).
According to the Barasana, the He used at Fruit House, like the
other ritual equipment, are not true He but imitations of them. The
whole rite is described as being ‘a little bit an imitation’ and is only
a rough approximation of He House, the real thing. It is for this
reason that I have concentrated my discussion on He House, for in
most respects Fruit House is simply an attenuated replica. This is not
only how the Barasana view it but is also apparent from a comparison
155
Explanation and analysis

of the two rites. The He used at Fruit House are not true He, they
are not bones nor are they jaguars. They are not people and are not
alive and are therefore not very dangerous. Although women should
not see these instruments, the Barasana are much less worried if
they see these rather than the true He and say that the women would
merely become ill rather than dying. Most of the instruments used
are relatively new and people will freely admit to having made them;
they deny strongly that the true He were made by men at all.
M.7.1 is the myth told to me by the Barasana to explain the
meaning of Fruit House. The He instruments and the other items of
ritual equipment used at Fruit House all represent the animals and
birds, Yeba's people, who went with him to give tree-fruit to Fish
Anaconda, his father-in-law. The long flutes are specifically connected
with small birds (minia), and in particular with the blue cotinga
(Cotinga nattererii) and the musical wren (Cyphorhinus aradus).
When the flutes are played with their ends raised in the air, this
action, as well as being called having or encouraging the fruit, is also
called seeing Old Cotinga, seeing Musician Wren (Rasuu- Bukur langu,
Bu Samie fangu). These birds are called He birds, and the long flutes
are called old tree-fruit birds (He rika bukua minia). The sound of
these flutes is the sound of birdsong.
The trumpets, while not having specific names, in general represent
the animals that carried the fruit to Fish Anaconda’s house. In par¬
ticular, they are associated with peccaries whose grunting is the noise
of the trumpets. They are also associated with monkeys and again
their noise is compared to the noise of these animals. Collectively,
these animals are called the people who carry tree-fruit. The other
animals are represented by different items of ritual equipment, the
details of which can be found in M.7.I.3—6
Like the myths associated with He House, this myth is also concerned
with differentiation for it explains how the birds got their colours and
why it is that some animals have long tails and others not. But this
differentiation occurs at a different level for it concerns animals qua
animals and not the differentiation of one being into proto-human
ancestors, the He People. Chronologically, myths about Yeba are
later in time (and therefore ‘younger’) than myths about the He
People: Manioc-stick Anaconda, a He person, is the son of the Sky
People (Umuari Masa) but is the father of Yeba (see M.6.A.62).
Much of the story of Yeba describes his progressive ‘civilisation’
by Yawira, his wife: he starts off like an animal — his manioc garden
156
The flutes and trumpets

was the forest, his manioc was a forest plant, etc. (see M.7.B).
Yawira ‘civilises’ him by introducing him to cultivation (M.7.C,
D, E) and also does the same at a physical level by transferring his
penis from his belly (see M.7.B.6) - an animal-like state, to its
proper place between his legs (see M.7.F) — the human state. This
mythic chronology suggests what the Barasana say explicitly: that
the development of true human beings starts with the Sky People,
then goes on to the He People, then to the animals and finally to
true human beings who become differentiated from animals. The
Barasana say that Yeba was the first true human being like you and
me. It is therefore appropriate that at Fruit House, when the initiates
are youngest, they are shown instruments that are younger in time
and which represent animals which are but one stage before humans,
while at He House, when the initiates are older, they are shown
instruments that are older in time and which represent spirits or
He people who are two stages before humans.
To summarise so far: initiation among the Barasana involves two
separate stages, Fruit House and He House, held one after the other
with a gap in between. These two rites are different in terms of the
times at which they are held and also in terms of the instruments
and other equipment used. The first rite is considered to be an
attenuated imitation of the second. This is true not only in terms of
the overall structure of the rites but also in terms of the equipment
used; the equipment used at Fruit House is said to be a man-made
imitation of the sacred equipment, created in mythical times, which
is used at He House. In another sense, however, the equipment is
different in kind, for the He used at Fruit House represent animals
whilst those used at He House represent the He People, proto-human
spirit ancestors. The process of transforming an uninitiated boy into an
adult man involves retracing the steps in the development of human
beings.

The He instruments as shamans

In chapter 5, I argued that shamans and jaguars, identified together,

share the common attribute of being mediators. The He instruments,
identified with shamans, jaguars and anacondas, are also mediators.
The instruments themselves are made from sections of the trunk of
a paxiuba palm, as are all Yurupary instruments. According to Yurupary
myths, this palm grew up from the ashes of Yurupary’s burned body
(see M.5.A.12 and M.8.63). The soul of Yurupary (or of He Anaconda
157
Explanation and analysis

in the Barasana myth) went up in this palm as it grew and from there
went up into the sky. Thus the palm mediates between earth and
sky. The paxiuba palm only grows in swamps and could thus be
said to mediate between water, earth and sky. Though the Barasana
did not draw specific attention to this, one cannot help being struck
by the form of the aerial roots of this palm for they make it look as
if it hangs between the sky and the ground (see fig. 12). The He

Fig. 12 The paxiuba palm (Iriartea exorrhiza) with detail of buttress roots
(after Wallace 1853)
The flutes and trumpets

instruments also mediate between land and water for whilst they
are kept under water in rivers, they are brought out on to dry land
when in use. The passage from water on to land, and from the forest
in which they are kept to the house where they are used, also signals
a passage from a dead, inert state to an alive and active state. As the
living dead, they mediate between the human and spirit worlds,
between life and death. This in-between state is neatly summarised
by their being called pets, animals that come from the forest but
live in the house. Finally, like the shamans, they mediate between
the world of childhood and that of adults during rites of initiation.
As mediators, shamans combine in their characters attributes that
are complementary but opposed: they are associated with fire and
water, and they have the power to both create and destroy life.
These complementary but opposed attributes are shared by the
He instruments: they were created through fire (see M.5.A, M.6.A.
57—60, M.8.57—64) but are now kept cool in water. As anaconda
ancestors they have the power to create life, but in their fierce aspect
as jaguars (see especially the discussion of Old Star above) they are
associated with the life-destroying qualities of warriors and killers.
The Barasana call the paxiuba palm the He palm and also besuhe
palm: the word besuur means spear or lance and more generally any
lethal weapon.5 Unlike most other palms with large fruit, the fruit
of the paxiuba is poisonous and the sap from its roots causes violent
irritation of the skin.6 The association of the paxiuba with poison
is found again in the Yurupary myths, for it grew from Yurupary’s
ashes along with the first poisonous plants (see e.g. M.8.66). The
ambiguity between creation and destruction, between good and bad,
is found again throughout He House, for if the shamans are successful
and if everyone keeps the appropriate taboos, the outcome will
benefit the whole community, but if not, the whole thing will end
in disaster.

The significance of pairs

The above discussion of complementary but opposed attributes brings

5 The Barasana word besuu- is very similar to the name Bisiu, the Tukano name for the
character Yurupary (Brtizzi da Silva 1962 : 332). This is also close to Bisiw whose
spittle is identified with the instruments the Maku use when they bring live eels into the
house (see ch. 3 n. 1) and to Bihuinoe, the name given by the Puinave to their Yurupary
rites (Rozo 1945 : 243).
6 The juice of this root is also said to be used as an ‘aphrodisiac’ for when applied to the
penis it causes it to swell enormously.

159
Explanation and analysis

me to a final point to be made about the He instruments: why they

are in pairs. According to Briizzi da Silva (1962 : 307) the Tukano
say that the instruments are in husband—wife pairs, the wife being
the shorter of the two. According to Fulop (1956 : 356), also for
the Tukano, the pairs represent male and female, brother and sister.
The Cubeo are also said to conceive of the pairs as brother and sister
(Bolens 1967 : 65). Finally, Reichel-Dolmatoff says that the Desana
also divide the flutes into male/female pairs (1971 : 168).
The Barasana repeatedly denied that, in general, the paired instru¬
ments were male and female but at the same time they mentioned
two particular cases: the shorter of the two Old Macaw flutes is Old
Macaw’s wife and both the trumpets called Manioc-squeezing Woman
are female (see table 4). The Bara (Wai Masa) also said that the
trumpet Old Deer had a wife represented by a pair of flutes (not
present at the He House I observed) and that the short flutes Old
Parrot were the wives of the trumpets used at Fruit House. But, like
the Barasana, they too denied that all the He instruments were in
male/female pairs. According to the Barasana, the pairs were an elder
and a younger brother. The elder brother (the longer instrument)
is the dancer—singer and the younger (the shorter instrument) is
the one that follows. I am in no position to criticise the data of the
authors mentioned above but I suspect that in each case there is an
element of oversimplification in what they say. For the Barasana at
least, the He instruments are first and foremost a male symbol (with
limited female associations) and as such they are opposed to the
gourd of beeswax which is an essentially female symbol (again with
limited male associations. According to them, the He are in pairs
because they came from the paired long-bones of Manioc-stick Ana¬
conda and Macaw. The paired He instruments should be considered
in relation to other pairs: there are two shamans at He House, the
Sun and Moon are two manifestations of the Primal Sun, the feather
head-dresses are kept in pairs as are many other items of ritual equip¬
ment, etc. In many instances, these pairs represent opposed but
complementary opposites; male and female is one such opposite but
it is by no means the only one.

The He and mortality

I mentioned above that the word He may be related to the word hea
meaning fire, firewood and dead wood in general. Levi-Strauss (1970
160
The flutes and trumpets

147-95) has argued that the Ge myths about the origin of cooking
fire are also myths about the origin of man’s mortality and that to
cook, which of necessity involves the use of dead wood, is to ‘hear
the call of rotten wood’; rotten wood signifies mortality. He also
argues that myths of the origin of cultivated plants are also myths
about man’s loss of immortality for these plants must be cooked with
fire. M.6.A, the story of Manioc-stick Anaconda, is a myth about the
origin of destructive fire which Manioc-stick Anaconda obtains from
the Sun in the underworld in the form of snuff. He uses this fire to
kill his brother Macaw and thus to create the Old Macaw flutes.
Manioc-stick Anaconda himself is then burned to death, giving rise
to the He instruments in general. In M.6.B, this same fire (snuff)
bums Manioc-stick Anaconda to death but this time his body gives
rise to cultivated plants and his bones, instead of becoming He
instruments as in M.6.A, become the charred logs of a manioc garden.
M.8.57—61 unites these two themes for after Yurupary has been
burned, the survivors plant seeds in the ashes of the fire. From these
same ashes grows the paxiuba palm from which the Yurupary instru¬
ments are made (see also M.6.A). The association between the words
He and hea seems thus to be confirmed and it can be further said
that to take part in rites involving He instruments is in a very real
sense ‘to hear the call of rotten wood’. If this is so, then it implies
that the participants at He House and Fruit House must die. They
are killed by having large amounts of snuff (= destructive fire) blown
up their noses prior to the rites. More details concerning this symbolic
death (and the consequent rebirth) are given in chapter 9 below.
According to a Baniwa Yurupary myth, as Yurupary was burning
to death on the fire he told the men that because he was being killed,
from henceforth all men must die before they went to heaven like
him (Saake 1958a : 274). A Tukano Yurupary myth states the op¬
posite, that (in mythical times at least) the Yurupary instruments
were going to make all people immortal (Fulop 1956 : 356). This
ambiguity is combined in one Barasana myth, M.5.A, where the
Howler Monkey and the Tapir, whose voices are equated with He
instruments, signify life and death respectively.
I argued above that the creation of the Barasana sib ancestors, like
the creation of the He instruments that bear their names, involved a
process of differentiation and generalisation from a common source.
In the case of Manioc-stick Anaconda, and, by extension, of Yeba
Meni Anaconda, this differentiation only happens after the death of
161
Explanation and analysis

the character concerned. The He instruments and the Barasana sib

ancestors, the He People, are the sons of Manioc-stick Anaconda and
Yeba Meni Anaconda which would seem to imply that for men to
have sons they must die. Romi Kumu also gives birth to sons who are
both the He instruments and the Barasana sib ancestors, the He People,
but there is nothing to suggest that she dies.
The death of Macaw and Manioc-stick Anaconda is a death only
in one sense for they become living spirits in the sky, represented on
this earth by the He instruments, the living dead, and at He House,
by reassembling the He instruments and other ritual equipment, their
bodies too are brought back to life. Their immortality is echoed in the
constant reiteration of the words ‘you won’t disappear, you won’t
die’ in M.6.A. This is, in effect, to say no more than that life and
death are seen as an oscillation between opposite states and that souls
are reborn as children, which is what the Barasana believe (Leach
1961 : 124—32). Although the passage of time is conceived of as an
oscillation between two opposite states, day and night, dry season
and wet season, life and death, the succession of generations is
nevertheless irreversible. In a sense, it is women, and not men, who
replace themselves with their children and hence have a kind of im¬
mortality. This theme will be more fully discussed in chapter 7 after
the significence of the beeswax gourd has been explained.

162
7
The gourd of beeswax

The last chapter was devoted to a discussion of the significance of

the He instruments, the dominant symbolic objects on which the
rites focus. In this chapter I shall discuss the beeswax that is burned
during the rites, and the gourd in which this wax is placed. I shall
argue that although it is less likely to attract the attention of an
observer, the beeswax gourd is no less important than the He instru¬
ments, and that it stands in a complementary relation to them.
Most South American Indians appear to have a passion for honey
and many authors have described the often extraordinary lengths to
which they will go to obtain it. The Barasana with whom we lived
collected honey only twice in two years and then only at our in¬
sistence. It is as if the interest in honey has been replaced by an
interest in beeswax, as the rest of this chapter will show.

The wax gourd as an object

When not in use, the gourd of beeswax (werea koa) is kept in the
family compartment of the shaman — only the most powerful and
knowledgeable shamans have these objects under their control. At
all times it is kept wrapped in brown bark cloth. During He House,
lumps of wax are placed inside the gourd together with coca powder.
Throughout the rite, the gourd is kept inside the shamans’ enclosure
on top of an hourglass-shaped stand. At one point only, after the
acting-out of spearing that follows the burning of beeswax, the gourd
is placed between posts 1 and 2 so that the participants can eat
pinches of the coca.
The gourd itself is hemispherical in shape and varnished black
inside. It is made from the fruit of the calabash tree (Crescentia
cujete). Gourds of this kind, called tuga koa, are grown by men and
163
Explanation and analysis

are their exclusive property. They are used as containers for coca,
snuff and beeswax and to make the maracas used in dancing. In each
case the use is associated with ritual activities. These gourds are
opposed to those made from the fruit of the Lagenaria vine, called
koa, which are the property of women and are used in the prep¬
aration and consumption of food and drink, both secular activities.1
The wax werea inside the gourd is a hard, black, brittle substance
called cerumen, a mixture of wax and tree resin. It is used by
Meliponae bees to make the flight-hole leading to the nest, usually
situated inside a hollow tree. These flight-holes consist of tubes, up
to 38 cm long and often in expanded funnel form, which project
outwards from the trunk of the tree containing the nest (Schwartz
1948).
The Barasana distinguish three classes of bees: werea, berua and
momia, each distinguished from wasps (utia); wasps are like bees in
that some of them make honey but only wasps sting. Only the class
of bees called werea produce the wax—resin mixture of the same name;
the wax produced by other bees is called bee sperm/brain (beruabadi).
According to Schwartz (1948), with a few exceptions, only bees of
the sub-genus Trigona produce cerumen; the other Meliponae make
their flight-holes from a mixture of wax and mud. The Barasana class
werea therefore appears to correspond roughly to the sub-genus Trigona.
The characteristics that the Barasana attribute to werea bees, notably
their fierce bite, also correspond to those described for Trigona
(Schwartz 1948).
The shamans that officiate at He House are called the people who
blow over the gourd of wax (werea koa baseri masa). Appropriately,
a variety of werea bees called daria give their name to the Barasana
sib who have the ritual role of shamans. The ancestors of the Daria
clan were werea bees and today these bees are said to be shamans
and He People.

The significance of the wax gourd

The wax gourd as Manioc-stick Anaconda

The gourd itself is the bottom half of Manioc-stick Anaconda’s skull,

1 In general, the useful parts of the plants cultivated and owned by men come from
above the ground (leaves and bark). The useful parts of the plants cultivated and owned
by women tend to come from below the ground (roots and tubers). This same contrast

164
The gourd of beeswax

created when he was burned to death (see M.6.A.64);2 Manioc-stick

Anaconda is also called Old Gourd, which is appropriate to his
connection with this object. The true wax gourd, used only at He
House, is said to have been created together with the universe itself.
As bone (a skull), it is associated with the qualities of hardness,
permanence and durability; it is also said to be made of stone.3 The
gourd used at Fruit House is not identified with bone and is said to
have been made by a shaman in historical times. Thus the contrast
between true, sacred objects used at He House and man-made imi¬
tations of them used at Fruit House, already mentioned in connection
with thq He instruments, is found again in the wax gourd.
The gourd is also the Sun, the Primal Sun, Yeba Hakbe, the father
of the earth. As the Sun, the gourd is so bright that it would hurt
the eyes of those who looked at it; it is for this reason that it is kept
wrapped in bark-cloth and for this reason also that, when coca is
eaten from the gourd during He House, the people must avert
their eyes. The Sun created the gourd and it is his head, with a feather
crown, eyes, eyebrows, a tongue and a mouth (see fig. 13). It is more
powerful and dangerous than the He instruments themselves and
causes wasting-away illness (wisiose).
The gourd must never touch the ground which is why it is kept on
a stand. One Barasana informant compared the gourd on its stand to
the flat basketwork trays containing cassava bread which are placed on
larger hourglass-shaped stands outside each family compartment in
the house. Manioc-stick Anaconda, he said, was the cassava bread
inside the trays, the bread being made from the manioc plants that
sprang up from his ashes when he was burned (see M.6.B.4).

The wax gourd as viscera

The wax inside the gourd is Manioc-stick Anaconda’s liver, created

when he was burned to death (see M.6.A.64); it is also his tongue
(the Barasana associate the liver with the tongue: the word nyemeriti,
liver, is close to nyemero, tongue). This fact alone establishes a
visceral association for the wax. However, the argument can be taken

is found in these two kinds of gourd: men’s gourds come from trees, women’s gourds
come from vines that trail on the ground.
2 The wax gourd of the Tatuyo is the skullcap of Rame who was killed by Warimi (see
M.4.H.6).
3 It may be significant that the Barasana word koa, gourd, is phonetically close to ngoa,
bone, and also to oa, opossum.

165
Key
Black (red) = Sun
Dark tint (blue) = sky
. his feather crown
Light tint (green) sun
= sky powder

Tongue

Un ~~ his feather cro^

Fig. 13 The beeswax gourd (bracketed colours in key refer to original

Barasana drawing)

further: the wax is also likened to children inside a womb, the wax
being the shadow (wuho) of the children and the gourd itself being
the womb. This fact can, I think, be linked to the comparison the
Barasana make between the entrance to the flight-hole of the werea
bees’ nest and a vulva.4 If the entrance to the nest be compared to a
vulva, then it is reasonable to assume that the nest itself, located
inside a hollow tree, should be likened to a womb. The werea bees
that live in this nest should then be like children in a womb.5 Further
evidence for this assumption comes from the fact that Romi Kumu,
4 Ldvi-Strauss (1973 : 53) also states that the nests of some South American bees are
called ‘vagina’.
5 Though 1 have no data on this, it may be that the shamans (identified with werea bees)
inside their enclosure during He House are also compared to werea bees inside a hollow
tree.

166
The gourd of beeswax

who is herself identified with the wax gourd, is, at the time that
she creates the He People, also compared to a hollow tree (see
M.1.C.2). There is also a Barasana myth (not included here) which
tells how Romi Kumu's menstrual blood, the rain, fell into a hollow
tree which then became ‘pregnant’. This again establishes a con¬
nection between wombs and hollow trees.
If it is accepted that the gourd with wax inside is like a womb
containing children, then the comparison between the wax gourd
and trays containing cassava bread becomes even more appropriate:
in shamanic language, women, the cultivators of manioc, are called
food mothers. The manioc tubers are their children; the bread
prepared from these tubers lies inside a container, compared to a
gourd which is in turn compared to a womb.6

The wax gourd, Romi Kumu and the Pleiades

Romi Kumu, Woman Shaman, is the sky and the sky mother (see
M. 1 .B.6). The sky itself is compared to a gourd. The Primal Sun,
Yeba Haku-, is the father of the sky (umuari haku-: umuari means
both sky and day and more generally the universe as a whole).
According to a Barasana shaman, the sun and the sky are like a man
and a woman and as men and women have children, so the sun and
sky are responsible for the whole universe and all that exists within
it.
Romi Kumu is closely identified with the wax gourd: she owns
it and has it with her up in the sky (see M.l.B.l). At the time when
the He people were created, she kept the wax gourd between her
legs (see M.1.C.12) and when she offered it to thq He People, Old
Star, the fierce warrior, refused to eat from it on the grounds that
it stank of her vagina (see M. 1 .C. 11). This emphasises that, in par¬
ticular, the wax gourd is identified with Romi Kumu’s genitals;
Romi Kumu is herself a very ‘genital’ person for until she stole the
He from the men she was called ‘Vagina Woman’. When the wax is
burned it releases smoke with a pungent, aromatic smell which, like
the smell of musk and civet, has obvious sexual overtones. The
Barasana consciously associate this smell with vaginal odour. This

6 The equivalence between cassava and beeswax would suggest that wax is thought of as
a vegetable substance. The Barasana say that this wax is made from flowers and treesap,
which suggests that this is so.

167
Explanation and analysis

smell, together with the shape of the entrance to the werea bees’
flight-hole further emphasises the connection between the wax
gourd and the vagina.
Romi Kumu is the Pleiades (Nyokoaro) (see M.1.C.17), as is
Ceucy, Seucy, the mother of Yurupary in the Tariana Yurupary
myths (Stradelli 1890b). If Romi Kumu is identified with both
the wax gourd and with the Pleiades, then it can be assumed that
the wax gourd is itself directly identified with the Pleiades. This
identification is confirmed by two pieces of indirect evidence:
(1) bees (of an unspecified variety) are closely linked with Ceucy
(identifiable with Romi Kumu) in Lingua Geral, the trade language
once used throughout the Vaupes/Ri'o Negro/Iqana region and the
language in which many of the Yurupary myths were recorded
(Stradelli 1928-9 : 415). (2) The Cubeo call the Pleiades ‘the
swarm of wasps’ (Koch-Grtinberg 1906 : 62; 1912—16, vol X/XI :
116).7 While wasps are distinguished from bees by the Barasana, it
will be shown later that the wax is associated with all insects that
bite or sting.8 Finally it should be added that the Barasana have a
myth about wasps in the sky that sting to death the Star People,
though in this case the wasps are not specifically linked with the
Pleiades.

Romi Kumu, Meneriyo and Yawira

Barasana myths are divided into a number of different cycles. Although

not all the cycles are placed in a single, chronological order, stories
about Romi Kumu and the other Sky People (Umuari Masa) are seen
as older and earlier than stories about Manioc-stick Anaconda, which
in turn are earlier and older than stories about Yeba. While the
Barasana definitely recognise this chronology and also stress that
the stories of each cycle are different, this does not prevent a certain
degree of fusion from taking place. One of the most striking aspects
of this fusion is that a person will often start telling a myth with one
character as the main protagonist and then, half-way through the
story, he will switch and start talking about another character. The
most frequent of such ‘confusions’ is that between Warimi and Yeba.
With a more extended analysis of the myths, it could be shown

7 Somewhere in the literature on the Vaupds area I have also read that the Tukano call
the Pleiades ‘the swarm of bees', but I am unable to retrace this reference.
8 Ldvi-Strauss (1973) has also argued that bees and wasps are ‘combinatory variants’.

168
The gourd of beeswax

that the different mythic cycles represent transformations of one

another and furthermore that the main characters in each cycle can
be shown analytically to be the ‘same’ as each other to a greater or
lesser degree (this has already been suggested in chapter 6). In
addition to this, it could be shown that there is a close correspondence
between the classic Yurupary myths and the different Barasana myth
cycles. The myth of Yurupary, the life history of a culture hero of
the same name, is usually presented as a single, continuous story.
Virtually every episode of this story has its counterpart in Barasana
mythology, although the correspondence may be more or less exact.
However in the Barasana myths, the sequence of events is often
different and fragmented so that adjacent sections of the Yurupary
myth may be found occurring in separate Barasana myth cycles. A
comparison of the Barasana myths presented in this book with the
Tariana Yurupary myth (M.8), a representative version, will show
that this is so.
I have already argued that the wax gourd is identified with Romi
Kumu and in particular with her vagina and womb. I shall now
argue that, in some senses, Romi Kumu, Meneriyo and Yawira
(see M.l, M.4 and M.7) are the ‘same’ person, by establishing that
there is a web of interconnections between these women, the opossum
and the Pleiades. In doing this I shall make frequent references to
Levi-Strauss’s Mythologiques (vols. I and II), in part to show how my
own data fits in with his, and in part as a rapid means of covering
ground which would otherwise require an exhaustive structural
analysis of Barasana myth. As the myths I am discussing are all
close variants of myths analysed in Mythologiques I consider that
my method is justifiable. My argument proceeds by establishing a
series of equivalences, each one interconnected to the others. I shall
use the symbol = to indicate congruence, homology or correspondence.
Pleiades = Opossum: The Baniwa sib Siusi (Siusi = Pleiades in
Lingua Geral), call themselves Oaliperi-dakeni (Koch-Grtinberg 1906 :
168; 1909 — 10, vol. I : 54)\oaliperi means Pleiades9 and dakeni means
‘descendants of (Galvao 1959 : 40). The Barasana call these people
Star Opossum (People) (Nyokoa Oa), providing a direct link between
the opossum and the Pleiades in Barasana thought. The Tatuyo sib
called Opossum Tatuyo (Oa Suna) by the Barasana and Big Stars

9 I cannot find the Baniwa word for opossum. In Barasana the word is oa; it is possible
that this is the same oa as in Oaliperi.

169
Explanation and analysis
(.Nyokoa Pakara) by the Tatuyo, have the ritual role of shamans in
the sib hierarchy and are ‘the people who blow over the wax gourd’
(■werea koa baseri masa). This provides a similar but less direct link
between the Pleiades and the opossum, in that a group called Opossum
are intimately linked with the wax gourd which is in turn identified
with the Pleiades. Finally, when in M.7.K, Opossum is killed by
Tinamou, he falls to the ground from a tree and it immediately starts
to rain (see M.7.K.7). While, in the context of this myth, the Barasana
do not draw an explicit connection between the opossum and the
Pleiades, it is certainly striking that when the Pleiades set on the
western horizon at dusk (as if coming down from heaven to earth)
the rainy season begins with rains called Nyokoaro Hue, the Pleiades
rains (see fig. 3).
As well as stating that the opossum has affinities with the dry
season,10 Levi-Strauss has also drawn attention to the direct affinity
of the opossum with the Pleiades (1970 : 218 n.8) and its indirect
affinity with this constellation through honey (1973 : 288—9).
Meneriyo = Pleiades: When Meneriyo went into the sky, bees came
and buzzed round her (M.4.A.9); bees are identified with the Pleiades.
The mother of Yurupary, herself identified with the Pleiades, was a
virgin with no vagina so that when she became pregnant she was
unable to give birth until a birth canal had been made in her body (by
a variety of different agents in different versions of the myth: see
e.g. M.8.21). In spite of the fact that Meneriyo was clearly no virgin
and had a vagina, the birth of her son Warimi is strongly reminiscent
of that of Yurupary: in both cases the mother must be opened up by
an external agent (though for Meneriyo this opening up was more
drastic — see M.4.D. 14—15).11 Nonetheless, the Thunders who open
up Coadidop, the mother of Yurupary in M.8, are in fact the very
same people who open up Meneriyo in M.4.D: the Thunders of M.8
are the ancestors of the Tariana; the jaguars who open up Meneriyo
in M.4.D are Buho Yaiya, Thunder Jaguars who live at Jaguar Rapid,
the Barasana name for the village of Jauarete (Jauarete = jaguar in
Lingua Geral) on the Vaupes which is the home of the Tariana both
in mythic times and also today.

10 ‘The burial of the opossum . . . must coincide with the end of the dry season’ (Ldvi-
Strauss 1973 : 292-3).
11 By this I mean that, unlike Yurupary, Warimi was conceived as the result of normal
sexual intercourse, either between Meneriyo and the Moon (M.4.A) or between her and
Little Sticky Man (Umuaka Widau) (M.4.B); Little Sticky Man is, in fact, the Moon
(see M.4.C).

170
The gourd of beeswax

Yurupary started life with no mouth at all and he grew very rapidly.
Like him, Warimi grew very rapidly but rather than having no mouth
at all, all he could say was ‘we we we we’ in a feeble, quiet voice
which implies that in the figurative sense his mouth was much reduced.
If it is accepted that Warimi be identified with Yurupary,12 then his
mother Meneriyo can in turn be identified with the mother of Yurupary
who was herself the Pleiades (Stradelli 1928-9 : 415).
The name Meneriyo means Inga Woman. Inga (Inga dulcis), called
mene in Barasana, is a tree (mostly cultivated but there are also wild
varieties) which bears long pods containing seeds, each one surrounded
by a sweet, white, fluffy integument the appearance of which may
well be directly associated with that of the Pleiades (though I have no
direct evidence that this is so). It has already been shown that the
two fruiting seasons of inga coincide with the rising and setting of
the Pleiades and that both inga and the Pleiades are used as time-
markers for Barasana He rituals (see fig. 3). This again confirms that
Meneriyo and the Pleiades are linked.
In this context, two other points should be made about inga trees:
(1) in M.4.B and M.4.C, when Meneriyo returns from her visit to the
sky, she lands on top of an inga tree. If Meneriyo, Inga Woman, is
identified with the Pleiades, then her going up into the sky (when
she is captured by Little Sticky Man — see M.4.B) should correspond
to the rising of the Pleiades in November and her coming down again
(when she escapes from Little Sticky Man — see M.4.B) should cor¬
respond to the setting of the Pleiades in April (see fig. 3). It is there¬
fore entirely appropriate that she should land on a tree which bears
fruit at this time and, furthermore, fruit which is in itself identified
with her. The inga tree is thus a mediator between heaven and earth,
high and low, and also between the wet and dry seasons (for it fruits
at the end of the rains and beginning of the dry season and again at
the end of the dry season and the beginning of the rains). The Pleiades
too have this double connotation of wet and dry season for their
rising heralds the dry season and their setting heralds the wet. When
Manioc-stick Anaconda falls to the Underworld through the trap dug
12 The identity between Yurupary and Warimi can be demonstrated in another way:
Warimi, the name, means ‘He-Who-Went-Away’. The Bara call Warimi Bone Son (Koa
Maku). The Tukano have Yurupary myths about Oa’ku, a name that can be translated
both as ‘Bone Son’ and as ‘He-Who-Went-Away’. Oa’ku is identified with Kowai (who
is the Cubeo Yurupary) and with Yurupary himself.
The reader can find many other instances in which Warimi is identifiable with Yurupary
characters by comparing Warimi myths (M.4) with the Yurupary myths listed in appendix
2.

171
Explanation and analysis

by his brother (see M.6.A.7) and, in other words, comes down from
the Underworld sky, he too lands on an inga tree, again a mediation
between (Underworld) sky and (Underworld) earth.13 (2) In M.8.52,
Yurupary insists that the only way in which he can be killed is to be
burned on the dry husks of inga fruit. The resulting fire is a universal
conflagration, a phenomenon closely linked with both Romi Kumu
and the Pleiades.
Finally, Levi-Strauss (1970 : 240-6) has shown that viscera, es¬
pecially floating viscera, are closely linked with the Pleiades. I have
already shown that the wax gourd (Pleiades) is identified with
viscera; it is possible that the theme of the floating viscera identified
with the Pleiades is also present in a disguised form in Barasana
mythology. For Warimi to be born, Meneriyo’s womb had to be
taken to the river (see M.4.D.15); though the Barasana do not actually
say that the womb became the Pleiades, animals are always gutted
in rivers and their viscera are allowed to float away with the current.
Meneriyo = Opossum: M.4.A. 12 —15 in which Meneriyo visits
Opossum’s house and is (all but) seduced by him, is remarkably
similar to the Tupi myth cited by Levi-Strauss (1970 : \12,M96),
in which a child who talks to his mother from the womb later becomes
angry with her and refuses further communication. Because of this
she loses her way and arrives at an opossum’s house where she is
raped. Warimi also talks to his mother Meneriyo from her womb but
instead of later refusing to talk at all, he gives her wrong directions
so that she too arrives at an opossum’s house where she is (all but)
raped by him. Levi-Strauss (1970 : 170—1), in discussing ‘opossum
myths’, comments on the lack of explicit reference to this animal’s
marsupial pouch, but argues that the woman’s ‘opossum function’
becomes metaphorical: ‘her child talks in her belly as if he had already
been bom and were using the maternal womb as a marsupial pouch’
(1970 : 180). If this is true of the heroine of Levi-Strauss’s M96, it
is true also of Meneriyo who must also be a ‘metaphorical opossum’.
Finally, in M.4.A. 10—11, Meneriyo is shown to be closely associated
with the japu bird. According to Levi-Strauss (1970 : 185), this bird
represents the ‘opossum function’ coded in ornithological terms,
opossums and japu birds both being characterised by a strong smell.
Yawira = Opossum: Like Meneriyo, Yawira also visits Opossum’s

13 According to Barasana cosmology, the earth is like a cassava griddle (see M.l.A), the
underneath of which is the sky of the Underworld.

172
The gourd of beeswax

house where she is actually seduced by him. Because of this, she

stinks so much (from contact with a stinking opossum) that her
next lover, Tinamou, initially refuses to sleep with her (see M.7.K).
As a person who stinks, Yawira is homologous both with an opossum
and with Romi Kumu (who also stinks). After being seduced by
Opossum and Tinamou, Yawira goes off and marries the Chief of
the Vultures. Yeba, her true husband, finally catches up with her only
to drown her in honey inside a hollow tree because she refused to
drink the honey modestly. When drowned, Yawira becomes the
cunauaru frog ( ehoka, Phyllomedusa bicolor) which lives inside
hollow trees (see M.7.L). Yawira is a ‘girl mad about honey’, a
character extensively discussed by Levi-Strauss, Mythologiques II
(1973). One of the conclusions Levi-Strauss reaches concerning such
characters is that they are homologous with opossums. Yawira
can also be linked directly to Romi Kumu because cunauaru frogs
are referred to as He mother, the name applied to Romi Kumu.14
Finally, according to a Barasana myth, Romi Kumu (= Pleiades)
created the rainbow to keep warm the child born of her menstrual
blood (the rain) which fell into a hollow tree. Levi-Strauss (1973)
has shown that, in South American mythology, there is a direct
affinity both between the Pleiades and the rainbow, and between
the opossum and the rainbow.
To summarise so far: using a combination of data from my own
fieldwork and from Levi-Strauss’s Mythologiques I have established
the following links:
' Romi Kumu ' Pleiades opossum
Wax Gourd - Pleiades Meneriyo honey
Romi Kumu-
. bees Yawira Pleiades - Meneriyo
_ rainbow rainbow

Yawira Meneriyo — bees Yawira - honey

Meneriyo
Opossum
honey
. rainbow

and I have also established possible links between Yawira and the wax
gourd (through the resin collected by the cunauaru frog — see n. 14),
and between the wax gourd and the opossum (through the Opossum

14 The cunauaru frog makes brood-cells from tree resin which it collects. In some parts
of South America, this substance is used as a fumigant to relieve headaches (Ldvi-Strauss
1970 : 264). Beeswax is also used as a medicinal fumigant which suggests a possible
direct link between Yawira ( = cunauaru frog) and beeswax.

173
Explanation and analysis

Tatuyos who control the wax gourd). Romi Kumu can be linked with
the opossum through shared associations with both the Pleiades and
the rainbow. Like the opossum, she also stinks and shares with it
the characteristic of giving birth to many children (the He people) all
at once. The Barasana emphasise this characteristic of the opossum
and one explanation they give for the name of the Opossum Tatuyos
is that their ancestress had so many children all at once that she had
to carry them around on her back, like an opossum. The wax gourd can
be linked to honey through the bees that produce both honey and wax,
and Romi Kumu is linked with bees and wasps through their common
association with the Pleiades, and she is further linked to the honey that
bees produce. Fig. 14 is a summary of the links mentioned above; the
main one that is missing is that between Meneriyo and Yawira. This
link is implied by the obvious similarity between M.4.A.12—15 and
M.7.K.1—5 but a full demonstration would require analysis of un¬
warranted length.

Wax gourd

Fig. 14 Links between female characters in Barasana myth

174
The gourd of beeswax

From the above it can now be concluded that the wax gourd is
an essentially female symbol for it subsumes virtually all the important
female characters of Barasana mythology. As such it is opposed and
complementary to the He instruments which are essentially male
symbols and identified with male anaconda ancestors. But just as
the He instruments have limited female associations — some of them
represent women, and they represent He People created without
male intervention by Rorni Kumu (M. 1 .C) — so too does the wax
gourd have limited male associations. It is identified with the Sun
and with Manioc-stick Anaconda (who himself has female associations
as the origin of manioc, a function shared with Yawira), and it is also
identified with Romi Kumu who is herself sexually ambiguous
(M.1.C.3) and who gave rise to the He People, a function shared with
Manioc-stick Anaconda.

An ‘instrument of darkness’

In the Vaupes region, the rising of the Pleiades on the western horizon
at dusk heralds the coming of the long dry season. This is the time
when the forest is felled to make gardens and when large quantities
of fish are caught by poisoning the rivers and streams as their water
gets lower, and it is the time for holding Fruit House to prepare for
He House.15 As the Pleiades set in the west, they herald the end of
the dry season and the coming of the long rainy season (hue buku-
in Barasana); the dried-out trees in the gardens are fired and manioc
is planted in the ashes ready to grow in the coming rains. This is the
time that He House should be held, just before the first rains, the
Pleiades rains, begin (see fig. 3). With the rains, the waters rise and
fish ascend the rivers in huge numbers to spawn. Again there is an
abundance of fish to eat, this time caught in traps. These fish, like
those caught with poison, are Pleiades fish which are both a source of
food and a potential source of sickness and death.
The first-ever dry season was a universal conflagration when the
sun remained at its zenith and burned up the world; this was the
time when Romi Kumu lit the fire to fire the clay griddle she had
made which was the earth (see M.l.A). After this came the first
15 It is worth noting here that, according to Ypiranga Monteiro (1960 : 38), Yurupary
instruments are used at meetings for communal land-clearing or cultivation. Among the
Saliva, to the north of the Vaupes, young men were whipped and shown the instruments
illustrated in fig. 9 to remove their laziness prior to communal clearing of the land
(Gumilla 1963 : 160). See also Galvao 1959 : 21.

175
Explanation and analysis
rainy season; rain-clouds blotted out the sun and all went dark like
a long night. Heavy rain fell so that the rivers rose and caused a
catastrophic flood (see M.l.A).
Thus the Pleiades stand both for the dry season and for the
rainy season and for an abundance of food which is also potentially
lethal. Romi Kumu, identified with the Pleiades, stands also for the
dry season and the wet season, for fire and flood and for light and
darkness. She is also a creative mother (see M.l.C) and a sexually
voracious ogress (see M.4.F.17).16 The wax gourd, identified with
both the Pleiades and with Romi Kumu, also has these same meanings.
Levi-Strauss devotes a considerable portion of Mythologiques II
(1973) to a discussion of ‘the instruments of darkness’. However,
with the exception of the Bororo parabara, he is unable to demonstrate
that, outside the realm of myth, such a thing exists in South America
and most of his material about real ‘instruments of darkness’ is drawn
from European and Chinese society. He argues, with reference to a
myth from the Tupi of the Amazon (M326a), that a nut which, when
opened by melting the resin that sealed it, gave rise to night is an
instrument of darkness ‘in the literal sense, whereas, the similar
instruments in Western mythology can only be given the appellation
in a figurative sense’ (1973 : 416—7). He argues further that, in
South America, instruments of darkness are linked with honey, with
‘honey smoke’, and that the use of such instruments is universally
associated with a change of season (1973 : 423, 443, 469—70).
The Barasana myth of the Ayawa asking for night (see M.2.B) also
describes a container which when opened releases night. Most versions
of this myth (all very similar to Levi-Strauss’s M52(5a) emphasise
the precise nature of this first, excessively long night: rain poured
from the sky and the rain-clouds blotted out the sun. The association
between heavy rain (and hence the rainy season) with the long night
is found again in the story of the flood caused by Romi Kumu and
it is notable that the detail concerning household objects which
become dangerous animals (M.l.A.4) parallels exactly the same
detail in Levi-Strauss’s M326a. In another Barasana myth (not in¬
cluded here) a packet is opened which releases vast clouds of ants
called night ones (nyamia).17 In variants of this myth from other
16 See also Ldvi-Strauss 1973 : 268-9 for a discussion of the ambiguous significance of
the Pleiades and M277, p. 273 for a portrayal of Ceucy (Pleiades) as a man-eater in the
literal sense.
17 The flying forms of these sauba ants (Atta sp.) leave the nest in the early morning before
dawn. The Hying forms of other sauba ants leave the nest during the day.

176
The gourd of beeswax

parts of the Vaupes region, it is these same ants which, when released
from a container, give rise to the first, catastrophic night (Reichel-
Dolmatoff 1971 : 26). This container was a ‘sound instrument’ in
that it also contained frogs, crickets and ants (called roe in Barasana)
which makes a ‘ti ti ti ti ti’ sound. Collectively, these animals are
called old ones of night.
The manner in which the nut of Levi-Strauss’s M362a is opened
(by the melting of a resin seal) is reminiscent of the burning of the
beeswax at He House. When the wax is burned, it is said to release
clouds of werea bees which are like the ants which gave rise to the
first, long night. The burned wax also releases a powerful stench.
If, as Levi-Strauss argues (1973 : 361-422), in South American
Indian thought din and stench are homologous, then the gourd of
beeswax can be said to be an instrument of darkness. But as it is not
truly a musical instrument, it is an instrument of darkness only in
a metaphorical sense. However, it has close associations with noise
both in that when it is used at He House, the person carrying the
burning wax is followed by young men blowing trumpets, and in
that, according to the Barasana, the bees released when the wax is
burned make a loud buzzing noise.18 But most important of all,
instruments of darkness produce the long night: according to the
Barasana, if the wax gourd were ever to be broken, a catastrophic
flood would ensue; floods, as I have shown above, signify the long
night.
Thus the Barasana wax gourd is a metaphorical instrument of
darkness and, in addition, Levi-Strauss’s arguments concerning this
instrument are confirmed: Levi-Strauss states that the instrument of
darkness is associated with honey — through werea bees (the wax
gourd shows this link); that it is associated with ‘honey smoke’ —
the burned wax produces this smoke; and that it is associated with a
change of season — He House, when the wax gourd is used, takes
place at the interface of two seasons, the end of the summer and
beginning of the rains. However, it should be emphasised that if the
wax gourd is an instrument of darkness, it is also an instrument of
fire and light, for, identified with Romi Kumu and the Pleiades,
18 In the past, the Barasana used to have masked mourning rites exactly like those described
by Goldman for the Cubeo (1963 : 219-52). During these rites, a man dressed in a
mask representing the morpho butterfly would dance, accompanying himself by a
rhythm made by hitting the inside of a hemispherical Crescentia gourd, held in one hand,
with a leg rattle held bunched-up in the other. Here, at least, we have a gourd identical
to the wax gourd (but without the wax) being used as a real musical instrument.

177
Explanation and analysis

it signifies also the dry season which is associated with a universal

conflagration.19

Menstrual blood, fire and water

In one version of M. 1 .C, when Old Star refuses to eat from Romi
Kumu\ wax gourd (see M.l.C.l 1), he says, ‘I will not eat of that
which smells of the stuff that you exude from your vagina.’ This
would suggest that this wax has a specific association with menstrual
blood. According to Levi-Strauss (1973 : 366), ‘South American
Indians believe that the liver is an organ formed from coagulated
blood and that, in women, it acts as a reservoir for menstrual blood.’
While the Barasana made no definite assertion to this effect, their
rather unelaborated notions concerning the physiological basis of
menstruation would certainly be consistent with this idea. I have
already established that the wax is identified with liver. When the
wax is burned, it is transformed from a hard, dry substance to a
molten semi-liquid and produces the smell of menstrual blood. The
melting of wax is thus analogous to the ‘melting’ of coagulated
blood (liver) which produces menstrual blood. It is therefore reason¬
able to argue that the wax is identified with menstrual blood.20
This adds a new dimension to the argument, set out in chapter 5,
that shamans are like menstruating women. Romi Kumu, Woman
Shaman, the prototype shaman from whom all shamans derive their
powers, is identified with wax, in turn identified with menstrual blood.
Her vagina is wide open in the following respects: she gives birth to
the He People (see M.l .C); she is a menstruating woman; she is
sexually voracious (see M.4.F.17) and she is called ‘Vagina Woman’.
Like her, shamans too are wide open. As the Pleiades she controls
19 Livi-Strauss also finds that the instruments of darkness can signify both darkness and
night (the rotten world) and fire and light (the burned world) when he writes: ‘Conse¬
quently, according to whether the myth is thought of within the context of absolute
space, or relative time, the same signifieds (conjunction and disjunction) will call for
opposite signifiers.’ And also when he writes: ‘The bull-roarer and the instrument of
darkness are the ritual signifiers of a disjunction and a conjunction, both non-mediatized,
which, when transposed into different tessitura, have as their conceptual signifiers the
rotten world and the burned world. The fact that the same signifieds, in so far as they
consist of relationships between objects, can, when these objects are not the same,
admit of contrasting signifiers, does not mean that these contrasting signifiers have a
signified/signifier relationship with each other’ (1973 : 421). See also pp. 237-8.
20 Ldvi-Strauss (1973 : 255) argues that both honey and menstrual blood are ‘naturally
cooked’ substances, honey being a product of the natural world and menstrual blood
a product of the animal world. Beeswax too can be considered as a ‘naturally cooked’
substance.

178
The gourd of beeswax

the weather; according to the Barasana, shamans too control the

weather.21
Romi Kumu’s menstrual blood is quite explicitly identified
with rain and her urine is also rain (see M.l .B.2). In one version of
the myth in which heavy rain follows the death of Opossum (see
M.7.K.7) it is stated that this rain was blood. This suggests a link
between Romi Kumu and the opossum. The Barasana also state that
the rainy season is itself the menstrual period of the sky (= Romi
Kumu). These facts indicate that seasonal periodicity is associated
with the physiological periodicity of women and that the major
climatic features of the rainy season and the dry season are re¬
duplicated, at a physiological level, in the process of menstruation.
Furthermore, the act of burning wax should, in a symbolic sense,
both cause rain to fall and cause menstrual blood. This is precisely
what happens at He House, for after it (and hence after the burning
of wax which takes place during this rite) comes the rainy season and
also after He House the initiates are confined in a special compart¬
ment. In chapter 5, I argued that this period of confinement was
equivalent to the confinement of women during their menstrual
periods and I shall present more evidence for this below.
It has been shown that both Romi Kumu and the Pleiades are
associated with fire and water. It should therefore be expected that
the wax gourd and the vagina are also associated with these elements.
For the wax gourd, the association with water has already been shown
above; the most obvious association with fire is the fact that, during
a rite in which all contact with fire and heat is taboo, wax is ritually
burned. The association of the vagina with water has again been
already shown. The evidence for an association of the vagina with fire
is as follows: the fire that the Ayawa stole from their grandmother
was kept between her legs in her vagina (see M.2.C.1). To make fire,
the grandmother squatted over a pile of urucu (Bixa orellana) branches
(M.2.C.2). The red pigment from the seeds of urucu, used by women
to paint their faces, is Romi Kumu’s menstrual blood (M.1.B.4). The
story of the conception of Kanea (M.2.A) exactly parallels the story
of the conception of Yurupary in M.8.14, suggesting that the grand¬
mother of the Ayawa is the ‘same’ person as the mother of Yurupary
who in turn can be identified with Romi Kumu. Finally, that fire and

21 They do this by wiping their hands in their armpits and then blowing the smell at the
clouds whilst uttering a spell. Here again, as for the wax gourd, smell is used to control
weather.

179
Explanation and analysis
menstruation are linked is suggested by such expressions as ‘she’s
boiling her pot, lighting her fire’, etc., which are used by the Barasana
as euphemisms to indicate that a woman is menstruating.

Beeswax and poison

The animals that come to eat from the wax gourd after the refusal
by Old Star have two things in common: first, they are all poisonous
or bite fiercely and secondly, they can all change their skins (see
M.l.C. 13).22 This helps to clarify why, in some versions of the myth
of the origin of night, the instrument of darkness (identified with
the wax gourd) should contain ants. It also adds weight to the argu¬
ment that, with regard to the wax gourd, the difference between
bees and wasps is not of great significance. But the argument can be
taken still further: the episode of the myth in which noxious animals
come and eat from the wax gourd bears a strong resemblance to the
episode in which these same animals come and steal poison from
Warimds poison pot (see M.4.G.4). This suggests that there are
grounds for linking the wax gourd with a pot of curare poison.
To obtain this poison, Warimi had to go inside the body of Poison
Anaconda, the father of Romi Kumu (see M.4.F.22—3). The poison
was in Poison Anaconda’s gall-bladder, part of the liver which is itself
identified with the wax.23 Manioc-stick Anaconda’s liver gave rise to
wax in M.6.A.64; his gall-bladder gave rise to cultivated fish-poisons
and a poisonous fungus in M.6.B.10 —11.24 Romi Kumu’s vagina
(= wax gourd) was surrounded by barbasco fish-poison, her pubic
22 In a myth from the Tukano of the Rio Paca, not far from the Pird-parana, a gourd
containing coca is offered to people who refuse to eat from it because, in addition to
the coca, it contains noxious creatures. These creatures then eat the coca and thus become
immortal through the power to change their skins (Fulop 1954 : 113—14). This myth,
a variant of M.l.C, is of great importance in that it is the only concrete piece of evidence
I have found for supposing that people outside the Pira-parana area make use of the wax
gourd. While it is true that the gourd in question is not stated to contain wax, it is
nonetheless true that the Barasana wax gourd contains coca and that it is this coca,
not the wax itself, that is eaten.
23 The story of Warimi getting poison from inside Poison Anaconda is very similar to the
story of the young boy inside the belly of Yurupary (see M.8.40-6). This would suggest
that Poison Anaconda = Yurupary. Like Yurupary, He Anaconda also swallows dis¬
obedient young boys and then vomits them up again (compare M.8.37-51 with M.5.A.1-9).
This would suggest that Yurupary = He Anaconda. Finally, Yurupary, He Anaconda and
Manioc-stick Anaconda are all burned alive and give rise to Yurupary instruments. Thus
we have: Yurupary = Poison Anaconda = He Anaconda = Manioc-stick Anaconda.
24 According to a Baniwa Yurupary myth (Saake 1958a), when Yurupary was burned, the
first species of poisonous plant grew up from his ashes and his liver gave rise to the first
snakes and mosquitos.

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The gourd of beeswax

hair (see M.4.F.15—16).25 Finally, the Barasana consider that menstrual

blood (= wax, see above) is poisonous. Thus the wax is identifiable
with poison.
The identity of the wax with poison explains further why the Pleiades
should bring the threat of sickness and death (see above), for the
Pleiades are identified with wax and with the wax gourd.26 Together
with the fact that the He instruments have poisonous connotations,
it also helps to explain why, during He House, the house becomes
filled with poison.

Beeswax and immortality

The myth of the origin of night (M.2.B), which, as I have argued

above, concerns the wax gourd as an instrument of darkness, can also
be said to be a myth about the origin of man’s mortality. Owing to
the confusion between the words nyami, night, and kami, sores,
sores and hence sickness and death were the consequence of obtaining
night. Considering the death-dealing associations of the Pleiades and
the identity of wax with poison, it is hardly surprising that the wax
gourd should shorten human life. But M.l.B indicates that it is the
wax gourd that is the key to Romi Kumu’s immortality and M.l.C
indicates that it was precisely because the He People refused to eat
from the wax gourd that they lost the power of rejuvenation and
hence men became mortal. This poses two problems: why it is that
the wax gourd symbolises immortality for some and mortality for
others? And why did the first He People refuse to eat from the wax
gourd whilst today’s He People (the participants at He House are
called ‘He People’) eat the coca that this gourd contains?
According to Levi-Strauss (1970 : 270) ‘stench is the natural
manifestation, in an inedible form, of femininity, of which the
other natural manifestation, milk, represents the edible aspect. Vaginal
odour is therefore the counterpart of the suckling function: being
anterior to it, it offers an inverted image of it and can be considered
its cause, since it precedes it in time.’ In the present context this
should imply that wax, clearly identified with stench and vaginal
odour, should also be identified with milk. All versions of M.l.C

25 Livi-Strauss (1970 : 270) argues that fish-poison is analogous to female filth.

26 For a discussion of the homology between fishing, poison and epidemics see Ldvi-Strauss
1970 : 279-81 and of the death-dealing aspects of the Pleiades see Ldvi-Strauss 1973 :
269-70 and 288.

181
Explanation and analysis
put Romi Kumu’s offering of the wax gourd to the He People
immediately after their birth which in turn implies that, as the first
food offered to new-born babies, wax is like milk. Wax itself is a
totally inedible substance; what the participants at He House eat
is coca mixed in with it. The Barasana call coca and yage by the
same term kahi (when relevant, a distinction is made by adding the
prefixes bare-, to eat, and idire-, to drink). Yage is said to be He
milk and it is given to the initiates to make them live. The initiates
themselves are said to be soft and are explicitly compared to new¬
born babies and in keeping with this, they must remain in a foetal
position throughout the rite. Though it is yage that is being ident¬
ified with milk I think there is sufficient evidence to extend this
identity to include coca.27
The stench of wax thus presents a paradox: it signals decay and
hence a shortening of human life, as does the opossum (Levi-Strauss
1973 : 80 — 1) (Identified with Romi Kumu) but as milk it is the
source of life to new-born babies (and initiates). By refusing wax,
the He People refuse life and become the living dead, spirits from
the other world. He House is a dangerous game, for the living are
brought into contact with the dead and become one with them
but ultimately they must remain alive, so they eat wax. But the
wax gourd used at He House is not the real one but the left-over
gourd which gives life but not immortality (see M.l .C.10 —16).
In spite of knowing that the wax gourd used at He House is
not the real thing, one informant said to me after the rite, ‘We ate
from the wax gourd at He House so that we too could change our
skins.’ For the Barasana, to change skins is a way to rejuvenation
and hence to immortality and this theme is stressed throughout
He House and the period following it.28 The application of black
paint at the beginning of He House is designed to change the skins

27 Coca takes away hunger and people will never eat either whilst they are taking coca nor
soon after; as such it is an anti-food. Reichel-Dolmatoff makes this same observation
and also establishes that the Desana identify coca with milk (1971 : 46).
28 L^vi-Strauss argues that myths dealing with the loss of immortality view the problem
from two different angles: ‘It is looked at prospectively and retrospectively. Is it possible
to avert death - that is, to prevent men from dying sooner than they want to? And
conversely, is it possible to restore men’s youth once they have grown old, or to bring
them back to life if they have already died? The solution to the first problem is always
formulated in negative terms: do not hear, do not feel, do not touch . . . etc. The solution
to the second problem is always expressed positively: hear, feel, touch, see, taste. On the
other hand, the first solution applies only to men, since plants and animals have their
own method of avoiding death, which is to become young again by changing their
skins. Some myths consider only the human state and can therefore be read in one

182
The gourd of beeswax

of the initiates, and its disappearance at the end of the marginal

period signifies that this has been achieved and that the initiates
are ready to receive pepper blown by the shamans.29 The stress
placed on the initiates washing their faces during the marginal
period is also connected with the theme of changing skin. Finally,
whipping (see ch. 8) causes rebirth and a change of skin, and there
are several episodes in Barasana myth in which the bones of a
burned or cooked person are covered with leaves as a skin which
is then whipped to bring the person back to life.30
According to the Barasana, women live longer than men because
they menstruate. Menstruation, they say, is an internal changing of
skin. This implies that immortality and periodicity are linked. This
idea is confirmed in many different ways. Creatures that shed their
skins, a sign of periodicity, are also immortal. The Sun, identified
with the wax gourd never dies; in the rainy season he becomes old
and less hot, then he sheds his skin and becomes young and hot again,
which is the dry season. In the evening, Romi Kumu is old and ugly
but in the morning she bathes and becomes young and beautiful
again (see M.l.B.l). The wax gourd, as an instrument of darkness,
is responsible for the regular alternation of day and night. As the
Pleiades, it is-responsible for the regular alternation between the
dry and rainy seasons, an alternation which is homologous with
that between day and night, for a period of heavy rain is part and
parcel of the first, long night. In turn, the periodicity of the seasons
is homologous with that of menstruation and it can be said that
one reason for the burning of wax at He House is to ensure that
this periodicity continues, a reason which also explains, in part, why
direction only - prospective continuance of life, negative injunction; others contrast
the human state with that of creatures or entities that grow young again, and can be read
in both directions — prospectively and retrospectively, negatively and positively’ (1970 :
162). The myth about the refusal to eat from the wax gourd firmly supports this view.
29 The Cubeo apply black paint (genipa) to the bodies of new-born babies so that the
foetal skin will be shed (Goldman 1963 : 169).
30 In the Tukano myth mentioned in n. 22 above, after giving a box containing night to
humanity, Yepa Huake (represented on this earth by the Yurupary instruments) tells
two people called Cajta and Cajta Casoro (two species of guan birds - compare M.2.B.8) to
get up early in the morning to bathe. At the port they were to vomit, smoke tobacco and then
whip themselves so that they could peel the skin from their heads down to their shoulders
and then on down to their feet. After this they were to come back to the house and eat
coca from a gourd. They both remained asleep in the morning but one of them wakes in
time to peel his skin to his shoulders. Yepa Huake is angry at their laziness and makes
the one who peeled to his shoulders put back his skin. Then he offers them the gourd
of coca. They refuse to eat, as they are frightened of the noxious creatures mixed with
the coca, so Yepa Huake curses man and tells them that henceforth they must die
(Fulop 1954 : 122-5).

183
Explanation and analysis

it is that He House is held at the end of the dry season and the
beginning of the rains.
In chapter 5, I argued that the victory of the men who regained
the stolen He (see also M. 1 .D) was double-edged, for the women
retained a kind of He, their hair, and with it the ability to menstruate.
M. 1 .C tells essentially the same story, for the men failed to get the
true wax gourd back from Romi Kumu. In both cases, men lost the
power to menstruate and with it they lost both periodicity and
immortality. I have also argued that the initiates are in some ways
like menstruating women. It would seem then that during initiation,
an attempt is made to make the initiates menstruate in a symbolic
sense and to make them periodic. Further evidence for this can now
be given.
During He House, the initiates and others apply magically treated
red paint to their bodies. This paint is identified with menstrual
blood and should women have contact with it, it will make them
menstruate; at this stage of the rite the initiates are still identified
with women. More red paint, again identified with blood, is put on
the initiates’ bodies by women at the rite of taking a henyerio\ this
rite should take place two lunar months after He House. The black
paint applied to the initiates’ bodies is also associated with both
menstruation and periodicity: this is the paint thatMeneriyo wiped
on the face of her brother the Moon (see M.4.A.3—5). This paint is
said to be derived from liver, in turn identified with wax.31 In
addition to this can be added the stress on skin changing mentioned
above.
Periodicity is also heavily stressed. The Barasana divide the major
seasons shown in fig. 3 into a number of short periods, nearly all of
which are called after the forest or cultivated tree-fruit that is in
season at the time.32 Fruits are thus used as time-markers and signal
periodicity. These same fruits establish the timing of both He House
and the different rites of Fruit House, so that, throughout the year,
men take part in a series of rituals, each of which is an attenuated
replica of He House. They are followed by a short period of restric-

31 This paint, together with red paint, is said to have come originally from inside the
He instruments and is compared to the marrow of the He, which are bones.
32 The Indians of the Rio Negro area believed that the Moon was the mother of fruit. The
Sun fertilised trees and made them produce fruit which the Moon then ripened (Stradelli
1928/9 : 714, under the heading ‘Yacy’)- Here again fruits are linked with periodicity,
this time represented by the Sun and Moon.

184
The gourd of beeswax

tions homologous with the marginal period after He House, which

is itself likened to a menstrual period. The fruiting season of forest
fruits, as opposed to cultivated tree-fruits, corresponds almost exactly
to the major rainy season (see fig. 3) which is itself compared to a
menstrual period.
It can also be argued that the initiates are themselves identified
with these periodic fruits. During Fruit House men carry in baskets
of fruit which the initiates then tip out on to the floor; during He
House the men carry in not fruit but the initiates themselves. At Fruit
House, after it has been tipped out, the trumpets are played directly
over the fruit; at He House they are played over the initiates. It also
seems likely that the green, unripe assai fruit, which is brought into
the house at the Fruit House when pepper is blown for the elders
after He House, represents the initiates. This is the only occasion
on which green fruits are used and their greenness seems to represent
the fact that, unlike the elders, the initiates are not yet ready to eat
pepper. In chapter 8, it will be shown that the growth of the initiates
is also linked with the growth of fruit.
In conclusion it can be said that at a cosmological level and in
the natural world, the wax gourd is a symbol of immortality. In each
case this immortality is consequent upon a regular alternation between
two states: dry season and wet season, day and night. This alternation
is explicitly compared to menstruation and to the physiological
periodicity of women. Menstruation and cosmological periodicity
are both compared to a process of changing skins. Throughout
initiation, periodicity, skin changing and menstruation are all stressed,
in particular with regard to the initiates themselves. At a cosmological
level, regular alternation is a cyclical and reversible process, but at a
human level it is irreversible for the generations must succeed one
another by replacement. Women are the agents of this replacement
at a natural level through their ability to bear children. This ability
is dependent upon the ability to menstruate, a process compared to
skin changing. Hence women are seen as being semi-immortal. At a
social level men are the agents of this replacement for it is they who
initiate boys into adult life, a change from one state to another.
It will be shown below that in all contexts the burning of wax is
a symbol of disjunction. As such, it separates young boys from the
world of nature and women, and separates child from adult. It thus
signifies the succession of generations and consequently signifies
human mortality.
185
 Explanation and analysis

The burning of wax

Before wax is burned, it must have spells blown into it by a shaman.
It is then placed on embers in a potsherd and carried by a shaman or
elder who fans the smoke in the four cardinal directions, using a
woven fan. This action is called protective magic (wanose) and
sending away sickness/disease (nyase rohagu).
Outside the context of He rituals, wax is burned on the following
occasions: (1) When a woman returns to the house after giving birth
which she must do in the manioc gardens. Before she returns, all
food and material goods are taken out of the house on to the plaza
to avoid their being polluted. The woman enters through a hole
made in the side wall of the house at the rear. Wax is then burned in
the house, after which the food and material goods are brought back
into the house.
(2) After birth, the mother and father of the child must spend five
days in confinement in their family compartment. Afterwards, they
bathe at the port. As they return to the house, food and goods are
taken out on to the plaza. They come in through the women’s door
and wax is then burned.
| (3) At a girl’s first menstruation she must be confined inside an
enclosure. At the end of her confinement she bathes. Before she
I
returns to the house, food and goods are taken out on to the plaza
and after her return wax is burned.
(4) Dead people are buried inside the house. At death, all food is
thrown away and all pots are emptied. Wax is burned to make the
spirit (wati) leave the body of the dead person. The burned wax is
said to release a cloud of bees which drive out the spirit by biting it.
In this context, the action of burning wax is called cutting off from
death (bohori tagu).33
(5) Wax is burned at solar and lunar eclipses and when the moon
turns red and ‘dies’ (see M.3). At such times, all household goods
must be taken out on to the plaza and all food covered up. Loud
noise should also be made.
(6) During epidemics, wax is burned to send away the sickness.

33 The Cubeo use burning chilli peppers for this same purpose (Goldman 1940 : 246). In
Barasana myth both wax and chilli peppers are burned to send away spirits which
suggests that pepper smoke and ‘honey smoke’ are equatable. In Mythologiques II
(1973), Ldvi-Strauss concludes that pepper smoke and ‘honey smoke’ both have the
function of driving away spirits and that honey, the seductive power of nature, interrupts
the communication between men and the supernatural.

186
The gourd of beeswax

Eclipses, especially solar eclipses, are believed to cause epidemics.

When an individual is seriously ill, he is made to inhale wax smoke
and to drink water into which molten wax has dripped. Wax is also
burned after a snakebite. The affected area is bathed in wax smoke
after which the other people in the house bathe themselves in the
smoke so that they will not be bitten too.
(7) After burning off the felled trees, wax is burned in the gardens
to cool them down.
(8) Wax is also burned in manioc gardens to send away plagues of
caterpillars, etc. which threaten the crops.
(9) In myths at least, wax is burned to drive away malevolent
spirits. Burning peppers are also used for this purpose.

Without entering into an extended discussion of all Barasana life-

crisis rituals and other things besides, I think that it can be said that
each of the contexts in which wax is burned, outlined above, have in
common the features of disorder (natural, sociological or cosmo¬
logical) and an excessive and undesirable conjunction (between nature
and culture, pests and crops, the earth and the heavenly bodies, life
and death and between the human and spirit worlds). In each case,
wax is burned to cause a disjunction and/or to restore order from
chaos.34 I shall now apply this finding to an interpretation of the
burning of wax at He rituals. I shall do so with reference to He
House only but intend my interpretation to cover all He rites (Fruit
House being considered to be an attenuated imitation of He House).
At He House wax is burned two times with certainty and possibly
three. It is burned first outside the house on the plaza when the
He arrive on the first night of the rite. The reason given for its burning
is to send away disease and to prevent mystical attack on the partici¬
pants. When the He are under water in the forest (in the natural
world of animals and spirits), they are inactive and dead. When taken
out on to land and into the clearing surrounding the house (the
cultural world of people) they become active and alive. In myth,
when the He People left the river and came on to land they changed
from anaconda to human. In the same way, a baby is born in the
34 In all my reading of South American ethnography, 1 have come across only one systematic
account of the ritual use of burnt beeswax, by Clastres, for the Guayaki. Ldvi-Strauss,
in From Honey to Ashes, makes very little reference to this topic and the few references
he does make largely concern the Guayaki. The conclusions that Clastres reaches about
the significance of burnt wax are the same as those that I reach for its significance among
the Barasana (1972 : 166-8). Like the Barasana, the Guayaki burn wax at lunar eclipses
and at male initiation.

187
Explanation and analysis
gardens (semi-nature), taken to the river, and then brought from
there into the house (the human, cultural world). In each case, the
burning of beeswax creates a disjunction between one state and
another, dead and living, spirit and human. When the He move from
forest and river to house, from dead to living, a corresponding but
reversed change occurs in the human world. The participants at He
House are killed by having snuff blown up their noses. This snuff,
obtained by Manioc-stick Anaconda from the Sun in the Underworld,
is the Sun’s fire, used to burn himself and his brother Macaw to
death so that their bones became the He instruments (M.6.A). The
participants also become He People. The burning of wax affects this
change and also causes a disjunction between the world of women
(on the side of nature) and the world of men (on the side of culture),
for the screen that separates the sexes (see fig. 2) is drawn across the
rear of the house at this point. Here again, the beeswax signifies
death and mortality for the men.
The second time that wax is burned during He House is at midnight
on the second night of the rite, after the initiates have been brought
into the house. This time, the wax is burned inside the house and this
action is seen as the climax and pivotal point of the whole rite. Again,
according to informants, the wax is burned to send away sickness
and disease and to protect the participants from shamanic attack.
They say that it protects them from the dreams mentioned in chapter
3 and in particular from dreams of eating fish brought by the He
People. They also say that the burning of wax prepares the participants
to receive the coca and snuff from the wax gourd and tobacco gourd,
which imparts strength and life. I think that it can also be said that
the burning of wax causes a disjunction and separation of the initiates
from the world of women and childhood. The initiates are in a liminal
position between childhood and adulthood; they are both children
and adults; burned wax separates these two states. The burning of wax
also causes a final change in state in the He People who enter the house
as the He instruments, for it is immediately after this that the process
of fragmentation and differentiation, discussed in chapter 6, is fully
reversed and Manioc-stick Anaconda and Macaw become alive and
appear as He spirits.
The opening of the nut containing night, an instrument of darkness,
is homologous to the burning of wax taken from the wax gourd, also
an instrument of darkness. This act caused an interruption of the
permanent day (see M.2.B) and was followed by the regular alternation
188
The gourd of beeswax

between day and night. It can be argued that the burning of wax at
He House ensures the continuance of this alternation. The permanent
day and the long night are homologous with the dry season and the
rainy season. The burning of wax at He House, held at the meeting
point between the two major seasons, thus ensures that, as night and
day follow one another in a regular alternation, so will the wet
season follow the dry season. I say it in this order because the original
state that was changed was a permanent day or dry season, not the
rainy season and permanent night (see M.2.B). In this sense, burned
wax symbolises that men must die, for the alternation of day and night
and dry season and wet season are made homologous with the suc¬
cession of generations. Finally, it can be said that, just as the burning
of wax (as liver) brings on a menstrual period, so it brings on a period
of confinement closely paralleled by that of menstruation.
On the final day of He House, when the participants return from
the men’s port after bathing, the women take all the food and
material goods out of the house on to the plaza before the men enter
the house. At the He House observed by me, this was not done and
I know about it only from informants’ descriptions. Considering
that at all other occasions on which household goods are taken out on
to the plaza, wax is also burned, it would seem likely that it should
be burned on this occasion too.
In chapter 9 I shall argue that the bathing at the port, and in par¬
ticular the vomiting that goes on there, can be seen as a symbolic
rebirth of the initiates. If this is so, then the removal of goods from
the house and also the burning of wax prior to the men’s re-entry into
the house should be expected for this is what happens when new-born
babies are brought into the house. If in fact wax is burned at this
point, I would tentatively suggest the following interpretation: that
it re-establishes the normal order of things by causing a disjunction
between men and spirits. Immediately after the men return to the
house from their bathe, the shaman removes the feather head-dresses,
first from the two men who were the He spirits and then from the
other men who played the flutes. Men who wear the full feather
head-dresses are identified with He People, spirit people. Items of
ceremonial dress, especially the head-dresses, are strongly linked
with death and the people who wear them are symbolically dead,
i.e. spirit people.35 By the removal of the head-dresses, the men once
again become normal human beings.
35 Feather head-dresses and other items of ritual equipment are buried with the dead

189
Explanation and analysis

I argued above that a change in the He from dead to living (water

to land, forest to house) implies a reverse change in the human partici¬
pants at He House — they become He people at the end of the rite.
If the men are once again normal people, then the He should also
become inactive and dead. This interpretation is entirely consistent
with the fact that, immediately after the removal of the feathers
from the heads of the elders, the atmosphere in the house changed
from one of tense formality to one of jovial informality. Normal
order is re-established in a variety of ways: the He are taken back
and hidden under water in the river; the separation between the men
and women is greatly diminished by the removal of the screen from
the rear of the house; the men eat food for the first time since the
start of the rite; and once again the initiates can sleep raised above
the ground.

The He instruments and the wax gourd — a synthesis

The He instruments and the wax gourd are the most important sacred
objects used at a Barasana initiation. The He instruments (Yurupary)
have been frequently described in relation to Yurupary rituals from
other parts of the Vaupes and most of the interpretations of these
rites centre on them. Though there is internal evidence to suggest
the use of the wax gourd outside the Pira-parana region, neither the
gourd itself, nor its use or its significance has ever been described
before.
The He and the wax gourd are symbols of mediation between
opposed opposites: between childhood and adulthood, between life
and death, between the human and spirit worlds, between fire and
water and between the three basic divisions of the Barasana cosmos.
Both are identified with shamans who are the human mediators of
Barasana society. They are alike in that both are associated with
creation and destruction, with life and death. They are both associ¬
ated with poison and smell, and each combines an association with
both fire and water. They are both musical instruments of a kind.
Both express an opposition between container and contained, hard
and soft; the element of container is associated with bone and the
(important men) and the Barasana describe the underworld river as being awash with
the feather head-dresses of past burials (see also M.7.I.2, where the spider curses the
bark-cloth aprons saying that they will be possessions of death).
The Cubeo also link feather head-dresses with death, and fear death from their
possession (Goldman 1963 : 153).

190
The gourd of beeswax

element of contained with viscera. While thq He are predominantly

associated with men and the wax gourd predominantly associated
with women, both combine an element of sexual ambiguity. Both
have the same origins: either from the burned body of Manioc-stick
Anaconda or from the body of Romi Kumu. Romi Kumu is the mother
of the sky, Manioc-stick Anaconda is a manifestation (son) of Yeba
Haku-, the Primal Sun and father of the sky with whom both the wax
gourd and He instruments are directly identified. Both are taboo to
women.
In spite of the shared attributes and origins mentioned above, the
He instruments and the gourd of beeswax are opposed to each other
in the following ways:

He instruments Wax gourd

male (+ female) female (+ male)

O
(discontinuous shape) (continuous shape)
bone viscera
legs and arms head
noise (+ smell) smell (+ noise)
fire (+ water) water (+ fire)
destruction + death creation + life
jaguar opossum
wet -> dry dry wet
(taken from water to land) (melts on burning)

The wax gourd is closely linked with the Pleiades; there is some reason
to believe that the He instruments are associated with Orion. These
two constellations are alike in that they appear and disappear within
a few weeks of each other. Their appearance heralds the dry season
and their departure heralds the rains — the rains following the
Pleiades rains are called the Adze (Sioruhur= Orion) rains. After they
have gone, both constellations are said to fly back to the other side
of the world in the form of small, migratory birds.36
The dry season is associated with male agricultural work, felling
and burning of the forest, both of which presuppose dryness and
fire. The wet season is associated with female agricultural work, the
planting and cultivation of manioc, which involves wetness and water,

36 The Pleiades birds (Nyokoaro minia) are Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivourous); I was
unable to identify the Orion birds (Sioruhtt minia).

191
Explanation and analysis

for it is the rain that makes the crops grow (see fig. 3). The dry
season is associated with the Sun and with a universal conflagration;
the rainy season is associated with the sky from which the rain
falls, the rain being the menstrual period of Rorni Kumu, the sky;
the first rainy season was a catastrophic flood (M.1.A.3—7). This
rain is also associated with the Moon: the period during which the
constellation Corona Borealis, the Armadillo, is visible corresponds
to the rainy season (see fig. 3). The Moon is identified with an
armadillo (see M.3.7). The truq He instruments are used only at
He House which takes place in the dry season (albeit at its end).
Thus we have:

Dry season Wet season

men women
felling and burning planting and cultivation
fire water
Sun Sky and Moon
universal conflagration catastrophic flood
He instruments wax gourd

At He House, two complementary opposites, thq He instruments

and the gourd of beeswax, are brought into conjunction. This implies
simultaneously the conjunction of the sexes in reproduction, the
conjunction of men and women in productive activities, the con¬
junction of the two major seasons in an annual cycle, and the con¬
junction of the Sun and Sky, the two principles from which the
Barasana universe was created. Finally, the Barasana believe that
the human body is created in reproduction from the conjunction of
a hard, male element, bone, and a soft, female element, blood and
flesh, represented respectively by the He instruments and by beeswax.
Thus//c House is not simply a rite of initiation; it has also a life-
giving and life-ordering function.

192
8
Open and closed:
the howler monkey and the sloth

Yurupary masks

In chapter 6, it was stated that the He instruments and the other items
of ritual equipment represent the animals of the world who have come
to dance at He House. One of the ornaments worn by the two men
who play the long flutes at the climax of the rite and who represent
the He spirits consists of hands of monkey-fur string worn on the
back.1 This ornament, called umaria yasi, represents both howler
monkeys and sloths, sloths being the chiefs of all the various species
of monkey. In historical times, the Arawakan Tariana Indians of the
Vaupes region used elaborate masks, representing Yurupary, during
the second stage of their initiation rites (homologous with He House
as the second stage of Barasana initiation). There is evidence that
the Barasana hanks of monkey-fur string are homologous with these
masks.
The Tariana masks, called Macacaraua (macaca-, monkey, -raua,
fur), were made from monkey-fur string as their names suggest. This
in itself establishes a link with the Barasana ornaments. Macacaraua
is a name from Lingua Geral, the Tupian lingua franca once used
throughout the Vaupes region. In Tariana, the masks are called
putsumaka; I am unable to find a translation for -maka, but putsu-
appears to be derived from putsaru meaning sloth (Koch-Grtinberg
1911 : 113, 131). If this derivation is correct, it suggests a further
link with the Barasana ornaments which represent sloths. The main
body of the masks was made from monkey-fur string, but the black
bands were made from string using the hair cut from young girls at
rites of first menstruation (Coudreau 1887 : 187; Koch-Grtinberg
1909/10, vol. II : 253). According to the Tariana Yurupary myth
1 See Biocca 1965 : 181 for photograph. The ornament is also just visible in plate 4.

193
Explanation and analysis

recorded by Coudreau, when the women stole the Yurupary instru¬

ments from the men, they also made Yurupary masks using hair
cut from young boys at initiation. This would suggest that, like the
Barasana, the Tariana considered male initiates and young girls at
first menstruation to be equivalent. In other parts of the Vaupes
region, young men used to collect the hair cut from girls at first
menstruation rites and fasten it to the back of the headgear they
wore at rituals (Koch-Grtinberg 1909/10, vol. I : 181, 116). This
suggests yet again a link between the hanks of monkey-fur string
and the Yurupary masks, for, in the past, adult Barasana men wore
their hair long and bound at the back in a pigtail; the pigtail was
bound with monkey-fur string and from its base hung the fur orna¬
ments.2
The Tariana Yurupary myth mentioned above also states that the
child Yurupary wandered around dressed in a monkey skin and that
it is for this reason that the masks are used as his symbol.3 These
masks, in male—female pairs, were considered to be even more taboo
than the Yurupary instruments themselves. At the climax of Tariana
initiation rites, two men dressed in the masks would come into the
house (compare the He spirits that enter at the climax of He House)
and jump around on all fours like monkeys, whipping the participants.
Coudreau (1887 : 189) adds one very important detail to this account:
the men who wore the masks had visible only four fingers on each
hand and only three toes on each foot; both the fingers and toes were
armed with long claws like the culture hero Yurupary of legend.
Both the reduced number of digits and the long claws would suggest
that the men represented sloths and this would seem to confirm my
derivation of part of the Tariana word for Yurupary masks from the
word for sloth.
The Barasana knew of the Tariana Yurupary masks but said that
they had never used them themselves. In spite of this, I think that I
have given sufficient evidence for saying that the Barasana hanks of
monkey-fur string are homologous with these masks whether or not
the Barasana ever used them. If this is so then the He spirits who
2 See Koch-Griinberg, 1909/10, vol. I : 328 for a photograph of a Tuyuka man with this
hairstyle. Today Barasana men wear their hair short and in Western style but during
dances they fix midribs from banana leaves to the backs of their heads. They then
bind these with the monkey-fur string. See plate 4.
3 According to the Baniwa Yurupary myth published by Saake, Yurupary had a body
covered in hair, the body of a monkey, but with head, hands and feet of a man (1958a :
273). M.8.29 states that his body was covered with dance ornaments.

194
Open and closed: the howler monkey and the sloth

come in at the climax of He House wearing the hanks of fur string

(the only time that they are worn during the rite) can be considered
homologous with the men wearing the Yurupary masks among the
Tariana. In both cases, these men represent Yurupary or his equivalent
Manioc-stick Anaconda and in both cases their appearance forms
part of the climax of the rite. This demonstration opens up three
interconnected lines of enquiry: sloths and howler monkeys in
relation to Barasana cosmology, the relation between initiation and
menstruation and the significance of hair.

Open and closed

According to Levi-Strauss (1973 : 310), the howler monkey is a

producer of filth: literally as a proverbial shitter and metaphorically
as a producer of loud noise which is correlated with corruption. As
such it is opposed to the sloth which produces a tiny whistle at
night and defecates only occasionally, coming down to the ground to
do so (1965—6 : 269—70). This can be represented as follows:

Howler monkey Sloth

anal incontinence anal continence

oral incontinence oral continence

He also points out that both the howler monkey and the sloth are
‘barometric animals’ for the howler monkey howls when there is a
change in weather and the sloth comes down to the ground and
shits when it is cold. Finally he writes,

If we take into account the fact that, according to the Tacana myths (M322-
M323), any attack on a sloth engaged in the normal exercise of its eliminatory
functions would cause a universal conflagration — a belief which ... is echoed
in Guiana . . . where it is thought that any such attack would expose humanity
to the perils resulting from the conjunction of celestial fire with the earth —
it is tempting to detect, behind the acoustic aspect of the contrast between the
howler monkey and the sloth . . . the contrast between the bull-roarer, a ‘howling’
instrument, and the instruments of darkness. (1973 : 429)

I shall now show that, in the Vaupes region, the sloth is associated
with an instrument of darkness and that the contrast between the
howler monkey and the sloth can be related to that between the

195
Explanation and analysis

He instruments (homologous with the bull-roarers of Central Brazil)

and the wax gourd, an instrument of darkness.
In the Vaupes region, almost every year there is an intensely cold
period during which the sun is blotted out by thick clouds and a
continuous fine rain falls from the sky. This period, called aru
in Lingua Geral, comes right in the middle of the rainy season between
the end of May and the beginning of July. The Barasana called this
period wuhabe and say that it is caused by a large toad (Bufo marinus)
which stirs the water. The Bara call this cold period the sloth, and
the fine rain, sloth rain, and they say that it is caused by a sloth
who comes down to the ground at this time; according to Briizzi
da Silva (1962 : 262) the Tukano call the month of May, sloth. The
Bara myth concerning this cold period tells of a special paddle with
‘an unusually large handle’ which the sloth takes with him on his
once-yearly fishing trip (the aru) (Jackson n.d.).
Biocca (1965 : 426—7) has published a photograph of a special
paddle, found in the lower Vaupes area, that has an elaborately
carved handle in the form of an animal; this paddle belongs to a
mythical character called Aru. Aru is the father of fish (both the
Bara sloth and the Barasana toad are said to be fishermen) and he
uses his paddle to cause the cold spell called after him (as does the
Bara sloth). According to Stradelli (1928/9 : 380), Mm is a toad
who changes into a handsome man and uses his paddle to travel
upstream to visit the Mother of Manioc. JJe asks her to watch over
crops and send rain at the right moment to fertilise them. Today,
people sometimes find Mm’s paddles in the rivers and if they add a
small piece of one such paddle to the fire when they burn off the
trees from their garden, the Mm-toad will remain in the manioc
garden and bring with it the Mother of Manioc who in turn brings
rain (compare the burning of wax to cool down a manioc garden
after burning — see ch. 7).4 It seems clear from the above infor¬
mation that the paddle with ‘an unusually large handle’ belonging
to the Bara sloth is the same kind of thing as the elaborately carved
paddle illustrated by Biocca and that in some way the sloth and the
toad are identified with one another.
In a myth from Guiana, recorded by Koch-Griinberg (cit. Levi-
Strauss 1973 : 45 1—2), a special paddle used in shallow water causes

4 Aru's paddles are paddles occasionally found in the rivers of the Vaupds/Rio Negro
area. They are clearly very ancient, some being actually semi-fossilised (Stradelli 1928/9 :
380, under the headings ‘aru’ and ‘aru-apucuita’).

196
Open and closed: the howler monkey and the sloth

the river to dry up, whilst when used in deep water it causes a
flood. Levi-Strauss argues that this paddle is organologically con¬
nected to beaters and clappers, both of which are instruments
of darkness. The sloth’s paddle described above is also an instru¬
ment of darkness, and in a very real sense, for when it is used rain-
clouds blot out the sun and it becomes quite literally dark. Further¬
more, the sloth’s paddle can be connected with the wax gourd,
another instrument of darkness: both are used to make rain and both
wax and bits of paddle are burned in manioc gardens, one to cool
them down and the other to bring rain. Thus, in the Vaupes region,
there is good evidence to link the sloth with an instrument of dark¬
ness, a link suggested by Levi-Strauss on quite independent evidence.
The story of the Tapir and the Howler Monkeys who swap voices
establishes a direct link between the He instruments and the howler
monkey, for the voice of each animal is its He instrument (see M.5.A.
18—22). Manioc-stick Anaconda, from whose bones all He instru¬
ments derive (M.6.A.63), is in particular associated with the trumpet
Old Callicebus Monkey (Wau Buku). The howler monkey and the
callicebus monkey can be considered to be ‘combinatory variants’,
for both of them ‘howl’ at dawn and dusk and at changes of weather.
They are furthermore associated together as Fire Callicebus Monkey
and Fire Howler Monkey, two of the people who paddle the Sun’s
canoe up the Underworld River (M.6.A.16). It can thus be said that
the He instruments are closely associated with both howler and
callicebus monkeys and furthermore, in that both monkeys are
associated with fire, the He instruments can also be associated with
the dry season.5
From the above, it can be seen that Levi-Strauss appears to be
correct in tentatively seeing behind the (acoustic) contrast between
howler monkey and the sloth, the contrast between the bull-roarer
(homologous with the He instruments) and the instruments of
darkness. For the Barasana context, this contrast can be represented
as follows:

5 In the literature, I can find no information to indicate with which kind of monkey
Yurupary is identified, but in view of the fact that both he himself and the instruments
that represent him are characterised by noise, the howler monkey is an obvious choice.
In support of this guess is the fact that Warimi, who can be identified with Yurupary,
himself becomes a howler monkey at one point (see M.4.G.4). Yurupary can also be
identified with Kanea, the youngest of the Ayawa (Thunders) (compare M.2.A.2-5
with M.8.14-18); it is Kanea who turns himself into a callicebus monkey, in order to
steal fire from his grandmother. This in turn suggests an association between Yurupary
and the callicebus monkey.

197
Explanation and analysis

Howler monkey + Callicebus Monkey / Sloth

oral incontinence oral incontinence / oral continence

anal incontinence / anal continence

He Instruments I ‘Instruments of Darkness ’

fire / water
dry season / rainy season

However, it must now be said that, for the Barasana at least, the
correlation that Levi-Strauss seeks to make between these two pairs
of opposites is an oversimplification. In addition to its association
with an instrument of darkness, the paddle, the sloth is also represented
by a He instrument, the one called Old Sloth or Sloth Jaguar. Like¬
wise, an instrument of darkness, the wax gourd, can also be linked to
a ‘howler’ monkey (callicebus) insofar as it is identified with Manioc-
stick Anaconda who is himself identified with this monkey. Like
the sloth, howler and callicebus monkeys also signal barometric
change and if the wax gourd is a mediator between day and night,
so too are the He instruments, for as monkeys they howl at dawn and
dusk. These monkeys are associated with both fire and water; the
sloth, who causes rain, also causes fire when attacked.6 The He
instruments are predominantly male symbols but have female associ¬
ations, just as the wax gourd is primarily a female symbol but one
which also has male associations. Similarly, the Macacaraua masks,
which represent Yurupary himself, are in male—female pairs and
appear to represent both howler monkeys and sloths.

Menstruation and initiation

According to the Barasana myth, the men punished the women who
stole th&He by making them menstruate; variants of this myth from
elsewhere in the Vaupes region state either that the men raped the
women or that they rammed the Yurupary up their vaginas (and
thus made them bleed) (see M.1.D.7). These punishments have the
common theme of opening up the women. The Tukano believe that

6 I have no data from the Barasana concerning the consequences of an attack on a shitting
sloth, but if sloths cause rain and cold when they come to the ground (as they do to shit),
then it seems reasonable that if they are frustrated in this endeavour they will do the
opposite and cause fire.

198
Open and closed: the howler monkey and the sloth

Bisiu (one of the many characters identified with Yurupary) ‘eats’

(i.e. makes love to) girls at the time of their first menstruation
(Bruzzi da Silva 1962 : 332). The Cubeo believe that it is the Moon
who copulates with young girls and brings on first menstruation,
a theme which is echoed in M.4.A; the Moon, they say, has such big
teeth that he is unable to shut his mouth (Goldman 1940 : 245,
1963 : 180). Here again the idea appears to be that menstruation is
caused by the opening up of a girl and it is significant that, in the
Cubeo belief, the agent of this opening is himself marked by a wide-
open mouth. According to a Tukano myth, menstruation was caused
in the following manner: a paxiuba palm bore an unopened bunch
of fruit upon which a strong wind blew, making it open and give
forth sound. This sound came down with the wind and split two
girls, sitting below, from the abdomen downwards causing them to
bleed (Fulop 1956 : 343). This completes a full circle: the sound of
the paxiuba palm causes menstruation: the He or Yurupary are
made from this palm; the Barasana call this palm besuw,Bisiu causes
menstruation.
It is clear from the above that, at the level of myth, a girl at
first menstruation is opened up either by the Moon himself or by
the He/Yurupary that are associated with him. At the level of ritual,
among the Cubeo and Tukano, a girl was actually deflowered either
by a shaman (Tukano) or by an old man (Cubeo) (Bruzzi da Silva
1962 : 440—1; Goldman 1963 : 179—80). I am not aware that this
happens among the Barasana but the shaman still presides over
first menstruation rites. Until a girl has undergone these rites she
should not have sexual intercourse and if she fails to undergo the
rites it is believed that her child would be unable to emerge from
the womb so that she would die (i.e. she would be ‘stopped up’).
If by officiating at rites of first menstruation, a shaman is one who
opens up girls in a real or symbolic sense, it is appropriate that he
too should be marked by being opened up. This same feature of
excessive openness characterises all the Yurupary heroes of Vaupes
mythology. I have already mentioned the association of Yurupary
with the howler monkey and of Manioc-stick Anaconda (= Yurupary)
with the callicebus monkey, both of which are characterised by oral
and anal incontinence. Yurupary and He Anaconda (= Yurupary)
both eat up newly initiated boys through mouths as big as caves
(M.5.A.3—6); M.8.40 presents a variant atypical of most Vaupes
Yurupary myths: rather than eating them through his mouth, Yurupary
199
Explanation and analysis

ingests the initiates through his anus (compare the behaviour of

tapirs as Taking-in People); Yurupary belches and farts incessantly
(M.8.42); Manioc-stick Anaconda is unable to control his farts
(M.6.A. 12); Manioc-stick Anaconda blows snuff from his mouth
with terrible force (M.6.A.22, 57); Uakti (= Yurupary) had a
body full of holes which sounded as the wind passed over them
(Biocca 1965 : 230); Yurupary emits groans that spread over the land
(Saake 1958a : 273); he sings loudly (M.8.32—3);7 and he vomits
up children through his wide mouth (see M.8.50 and M.5.A.11).
This list could be extended with reference to other Yurupary myths
but the point is already clear; Yurupary is excessively open.
Thq He (Yurupary) instruments which represent Manioc-stick
Anaconda (= Yurupary) on earth, share this feature of openness:
the trumpets produce a terrifying noise, compared to thunder; this
noise is made by the player blowing with pursed lips (‘raspberries’)
down an open tube and is thus like an amplified fart; like He Ana¬
conda and Yurupary, the He instruments also vomit. These open
instruments cause women to become opened up at puberty and if
women happen to see the He they become yet more open. If the
He can open up girls and women, they should also open up young
boys at initiation. I shall now show that this is in fact what happens.
According to the Barasana, if a child should see, the He instru¬
ments it would eat earth and suffer from violent diarrhoea until
it wasted away and died. This illness, wisiose, is precisely that which
afflicts the initiates who fail to keep the food and other taboos after
He House; their anuses become so big that they literally drain away.
The initiates are opened up; excessive openness will kill them. The
consumption of yage is reserved for initiated men; young boys are
first given yage at Fruit House as the first stage of initiation; at He
House they are given yage again, this time a much stronger drink and
more of it; yage induces violent diarrhoea and vomiting, especially
in those, such as initiates, who are not used to its effects. Vomiting
and diarrhoea indicate an open mouth and anus. After their first
experience of Fruit House, great stress is placed on the young boys
getting up early each morning to bathe and to vomit water; the theme
of vomiting is particularly emphasised during the ritual bathe that
takes place at the end of He House. Finally and more speculatively,

7 Milomaki, the Yahuna Yurupary, also sang loudly (Koch-GrUnberg, 1909/10, vol II :
292-3).

200
Open and closed: the howler monkey and the sloth
the use of black paint at He House can, I think, be linked to the
theme of opening up. The body of Yurupary was full of holes (M.8.
22) and it was full of flowers (M.8.29); these two facts suggest that
he was a container full of holes like a basket. The designs painted on
the bodies of the initiates and other men at the dance that marks
the end of the marginal period, like those painted for other social
dances, are clearly derived from the patterns of weaving. Thus they
could be said to transform men into ‘baskets full of holes’. These
designs are called macaw, the name of Manioc-stick Anaconda’s
brother and of the He flutes. At the start of He House the initiates
are painted from chin to toes in uniform black paint whilst the elder
men are painted only as far as their knees. It may be that the synchronic
opposition between the paint of the initiates and elders expresses
their relative degrees of openness (the initiates being almost totally
stopped up) and that the diachronic opposition between the initiates’
paint at the start and end of He House expresses the fact that they too
have been opened.
It can also be argued that the classic Yurupary myths can be taken
as stories about how Yurupary was initiated by being opened up. When
Yurupary was born, he had no mouth and could neither speak nor
eat and had to be fed with tobacco smoke that was blown over him.8
When asked questions he replied by shaking his head. (According to
Magalhaes (cit. Bolens 1967 : 51) yurupary can be translated as ‘to
hold one’s hand over one’s mouth’.) He grew very rapidly and at ‘the
age of six’ a mouth was cut in his face whereupon he let out a terrible
roar and soon after ate up the disobedient initiates in his cave-like
mouth (Saake 1958a). I will show below (ch. 9) that the story of
Manioc-stick Anaconda (M.6.A) can also be read as a story about the
hero’s combined initiation and rebirth.
It can be seen from the above that the passage from childhood to
adulthood and the corresponding process of physiological maturation,
involves, for people of both sexes, a process of real and/or symbolical
opening up. The opening up of the digestive tube (mouth and anus)
is paralleled, at a sexual level, by the opening up of the vagina (girls)
or penis (boys); girls should remain virgins till first menstruation and
boys until after initiation. If the Moon opens up girls by copulating
with them (piercing with penis) and if He instruments rammed up

8 M.8, the Yurupary myth given in this thesis, does not describe this and is unusual in
stating that Yurupary was full of holes as a baby. Other myths describe a progression
from having no holes at all to a body full of holes.

201
Explanation and analysis

their vaginas do the same, this would suggest that, at one level, the
He instruments are penises. If this is so, then it can be said that, in
one sense, the initiates are being equipped with new open penises.
appropriately the smallest and shortest flutes.9
If girls are opened up at first menstruation they are also system¬
atically taught to control the orifices of their bodies: they must
control their mouths by not telling secrets, by not asking too many
questions and by not talking too much. They must control their
eyes by not seeing the He instruments and control their vaginas by
not being licentious. The same can be said for young boys at initi¬
ation. These boys must get up each morning to vomit; the purpose
of this vomiting is to get rid of waste food in the stomach. As such,
it is an alternative to defecation and implies control over the digestive
tube. During the marginal period after He House the initiates must (1)
eat very little at all, (2) eat with very small mouthfuls and (3) cover
their mouths with their hands as they eat. The initiates are also
taught that they must not reveal secrets about men’s ritual activities
and are taught to control their sexual activities. All this implies
control over bodily orifices.10 Finally, Levi-Strauss (1973 : 427—8)
argues that those who are most stopped up and able to resist nature
will be most gifted in cultural aptitudes, and that those most open
will be most lazy. In chapter 4, I pointed out that initiates and
menstruating women are considered to be inherently lazy and that
the emphasis on weaving (for women) and basket-making (for men)
was designed to counteract this.
Bolens (1967) has argued that the Yurupary instruments, fed
on tobacco smoke (and snuff), like Yurupary without a mouth, and
9 I am fully aware that considerably more could be made of the association between the
He instruments and penises. However, I have refrained, up till now, from mentioning
the fact, partly because the Barasana emphatically deny any connection whatsoever
(while freely admitting that the wax gourd is a vagina) but more importantly because
I wish to avoid jumping to ‘obvious’ conclusions.
In addition to my statement in the text above, there is other evidence to suggest
a homology between Yurupary instruments and the penis: the instruments are compared
to (and sometimes identified with) fish; fish are equated with Fish Anaconda’s penis.
In some versions of the Yurupary myth, in order to give birth, Yurupary’s mother was
pierced by a fish and some versions state that the fish was a jacunda. This same fish was
the one that showed the women how to use the stolen Yurupary instruments, by
signalling with its exaggeratedly large mouth (Prada Ramirez 1969 : 131-2). Finally,
the story of how the paxiuba palm was cut up into pieces and distributed among men as
instruments can be seen as a transformation of the Tupi myth of Maira’s long penis,
which is cut up and distributed among women.
10 One of the things that instantly strikes visitors to the Pira-parana area is that the adult
men delight in farting loudly, often modulating the noise with their fingers or cupped
hands.

202
Open and closed: the howler monkey and the sloth

through which passes only air, represent a neutralised form of

Yurupary the cannibal with an excessively open mouth. While I
think that there is some truth in this, I think it is an oversimplifi¬
cation, for the essence of thq He instruments is that they combine
the qualities of open and closed.* 11 Like the other mediatory symbols
used at Barasana initiation, the He instruments are ambiguous in
that they combine complementary but opposed characteristics. I
will argue below (ch. 9) that the initiates are symbolically swallowed
and regurgitated just as//e Anaconda swallowed and regurgitated
the disobedient initiates in M.5.A.1 -11 (see also M.8.37-50). If
Yurupary (and He Anaconda) were really neutralised, this would be
impossible, and with it initiation also.

The significance of hair

According to Wallace (1889 : 191, 343), in the nineteenth century,

hairstyles among the Indians of the Vaupes area were as follows:
young men wore their hair in long, loose locks with a comb on top
and elder men wore their hair parted and combed on each side and
tied in a queue a yard long bound with monkey-fur cord, down their
backs, and with a comb on top. Women wore no combs. In the past,
Barasana women wore their hair tucked on the back of the head in
a bun (they now use combs) and elder men wore their hair in the style
described above. I have no data on the hairstyle of young men in
the past; at present, like the elders they wear their hair short. Today,
young boys, and even more so young girls, have their hair cropped
and at both rites of first menstruation and rites of initiation, their
hair is cut off completely. If it can be assumed that, in the past, young
Barasana men also wore long, loose hair, we can construct the series
in the accompanying table.

Childhood Puberty Unmarried youth Adulthood

Men short hair hair cut off long, loose hair hair in queue
Women short hair hair cut off hair in bun hair in bun

11 The fact that M.8.22 states that Yurupary as a baby was full of holes, whereas other
versions say that at this stage he was totally stopped up, may perhaps be a reflection
of this ambiguity at the level of myth.

203
Explanation and analysis

It can be seen from the table that, for both men and women, the
difference between short and long hair signifies the difference
between child and adult. Riviere (1969b) comes to the same con¬
clusion regarding hair symbolism among the Waiwai. He shows that
the blowpipe and hair tube are inversely distributed in Guiana
but that both of them can be considered as energy transformers
for the hair tube ‘socialises’ the free-flowing sexual energy rep¬
resented by hair whilst the blowpipe directs breath, which can be
used both to cure and kill, through a tube to propel a dart that
converts game animals (nature) into meat (culture). He argues
further that myths from the ‘blowpipe area’ link creation with
the above, whilst those from the ‘hair tube area’ link creation with
the below; and that in the ‘blowpipe area’, girls, at first menstruation,
are raised as high from the ground as possible, whilst in the ‘hair tube
area’, they are made to sit on or near the ground.
The Barasana do not use hair tubes as such, but like the Waiwai,
they bind their hair with string (see above). Unlike the Waiwai, the
Barasana use both blowpipes and He instruments; blowpipes are
called buhua and He instruments are sometimes referred to by the
same word. However, at all dances and at He rituals, the adult men
wear tubes made from the leg bones of jaguars which represent the
He instruments (Manioc-stick Anaconda was a jaguar, his bones are
the He instruments). These bones are worn attached by monkey-fur
string to the banana-leaf midribs which today take the place of hair
queues. They are thus tubes-attached-to-hair but they are also ‘hair
tubes’ in that they are stuffed with jaguar fur. According to M.l.B,
women keep their He instruments in their hair. The conclusion is
again that the He instruments are a kind of ‘hair tube’. If hair tubes
‘socialise’ among the Waiwai so do He instruments among the Barasana,
for here they transform young boys (on the side of nature) into
young men (on the side of culture); the manner in which He instru¬
ments work, by modifying breath, is however more akin to the
blowpipe.
Among the Waiwai all initiated men have constrained hair but
unmarried men have long, undecorated hair tubes whilst married men
have shorter, decorated tubes; only fully adult men may wear full
ceremonial dress. This last feature is true of the Barasana also but
the hair symbolism is more complicated, for young men have un¬
constrained hair whilst elders have bound hair (though both wear
combs; Riviere argues that ornaments figuratively constrain hair
204
Open and closed: the howler monkey and the sloth

and have the connotation of culture). Riviere also argues that the
treatment of hair symbolises socio-sexual status. Among the Barasana
this is true of women (who can have sexual intercourse and marry
only after first menstruation when their hair has grown long) but
for men sexual status and social status are differentiated. After He
House young men achieve full sexual status but only on marriage do
they achieve full social status (see ch. 5). This difference is signalled
by the loose, long hair of the young men as opposed to the tightly
bound hair of the elders. Riviere argues that marriage symbolises
full adult status and also legitimate and socialised sexual intercourse
which is creative. The constraining of hair in a tube amongst the
Waiwai, like the binding of hair with cord amongst the Barasana,
symbolises this. It Is therefore highly appropriate that, among the
Barasana, young men whose extra-marital sexual activities are poten¬
tially destructive, should have (or have had) unconstrained hair. After
initiation, it is impressed upon young men that they should not
attempt toAIeepTvftfrthcir elder brothers’ wives.12
Following Leach (1958), Riviere suggests that hair represents
libidinous energy with an ambiguous power for both creation and
destruction. Again, it is appropriate that young Barasana men (warriors)
should have loose hair signifying potentially destructive energy. But
here we are presented with a paradox: on the one hand, loose hair
represents destructive enei^y (the Barasana say that hair is the seat
of life and that those with long hair have much life-energy), but
on the other hand it is loose unconstrained hair which, in women,
brings oh menstruation, a condition of laziness and inactivity (see
M.l.B). Like the Waiwai, the Barasana say that hair is the seat of
laziness.
This paradox lies at the heart of any interpretation of He House for
on the one hand I have argued that this rite can be viewed as symbolic
menstruation (and thus linked with laziness and inactivity) but on
the other hand the rite also forms part of a warrior cult where ag¬
gression, energy and destruction arepmpjiasised. The two men who
enter the house at the climax of He House are fierce spirits (guari
watia) who come to teach the initiates to be brave and to kill. Simi- d0
larily, during the marginal period following He House, a period VmU .

12 In ch. 9 it is argued that Manioc-stick Anaconda can be identified as representing an

initiate. It is around puberty that the sexual rivalry between brothers begins. The whole
of the story of Manioc-stick Anaconda, the myth the Barasana give to explain He House,
is centred on the destructive nature of extra-marital sex.

205
 Explanation and analysis
comparable to menstruation, in the past the initiates were made to
drink blood to make them fierce and were taught the use of weapons
lv p of war. At He House, after eating coca mixed with beeswax to make
4* them strong and fierce, the men are whipped to enhance these
qualities; but beeswax also brings on menstruation. Again, the moon,
who is the cause of menstruation according to some myths, is also
the source of fierce magic (guari) (see M.3.14).13 This paradox is
also reflected in the ambiguous nature of the major symbols used
at He House and it helps to explain why the Macacaraua masks,
homologous with the fierce spirits who appear at He House, should
be made from the hair shorn from young menstruating girls.
Riviere recognises this paradox when he writes: ‘Hardness is a
rnale.virtue, but it is also, by its constraint and continence, a sterile
one and cannot in itself lead to creativity which requires the help
of women, incontinence and softness. Tubes are a means by which
yo natural forces are directed towards cultural ends, but even when
this is done, nature must still exert itself if the world is to go round’
(1969b : 162).

The whips

The whipsqised-atTfonituals, called heta waso (beta = tocandira

ant (Paraponera clavata), waso = long thin object), are made from
peeled, branched saplings of a tree which is also used to make fishing
rods.14 According to a Baniwa Yurupary myth, the plant from which
the whips are made grew up from the ashes of Yurupary together
with the paxiuba palm and the first poisonous plants (Saake 1968 :
266). Another Yurupary myth, also from the Baniwa, states that
mosquitos and poisonous snakes also came from Yurupary’s ashes
(Saake 1958a : 274). The tocandira ant is characterised by an extremely
poisonous sting and bite. The connection between poisonous ants and
whips is of great comparative interest, for in the Guianas, ant-frames
are used in the context of puberty rituals and, among the Piaroa,
ant-frames, whips and Yurupary instruments are all used together
(Gheerbrant 1953 : 129—55).15 It appears from this that where ant-

13 When told that the Yanomamo believe themselves to be the descendants of the blood
of the Moon, the Barasana replied, ‘No wonder they are so fierce.’
14 The Cubeo and Baniwa use bigger and more elaborate whips that draw blood and leave
scars. The Barasana whips are thrown away after use; the Baniwa ships are kept. A
photograph of a Baniwa whip can be found in Biocca (1965 : 49).
15 According to Prada Ramirez (1969 : 117-8), the Tukano use both whips and biting

206
Open and closed: the howler monkey and the sloth

frames are used in one culture area, the Guianas, whips called after
or associated with ants are used in the same context in another, the
Northwest Amazon.
The Barasana appear to use these whips rather less often than
other Vaupes groups: most authors report the use of whips at all
Fruit House rites whilst I only saw whipping during the Fruit House
as the first stage of initiation and at He House itself. The Barasana
also appear not to whip girls at first menstruation. According to the
Barasana whipping has four interconnected purposes: to prevent the
laziness associated with seeing the He instruments;16 to promote a
change oTskin; to encourage growth and to make young men brave,
fierce and aggressive.

Growth

The act of whipping during Fruit House and He House makes the
initiates grow. The whips are first blown on by the shamans to
impart power; this blowing is called putting in protective power
through shamanism (basere kunisara) and this power is then trans¬
ferred in the act of whipping.17 In the past, young boys were held
byTKeTiands and feet and then whipped in a horizontal position at
the same time as being quite literally stretched.18 This same stretching
was also done to the initiates over the smoke of a fire at the end of
He House. Small children may also be whipped to promote their
growth.
At the age when boys first take part in Fruit House they are
considered to be undergoing a period of growth and increasing maturity.
This theme of growth is emphasised in the ritual of Fruit House.
When asked the purpose of this rite, the Barasana reply that it is
to make the fruit grow and mature so that it ripens in abundance.
They say that they are giving life to the fruit (katise isingu) and that

ants during rites of first menstruation. The ordeal of stinging ants is known also to the
Cubeo but they deny that it is connected with Yurupary rites (Goldman 1963 : 201).
16 Among the Saliva, to the north of the Vaupds, young men were whipped prior to the
communal clearing of the forest. The whipping was to take away their laziness and to
make them work hard (Gumilla 1963 : 160).
17 Among the Cubeo, whipping is also said to promote growth. There, the whips are first
inserted into the far end of a Yurupary instrument and stirred round to draw power
from it. The instrument is then rolled down the backs of the young boys (Goldman
1963 : 198). This is not done among the Barasana.
18 This stretching in connection with whipping is also reported for both the Tukano (Brtizzi
da Silva 1962 : 356) and for the Cubeo (Goldman 1963 : 201).

207
Explanation and analysis

if the rite were not done there would be no fruit (see M.2.F. 17).19
When the long flutes are played with their ends in the air during the
rite this action is called encouraging or having the fruit. During He
House, this same action promotes aggression and fierceness. The noise
of the trumpets blown over the fruit at Fruit House says ‘Have lots
of fruit.’
The Tatuyo myth of Tree-Fruit Jaguar (M.2.F) also stresses the
theme of growth and maturity. The fruits that are hung in the house
and on the bodies of the participants (M.2.F.5, 6) are people (M.2.
F.10) and the dance makes these fruit people ripen. The fruit are
made to ripen by the magical act of changing their souls (usu-wasoase)
(M.2.F.7, 17), done by the shamans. Human beings also have their
souls changed at birth and initiation; in each case the change causes
a change from one state to another: pre-human soul to human baby
at birth, from child to young man at initiation and from unripe
fruit to ripe fruit at Fruit House. This change of soul is done by
whipping.20 Informants explicitly compare the fruit people of M.2.F.7
to the initiates at Fruit House, and the fruit leaving the house at the
end of the rite (M.2.F.10) in a changed state is compared to the
initiates who leave the house after Fruit House. The change of state
of the fruit involves the application of body paint (M.2.F. 10), just
as at Fruit House, and even more so at He House, the change of
state of the initiates is reflected in the application of paint. In each
case this change of state is a change of skin. Finally, the fruit people
of M.2.F are considered to be in a vulnerable state after their ‘in¬
itiation’ and must be protected by shamanism (M.2.F.9), just as
the initiates after Fruit House and He House must be similarly
protected.
From the above, it can be seen that young boys at initiation and
19 The Indians of the Atabapo/Inirida area, north of the Vaupds, used to sound baked-
earth trumpets, called botuto, under palm trees to ensure an abundance of fruit (Humboldt
and Bonpland 1966 : 273). The Cubeo also associate Yurupary rituals with the harvest
of fruits and berries (Goldman 1963 : 192).
20 In M.2.F, after he is born Tree-Fruit Jaguar refuses to stop crying until his soul is changed
by beating the walls of the house with sticks (M.2.F.4). According to Ldvi-Strauss, the
character of the ‘crying baby’ represents a baby ‘who has (either) been abandoned by
his mother, or has been born posthumously ... or he may consider he has been unjustly
abandoned, even though he has reached an age at which a normal child no longer demands
constant parental care’. He is ‘the anti-social hero (in the sense that he refuses to become
socialized) who remains obstinately attached to nature and the feminine world’ (1973 :
378-81).
If this is so, Tree Fruit Jaguar could be said to represent the unwilling initiate who
cries too much (compare also M.4.D.20 where WaritTii, like Tree-Fruit Jaguar, removed
from his mother by force, refuses to stop crying).

208
Open and closed: the howler monkey and the sloth

tree-fruit can be identified with one another. Fruit House promotes

the growth of both fruit and young initiates.21

Aggression

Whipping not only encourages growth; it also imparts strength. It

makes the body hard and strong and makes the initiates fierce and
angry. It is for this reason that whipping is always followed by a
display of aggression called acting-out spearing (besutt kesose). As
a generalisation, it can be said that whilst the growth aspect of
whipping is emphasised during Fruit House, it is the aspect of ag¬
gression that is emphasised during He House. This stress on aggression
and hardness is part of a much wider theme that permeates Barasana
initiation. At initiation and especially at He House, the young boys
become young men who are identified with warriors, marked by
the qualities of hardness, wakefulness and fierceness, and after He
House the initiates are systematically taught the arts of warfare.
The eating of snuff and of coca from the wax gourd is also designed
to impart the qualities of strength and fierceness and, like whipping,
it is always followed by the action of acting-out spearing. Likewise,
the burning of wax also imparts these qualities and is again followed
by acting-out spearing. It seems then that for women, menstrual
blood connotes fertility whilst for men it connotes aggression.
This cult of aggression is in particular associated with the use of
the trumpet Old Star (the ‘fierce He'), the sight of which is said to
turn men into fierce animals.
According to the Barasana, each different variety of yage vine
came originally from the inside of a separate He instrument.
Yage vines are called vine from inside the He {He guda hubea ma)
and they are compared to bone marrow (the He being bones). A
variety of yage called fierce yage vine (guari kahi ma) came from
inside the trumpet Old Star and it is this variety, mixed with yage
vine for seeing He {He iaria ma) that is consumed during He House.
This yage makes men fierce and aggressive and its consumption is
followed by acting-out spearing.22

21 Goldman has come to much the same conclusion with regard to the Cubeo (Goldman
1963 : 194).
22 The Barasana say that in the past, people used to fight together when under the influence
of yag^. Koch-GrUnberg also notes that the use of yag6 is related to a warrior cult and
that its ingestion makes men brave (1909/10, vol. I : 352). See also MacCreagh (1927 :
37 3ff).

209
Explanation and analysis

The action of acting-out spearing is also done at lunar eclipses

and when the moon ‘dies’ and turns red (see M.3.14). It is done on
this occasion to steal fierce magic (guari) from a spirit (wati) ident¬
ified with the moon. Occasionally the same action is also done outside
of the context of ritual, when the men run up and down the house
early in the morning. In this context the action is called hitting Uma
spirit. There are strong grounds for identifying Uma spirit with the
Moon for, like the Moon, he loses his feather crown when he comes
to earth (see M.3.8—9).

Tobacco
Tobacco is considered to be a ritual ‘non-food’. It is also the food of
spirits and of the He People and it is for this reason that tobacco
snuff is blown into the He instruments. The participants at He House
and Fruit House become He People, spirit people, and as such they
are given coca and tobacco to eat. Tobacco is also believed to establish
communication with the supernatural and both snuff and tobacco
smoke are said to have power; when blowing spells into the magical
substances consumed at He rites, the shamans blow out puffs of
tobacco smoke. Breath is seen as a manifestation of the soul and
tobacco smoke is said to make the soul live.
During He rituals, a sacred gourd, similar in appearance to the wax
gourd but containing tobacco snuff rather than wax, is used. The
two gourds are kept together at all times and both are always used
together. On the eve of He rites wax is burned outside the house next
to thei/e instruments and, soon after this, tobacco snuff, taken
from the tobacco gourd, is blown up the noses of the participants
by the officiating shaman. The significance of this has already been
discussed above. Again, at the climax of He rituals, after the burning
of wax, the tobacco and wax gourds are placed in the middle of the
house. Coca is eaten from the wax gourd and snuff from the tobacco
gourd is wiped on the legs of the participants. (At Fruit House this
snuff may also be eaten but at He House it is considered to be too
powerful and dangerous to eat.)
It is clear that the wax gourd and the tobacco gourd form a pair.
This can be seen from the above and it can also be seen from the
myths: the wax gourd is the bottom half of Manioc-stick Anaconda’s
skull and contains wax identified with his liver (and tongue). The
tobacco gourd is the top half of Manioc-stick Anaconda’s skull and
210
Open and closed: the howler monkey and the sloth

contains snuff identified with his brain (see M.6.A.64). In chapter 7,

I showed that the wax gourd was identified with a vagina and beeswax
with menstrual blood. According to M.6.A.64, the ceremonial cigar
used at He House is identified with Manioc-stick Anaconda’s penis
and the little gourds that contain snuff with his testicles. This would
suggest that the snuff that the gourds contain, like the tobacco
contained in a cigar, is identified with sperm. This is confirmed by
the fact that the word for brain (= snuff) is the same as that for
seminal fluid.23 Thus we have:

Tobacco gourd Were a gourd

top of skull (high) bottom of skull (low)

snuff beeswax
brain liver
sperm menstrual blood
cigar wax gourd
penis vagina

If this analysis is correct then I think that it can be said that the
ritual conjunction of a cigar with the wax gourd can be seen as
symbolising sexual intercourse and that the conjunction of tobacco
snuff (seminal fluid) with wax (menstrual blood from which, according
to the Barasana, babies are made) symbolises fertilisation.24 The same
can be said for the conjunction, during the burning of wax, of the
He instruments with the wax gourd; I have already argued that the
He instruments can be seen as penises and the wax gourd as a vagina.
Finally it can be added that the ritual cigars are constructed on the
same principle as the He trumpets. The only direct evidence for saying
that He House symbolises sexual intercourse comes from a statement
from an informant that during this rite the men pretend to create
children, the children being represented by the wax in the wax gourd.
If He rites can be seen as symbolic fertilisation at a physiological
level, the same can be said at a cosmological level. Tobacco snuff

23 Further evidence for the association between cigars and penises comes from the fact
that, in Barasana mythology, both are equated with Fish. (See e.g. M.7.B.9.)
24 M.8.2-3 further suggests that tobacco smoke represents sperm, for it was smoke from
a cigar placed between Coadidop's legs that gave rise to the first men. Coadidop (identifi¬
able with Romi Kumu) used her legs to make a cigar holder. Such cigar holders, made
from carved red hardwood, were till very recently used by the Barasana during He
rites and other dances. These holders (see Koch-Grtinberg, 1909/10, vol. 1 : 282 for
photographs) are stylised representations of men and when inverted with a cigar in place,
they represent a man with an erect penis.

211
Explanation and analysis

represents celestial and destructive fire (obtained from the sun and
used to burn people to death, a burning equated with the burning
of a manioc garden — see M.6.A, B): this fire comes from the mouth
of the Sun — a man. Beeswax represents terrestrial and creative fire
used for cooking and comes from the vagina of Romi Kumu, a woman.
Beeswax also represents celestial water (the rain = Romi Kumu’s
menstrual blood) whilst tobacco is on the side of terrestrial water
(the original cigar, the origin of tobacco, was a fish — M.7.G. 1—3),
and during He rites tobacco applied to the body makes it safe for the
participants to bathe. Thus we have:

Tobacco Beeswax

celestial fire terrestrial fire

(destructive) (creative)
sun sky (Romi Kumu)
man woman
mouth vagina
terrestrial water celestial water

This can be interpreted at different levels: at the highest level, the

conjunction between the sun and the sky is seen as the root-source of
all creation, for the union between Yeba Hakbe, the Primal Sun and
Romi Kumu, the sky, gave rise to all things. The union between the
sun and the sky, between fire and water, also represents the totality
of seasonal continuity, the alternation between the dry and rainy
seasons and He House, when the tobacco and wax gourds are used, is
held at the conjunction of these two seasons. The destruction and
burning of forest, a male activity done during the dry season, is a
necessary preliminary for the planting of manioc, a female activity,
done during the rainy season for manioc requires rain to grow. Thus,
manioc is produced by the union of men and women, by the union
of the dry and rainy seasons and by the conjunction of destructive,
celestial fire and fertilising, celestial rain. This argument makes sense
of the fact that Barasana myths accredit the origin of manioc to both
a man, Manioc-stick Anaconda, and a woman, Yawira, and that, in
the first instance, it is produced as the result of fire whilst in the
second it comes from water (see M.6.B and M.7.C).
Finally, I think that it can be argued that terrestrial water associ¬
ated with men is destructive (for in Barasana myths it is floods not
rain that destroy) whilst the celestial water associated with women
212
Open and closed: the howler monkey and the sloth

is creative (for it is rain that makes manioc grow). Together with

the two kinds of fire, this puts men on the side of destruction and
women on the side of creation. I have argued already that this theme
dominates He rites and their associated mythology.

213
Death and rebirth

High and low: myth and rite in time and space

In daily life, Barasana men go to great pains to avoid sitting on the

ground. According to them, to sit raised up is to sit well; only
women and children sit on the ground. To sleep on the ground is
considered even more extreme, for only animals and Maku are said
to do this. During He House, the initiates and younger men must sit
on mats on the ground and on the last night they also sleep there.
The shamans and elders sit on stools and on the last night they sleep
in hammocks. After He House, the initiates can sleep in hammocks
but a more general taboo on being raised above the ground applies
throughout the marginal period.
At one level of analysis it can be said that by being made to sleep
on the ground, the initiates are being identified with women and
children on the side of nature; in Barasana society, there is a fairly
consistent association of men and things that are relatively higher
than things associated with women. The low position of the initiates
is contrasted to that of the elders and their gradual raising up reflects
their passage from the world of women to the world of men, from
nature to culture. At the end of the marginal period, the initiates
become people who sit on stools i.e. adult men.
At another level, the symbolic use of vertical space during He House
can be analysed in terms of death and rebirth. The Barasana bury
their dead in canoes in the floor of the longhouse.1 The fact that
both dead people and initiates are placed in extreme low positions
suggests that the two are identified. In chapter 7, I argued that

1 In practice it is only the adult men who are buried in canoes though, in theory, all
people should be so buried. Women are sometimes buried in the large canoe-like troughs
that are used to contain beer.

214
Death and rebirth

when the He instruments are taken from the river on to land, a

passage from low to high, they become active and alive and that this
change causes a corresponding but reversed change for the human
participants who become dead. For the initiates, this change is also
associated with a passage from high to low.
Other things also confirm that the initiates are symbolically dead:
the application of black paint is said to cause the body to rot and
according to one informant, ‘The paint reminds us that one day we
too will die.’ When Meneriyo put this paint on her brother, the Moon,
his body rotted and he died (see M.4.A); at He House the initiates
are covered in this paint. The extinction of fire and the taboo on
contact with sources of heat during and after He House also indicate
death: the Underworld River is said to be very cold and is opposed
to the warmth of this world; the He instruments are also very cold.
The Barasana say that a hot, sweaty body indicates life and vigour;
a cold one indicates death.2 The effects of yage are also compared to
death and when the initiates take the strong yage used at He House
they are said to cease to live. Finally, I have already argued that, by
having snuff (= fire) blown up their noses, the initiates are burned to
death in the same way that Macaw was killed by Manioc-stick Anaconda
(M.6.A).
Once symbolically dead, the initiates become identified with unborn
children. They sit throughout He House with their knees drawn up
to their chests and their arms clasped round them — a foetal position.
Immediately after being brought into the house, the initiates are
given kana fruit, blown over by the shaman, to eat. Kana (Sabicea
amazonensis) is a small vine that grows wild round human habitations.
It bears small pink fruit with a sweet taste which grow singly along
its length. Each fruit is a heart and the vine with fruit is compared
to a series of hearts on a string. The hearts are those of each generation,
connected together by an umbilical cord, the vine. This cord is said
to extend out from the house to the port and then down the river
to the east, the people’s waking-up house where the sun comes from,
the source of all humanity. By eating this fruit, the initiates become
connected to the ancestral source of life by an umbilical cord, the
river. The fruit in the shamans’ gourd is compared to the heart in
2 This belief presents a paradox in Barasana ideology: men, especially young men, are
ideally supposed to remain as cold as possible. Hardness, fierceness, strength and coldness
all go together. But coldness also connotes sterility and death and is opposed to warmth
and life. This relates to the discussion of creation and aggression, hard and soft and open
and closed in ch. 8.

215
Explanation and analysis

the space surrounding it; by blowing spells on the fruit, the shaman
changes the heart or soul (mu-wasoase) of the initiate. Kana blown
by shamans is also given to new-born babies and much of the shamanism
treatment of mother’s milk centres on this fruit.
In chapter 7 it was stated that the yage given to the initiates is
compared to mother’s milk which suckles the new-born initiates. Like
kana (the leaves of which are often used as an ingredient of yage),
yage itself is compared to an umbilical cord that links human beings
to the people’s waking-up house and to the mythical past. Yage is grown
from cuttings and is thus thought to be one continuous vine which
stretches back to the beginning of time. The common stock of all
yage vines is situated in the east. Yage came from the east in the form
of an anaconda which swam upriver. When people take yage during
He House this anaconda enters their bodies and establishes an umbilical
connection with the past. The vomit that yage produces is compared
to the flickering tongue of the anaconda; it is also compared to a
kana vine and the vomit on the ground is likened to a kana plant.
Finally, the umbilicus itself is compared to the scars on the yage
vines left when yage is cut for consumption at He House.
If death involves a passage from high to low then birth should
involve the opposite. Certainly, in the myths of origin of humanity,
this is so for the ancestral anaconda vomits the first people from the
river up on to dry land. The people vomited forth were his children
and it was at this point that they became fully human. This ancestral
journey is repeated each time a child is born: the dead are buried in
canoes (i.e. into the river); the Underworld River runs below the floor
of the house, itself symbolically equated with the universe. The souls
of the dead are believed to go either directly to the people’s waking-
up house in the east, or down the Underworld River and thence to the
east. The souls of the dead return upriver from the east to be reincar¬
nated as human babies. I think that the Barasana origin myth can be
interpreted at one level as symbolising sexual intercourse; the anaconda
vomiting out its children is like the ejaculation of sperm and it is
significant that ria, children, also means sperm and is closely related
to riaga, river.
Women give birth in the manioc gardens and then bring their
babies to the house, entering through a hole in the wall near the
women’s door. This unusual entry may perhaps indicate the non¬
human status of the baby. Before they enter, all household goods
are taken on to the plaza and all fires are extinguished. After entry,
216
Death and rebirth

beeswax is burned round the house. After five days in the family
compartment, the husband, wife and child go to the women’s port to
bathe and vomit. They are then covered in red paint and return to
the house, entering through the women’s door; in this sense, the baby
is brought from the river. Before they enter, all goods are again
placed out on the plaza and after their entry, beeswax is once again
burned round the house.
At the end of He House, the initiates are taken down to the
men’s port at the front of the house. There, they and all the other
men are made to vomit. This vomiting can I think, be interpreted as
a symbolic act of birth.3 One aspect of the Barasana interest in
snakes centres on the fact that these creatures swallow their prey
whole, a laborious act which one informant compared to birth back¬
wards. Snakes can also regurgitate their prey, still whole, and it is
presumably from here that the idea of ancestral anacondas vomiting
up humans derives. According to M.5.A, He Anaconda ate up newly
initiated boys and then vomited them out again as bones identified
with He instruments. This myth is a close variant of M.8.37—51 but
this latter myth adds one very significant detail: Yurupary ordered
a painted enclosure/compartment to be built, into which he vomited
out the bones. This compartment is clearly the same as that in which
initiated boys are confined after He House. In myth, already initiated
(and therefore adult) boys are swallowed (killed) and then regurgitated
in a changed state (reborn) as bones or He instruments. In real life,
uninitiated boys (children and the side of nature and women) are
symbolically regurgitated as adults. In the first case the passage is
from the fully human state to the He state; in the second, a passage
from a human state on the side of nature and women to a fully
human state.
In the last chapter it was stated that the name Yurupary has been
translated as ‘to hold one’s hand over one’s mouth’, which relates to
Yurupary’s initial state of having no mouth. Another possible trans¬
lation, favoured by Stradelli, is ‘mouth in the form of a fish trap or
barrage iiuru = mouth, -pari - fish trap/barrage)’ (Stradelli 1928/9 :

3 The consumption of yagd can also be interpreted in this light. According to a Tatuyo
myth, the ancestral anaconda stopped at a house called Yagd Mother’s House, a place
on the lower Vaupds. There, while the men danced and drank beer in the house, a
woman gave birth to a child at the port. The labour pains of the woman made the men
in the house feel the same effects as they now feel when they drink yagtT The child was
yagd and it is the body of this child that the men now drink (see also M.8.25-6 and
Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971 : 93-6, 1975 : 134—6).

217
Explanation and analysis
498). The word pari, in Lingua Geral, not only means fish trap
but also enclosure/compartment, specifically compartments to
isolate menstruating women and initiate boys. Not only this: these
compartments are often actually made trom such fish traps which
consist of splints of paxiuba palm woven together with vine into a
screen (see e.g. M.6.A.44). If my analysis of swallowing and regurgi¬
tation is correct, then ‘compartment mouth’ would be an apt name
for He Anaconda of M.5, who swallows initiated boys into a mouth
like a hollow log (or cave in other versions) and then vomits them
up into a compartment. The shamans at He House are identified with
Manioc-stick Anaconda, himself identified with both He Anaconda
and Yurupary; like Yurupary and He Anaconda, the shamans are
characterised at a symbolic level by having excessively wide-open
mouths. I would suggest that, by confining the initiates in com¬
partments, the shamans symbolically ‘swallow’ the initiates and
then regurgitate them as adult men. It is above all the shamans who
must vomit at He House and it is they who go down to the port and
vomit with the initiates after the rite. M.5.A. 19 states that the loud
voice (= He instruments) and open mouths of howler monkeys
(= shamans) should be used to open the He People’s doors to make
men. The shamans are He People par excellence.
Immediately after the bathing and vomiting at the port, the
initiates are taken back to the house. Before they enter, all house¬
hold goods are taken out on to the plaza. This sequence of events is
the same as that which takes place when a new-born baby is brought
to the house. Soon after this, the initiates are confined in a com¬
partment, just as, soon after its birth, a baby is confined in a com¬
partment together with its parents.4 Immediately after the initiates
come from the river to the house (low to high), the He instruments
are taken back to the river and placed under water (high to low).
If when the He are taken from the river, the initiates die, then when
they are returned to the river, the initiates are reborn.
At the end of the marginal period, comparable to the five-day
period of confinement following birth, the initiates are taken back to
the river to bathe. They then return to the house and are painted all

4 At the He House that I observed, the He were taken back to the river at the end of the
rite. According to some informants, the He should have remained in the initiates’ com¬
partment for five days after the end of the rite. Considering the fact that the He are
said to adopt (maso-) the initiates, this makes the resemblance between the initiates
confined in their compartment and the baby confined with its parents even more striking,
for parents also maso-(adopt, make human, bring up) their new-born children.

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Death and rebirth

over with red paint at the rite of taking a henyerio, just as a baby is
painted red at the end of its period of confinement. The red paint
is opposed to the black paint applied at the beginning of He House;
black paint symbolises death; red paint symbolises life. The appli¬
cation of red paint is called tnamongu-, making new, and the paint
itself expresses the newness of the initiates, now in the category
mamara, the new ones, young men. Black paint has connotations
of separation (it is used to ward off spirits and was used in myth to
send the moon away — see M.4.A); red paint has connotations of
conjunction and social life and is used in particular at dances.
It was argued above that He House can be interpreted in terms
of a symbolic death and rebirth and that the use of vertical space
is crucial to this interpretation. I shall now show that the story
of Manioc-stick Anaconda (M.6.A), given to me as an explanation
of what happens at He House, can also be interpreted in this light.
Manioc-stick Anaconda was the child of the Sun and the sky; he
therefore comes from the highest of the three layers of the Barasana
cosmos. At the start of He House, the initiates are carried into the
house on the shoulders of the elders, also an extreme high position.
Manioc-stick Anaconda falls to the Underworld through a pitfall
trap; this fall is a kind of death, the trap being homologous with a
grave. He is now in an extreme low position comparable to the in¬
itiates sitting on the ground during He House. The agent of Manioc-
stick Anaconda’s death is Macaw, a shaman tapir; the agents of the
initiates’ ‘death’ are also shaman tapirs. Manioc-stick Anaconda
lands on top of an inga tree, a mediator between cosmic levels. The
inga tree is also a mediator between seasons, fruiting at the start
and end of each dry season ,He House is held at the end of the dry
season when inga are ripe.
Once in the Underworld, Manioc-stick Anaconda travels upstream
along the river; he therefore starts off in the west for this river runs
from east to west; the initiates also start off in the west for they
come from the women’s end of the house.5 Whilst in the Underworld,
Manioc-stick Anaconda reveals his true identity to a kind of duck
(ria kumua) by his inability to control his farts; according to Levi-
Strauss (1973 : 208—9), such characters are moving away from

5 The house represents the universe. The men’s door is the east and the women’s door is
the west. The He are anacondas and they come from the east (and also from the river).
They move towards the middle of the house; the middle of the house is the middle of
the world, namely the Pira-parand region.

219
Explanation and analysis

childhood too far or too abruptly; this suggests that Manioc-stick

Anaconda is like an initiate. Manioc-stick Anaconda then meets
the Sun, the possessor of shamanic snuff, who carries him through
space and time to the top of the Underworld River. Barasana shamans
are identified with the sun; both wear feather crowns and during
He House the shamans are said to travel along the central beam of
the house from east to west; this beam is the sun’s path through the
sky, the house being symbolically identified with the universe. The
shamans effect a passage of the initiates from the women’s world
(west) to the men’s world (east) and during this process they ‘bum’
the initiates with snuff just as the Sun bums Manioc-stick Anaconda
in the Underworld. By refusing to eat the Sun’s fish, Manioc-stick
Anaconda behaves like an initiate, for these are the fish that the
initiates must avoid at all costs.
At the top of the Underworld River (the east), Manioc-stick
Anaconda meets another Tapir shaman who ferries him across a
river; this passage across the river is a symbolic birth and during it,
the Tapir shaman teaches birth shamanism and shamanism for
mother’s milk to Manioc-stick Anaconda. At the end of He House,
the shamans (= tapirs) may symbolically give birth to the initiates.
Manioc-stick Anaconda’s passage across the river takes place immedi¬
ately after he has moved from the Underworld to the Termite
People’s layer. This passage from low to high places him midway
between earth and Underworld. At initiation, symbolic rebirth also
involves a passage from low to high and, at this point in time, the
initiates are also in an intermediary position, for after the bathe at
the port at the end of He House, stools and hammocks are made safe
to sit on but a general taboo on being raised above ground still
applies.
Manioc-stick Anaconda then takes part in a dance, explicitly
compared to an initiation at the end of which termites (also compared
to initiates) leave the house. They have their souls changed by a
shaman Tapir and are now termites that fly. Like initiates after
He House, these termites are prone to attacks from jaguars. During
this dance, the termites’ initiation. Manioc-stick Anaconda refuses
to have sexual intercourse with the shaman Tapir’s wife: initiates
too must not have sexual intercourse. Manioc-stick Anaconda finally
leaves the termites’ house, a passage from low to high; he leaves not
through the door but through a hole in the side wall of the house,
the same hole through which a new-born baby first enters the house.
220
Death and rebirth

He is met by young initiates, his children, out collecting termites,

the food appropriate to their status. They take him back to the
house where he enters through the men’s door, the east — his
passage from west to east now complete — and goes immediately to
a compartment constructed just inside the men’s door. At the
end of He House, the initiates enter the house through the men’s
door and are then confined in a compartment constructed just
inside.
I think therefore that it can be said that Manioc-stick Anaconda
is identifiable with an initiate and that the structure of M.6. A. 1—46,
in terms of events occurring through space and time, parallels closely
that of He House from its start to the beginning of the marginal
period.
I have argued above that, in Barasana thought, a low position in
space has connotations of immaturity, of relative youth and of an
early stage in development. The passage from childhood to adulthood
is seen as a passage from low to high. Consistent with this, the in¬
itiates are called people of another layer or level (gahe tutiana).
They are this partly because they represent the next generation and
generations pile one on top of the other like leaves and partly because,
in symbolic terms, they come from another level of the cosmos, the
river.
This passage from low to high is reflected in the food taboos that
apply after He House. The first food that the initiates can eat con¬
sists of termites (meka), sauba ants (mekahia) and cassava bread,
made only of starch — all things that come from markedly low
positions in space. Ants and termites are very small creatures which
are said to lack blood. In myth, termites, who live in holes in the
ground, are presented as mediators between this world and the world
below (see M.6.A.25—42) and as such they are entirely appropriate
as food for reborn initiates. The order in which food is blown over
for the initiates corresponds more or less exactly to the order in
which it is blown over for a child but whereas for initiates this
blowing occurs within the space of a few months, for a child it
takes place over a number of years. The first food that a baby eats
is its mother’s milk; immediately after He House the initiates eat a
variety of termites called ohea, breasts. The termites whose dance
Manioc-stick Anaconda attends in M.6.A are ohea.
During the marginal period, the only animal food that the initiates
eat consists of small insects, lacking blood, most of which live under-
221
Explanation and analysis

ground. After the blowing of pepper, they first eat the smallest kind
of fish and then move on to progressively larger species culminating
in the category large fish. Then they eat the smallest game animals,
progressing on to larger species and culminating with tapir, the
largest animal in the forest. From this it can be seen that the animal
foods go in a progression from small to large, from low to high and
from animals with no blood at all to those with progressively larger
amounts. Adults are people who have progressed from low to high,
small to large; the fact that game animals are called old/mature fish
(wai bukura) suggests a similar progression in the animal world.
According to informants, in the recent past the Barasana did not eat
very large animals like deer and tapir because these were considered
to be the semi-human souls of the dead.

Fruit
I have argued above that He House can be interpreted as a rite in
which the adult men symbolically give birth to the initiates. This
idea was expressed by one informant who, after the rite of He
House, said to me, ‘the wax in the wax gourd is children in a womb.
These children were created by the Sun. The men make as if they too
create children but it’s like a lie.’ I think that this idea of adult men
giving birth to the initiates can perhaps be related to the use of fruit
at Fruit House. I must emphasise that my argument is tentative and
requires a much more extended analysis than I can give here.
In shamanic language, women, as cultivators of manioc, are called
food mothers and the manioc tubers that they produce are compared
to their children. Women give birth to human children in the manioc
gardens and bring them into the house through the women’s door;
they also bring tubers of manioc in through this same door. At
Fruit House, the men carry fruit into the house through the men’s
door and at He House men carry the initiates into the house through
this same door. I have argued that in some respects at least, the
initiates can be identified with the fruit. I stated above that, in
Barasana thought, men are associated with the high and women with
the low and it is significant in this respect that in M.7.C Yawira, a
woman, brings manioc from the river to land (low to high) whilst
in M.7.I Yeba, her husband, takes fruit from trees down underwater
to give to Fish Anaconda, Yawira’s father. In view of the above, it
may be that tree fruits can be considered to be the ‘children of
222
Death and rebirth

men’ in the same way that manioc tubers are the ‘children of women’.
According to M.2.A, the youngest of the Ayawa (Thunders) was
conceived after his grandmother had eaten a caimo (kanea, Chryso-
phyllum caimito) fruit which the other Ayawa had filled with their
sperm. In this sense, Kanea, the youngest of the Ayawa, was named
after his ‘father’. This story is a close variant of that of the conception
of Yurupary: here Yurupary’s mother, the Pleiades, was fertilised
by the juice of a fruit, either caimo or cucura (Pourouma cecro-
piaefolia) — see e.g. M.8.14—18. This suggests, among other evidence,
that Kanea, the youngest Ayawa, can be identified with Yurupary and
that his mother (who is also his grandmother) can be identified with
the Pleiades, the mother of Yurupary (who is also his grandmother —
see M.8). Meneriyo, Inga Woman, is also identified with the Pleiades
and her son Warimi can be identified with Yurupary.
If Warimi is identified with Yurupary then we should expect to
find that caimo fruit played a part in his conception too. According
to M.4.B, WarimVs father was Umuaka Widarr, Little Sticky Man.
Stickiness is a marked characteristic of caimo trees and fruit: the
husk of caimo fruit contains a sticky latex which makes it almost
impossible to eat the fruit without having one’s lips gummed together,
and caimo trees and those of related species produce abundant sticky
latex sometimes used to adulterate rubber and gutta percha. This
suggests that Little Sticky Man may be identified with caimo; unfor¬
tunately I did not realise the possibility of this till after I had left the
field so that I cannot check the idea. However, further evidence comes
from M.4.A: in this myth, the Moon is presented as WarimVs father;
immediately after the Moon had slept with his sister Memeriyo, she
was catapulted up into the sky by a caimo tree (M.4.A.9). Thus, in
one variant of the myth, Little Sticky Man (= caimo?) pulls Meneriyo
up into the sky and then sleeps with her whilst in the other, the Moon
sleeps with Meneriyo and then causes a caimo tree to send her up
into the sky. Moreover, M.4.C makes it clear that the Moon and
Little Sticky Man are one and the same person.
If the above argument is correct, it can be concluded that caimo
fruit is a male principle (sperm) and inga fruit a female principle and
that the conjunction of these two fruits is an act of fertilisation:
Meneriyo is identified with inga fruit and after conjunction with the
Moon, identifiable with caimo, she gives birth to Warimi. Similarly,
it is caimo that fertilised Siusi (Pleiades), the mother of Yurupary.
Unfortunately I can find no direct evidence whatsoever to link
223
Explanation and analysis

Siusi with inga. The only evidence comes from association: Siusi
is the Pleiades, so is Romi Kumu; Romi Kumu is the sky, so is
Coadidop, the mother of Yurupary in M.8; Romi Kumu can be
linked with the Pleiades, again by association.
The story of Warimi's conception and birth can now be fixed in
time, and through this related to He rites. Inga trees have two fruiting
seasons, one at the end of the short dry season and one at the end of
the long dry season. Caimo fruits only at the end of the short dry
season. Meneriyo, identified with inga, is also linked to the Pleiades;
at the end of the short dry season the Pleiades appear on the horizon
at dusk. Meneriyo must therefore have conceived Warimi at this
time. As the Pleiades climb into the sky, so also Meneriyo goes into
the sky either just before or just after fertilisation (see M.4).
Prior to giving birth to Warimi, Meneriyo comes down from the
sky just as, at the end of the long dry season, the time of the second
fruiting of inga, the Pleiades are setting (coming down) on the western
horizon. Meneriyo lands on an inga tree (M.4.B.4 and M.4.C.3) and
soon afterwards she is dismembered by the Thunder Jaguars at the
foot of another inga tree. Through this dismemberment, Warimi
is ‘born’, a birth that can be directly related to that of Yurupary
whose mother was cut open by the Thunders (compare M.4.D. 14—15
with M.8.19—24). The story of Warimi's conception and birth can
thus be taken at one level to be an account of the movements of the
Pleiades across the skies.
The timing of Warimi's conception and birth can in turn be
directly related to Barasana He rites. At the time when the Pleiades
are rising on the eastern horizon at dusk, the time when inga and
caimo are ripe, Fruit House is held in preparation for He House.
During this rite, inga fruit are ceremonially brought into the house.
At the end of the main dry season, when the Pleiades are setting at
dusk and when inga is again ripe, Fruit House is held again, this
time as a preliminary to He House, and is immediately followed by
He House itself. The relation between the movements of the Pleiades,
the fruiting of inga and the timing of He rites can be seen in fig. 3.
It is clear from the argument above that the fact that it is inga
fruit that is ritually taken into the house, both at the Fruit House
that prepares for He House and at the Fruit House that immediately
precedes it, is of considerable significance. It is tempting to see the
preparatory rite as a symbolic conception of the inititiates which is
then followed by their birth at He House. Unfortunately, my data
224
Death and rebirth

on the preparatory Fruit House is totally inadequate, as it was not

held at all during the period of my fieldwork and it was only after
I had left the field that I realised its potential significance.
In chapter 7 it was argued that the conjunction of the wax gourd,
a female principle, with tobacco and the He instruments, male
principles, could be interpreted as a symbolic act of fertilisation.
As items of ritual equipment that are taboo to women, these objects
are owned and controlled by men so that it is as if the men were
trying to carry out the act of fertilisation without the aid of the
women. This is reflected in the myths of origin of the He instru¬
ments; in one, Romi Kumu, a virgin, gives birth to the He instru¬
ments as her children, the He People. In the other, Manioc-stick
Anaconda’s body, burned with fire, gives rise to the He instruments,
his sons. Today the men control both Romi Kumu (the wax gourd)
and also Manioc-stick Anaconda (the He). The children that are
believed to result from the conjunction of tobacco and the He
with werea are not new-born babies but reborn initiates who, as He
People, are identified with the He instruments.
This argument can, I think, be applied to tree-fruits: in myth,
the conjunction of caimo, a male principle, with inga, a female
principle, represents an act of fertilisation. Both these fruits are
controlled by men and used in a ritual context at Fruit House. The
mythical characters Warimi and Yurupary, who have these fruits
as one or both ‘parents’, are not ordinary people but He People;
the initiates too become He People. The myths describe how these
characters grew up in a very short space of time. In this sense they
are like initiates who, after their rebirth at initiation, grow quickly
into adults. I argued above that Kanea (caimo) of M.2.A can be
identified with Yurupary; in M.2.F, Kanea himself gives birth to
Tree-Fruit Jaguar, the master of tree-fruits. This successful act of
male childbearing is reflected in M.8.14—15 where the Thunders
try unsuccessfully to give birth to Yurupary — Kanea is himself a
Thunder (Ayawa). Both Warimi and Tree-Fruit Jaguar have caimo
fruit as a father and both are alike in being babies who would not
stop crying (see M.4.D.20 and M.2.F.4). According to Levi-Strauss
(1973 : 378—84), the character of the crying baby, in South American
mythology, is one who has an excessive longing for conjunction
with his family; at initiation, a boy’s close ties with his nuclear
family, and in particular with his mother, are severed.
The arguments given above are tentative and incomplete; to carry
225
Explanation and analysis
them further would require both more data and an extensive analysis
of Barasana mythology. I have included them to indicate that the
analyses of the significance of tree-fruits presented in earlier chapters
are by no means exhaustive.

226
The Sun and the Moon

This chapter, like the latter half of the preceding one, is exploratory
in nature and is intended as a pointer towards a fuller analysis of
the relation between He House and Barasana cosmology. In it I shall
try to show that the two figures, the He spirits who appear at the
climax of He House, are the Sun and Moon.
In daily conversation, the Barasana use the same word, muhihu, to
refer to the sun and moon. Where necessary, the two are distinguished
by the prefixes nyamiagUr, the night being, and umuagu-, the day
being. These two are in turn distinguished from another being called
Yeba Hakur, the Primal Sun, the source of creation and life. Yeba
Hakuris also frequently referred to as muhihu; the sun and moon
that we see today are said either to be his two sons, or to be two
manifestations of him. According to M.3.1 the Moon is the elder
brother of the Sun. In the beginning, the Moon was effectively the
Sun for it was he who had the power of both heat and bright light.
He threatened to abuse these powers by drying up the wombs of
women. His younger brother objected on the grounds that if he did
so there would be no seasons and no water — a situation reminiscent
of that described in M.1.A.7 and M.2.B.1 where the sun bums the
world, and there is an absence of periodicity between night and
day and also between the wet and dry seasons. The Sun (younger
brother) therefore takes away the heat from the Moon and replaces
the bright light of day with the diminished light of moonlight.
These sources of light are compared to feather crowns (see M.3.1—6).
He Anaconda, from whose burned body the He instruments were
made, is himself likened to the Sun and the place in which he was
burned to death is called the Sun’s garden; the He themselves are
called the Sun’s bones. Yeba Haku-, the Primal Sun, is both the
Father of Day and also the Father of Night (appropriately enough as
227
Explanation and analysis

he is father of the Sun and Moon — see above) and it was from him
that Ayawa obtained night (see M.2.B). He Anaconda, linked to the
sun, heat and burning by the mode of his death, a death compared
explicitly to the burning of a manioc garden in summer (M.6.B),
is also linked with rain and floods; the storm and rain that preceded
his eating of the initiates (see M.5.A.3—4) is compared to the cata¬
strophic first night which the Ayawa caused when they opened the
container of night given to them by Yeba hakur(see M.2.B). I suspect
therefore that the sun to which He Anaconda is likened is the Primal
Sun, Yeba Haku-.
After He Anaconda’s death, the palm which grew from his ashes
was cut into pieces and made into the He instruments. The Tapir,
a terrestrial animal on the side of water, took the He instrument
from the top of the palm whilst the Howler Monkey, an arboreal
animal on the side of fire, took thq He instrument from the bottom
of the palm. The Tapir threatened to abuse his instrument by killing
children and preventing them from being born. This threat can be
interpreted as a threat to disrupt a kind of periodicity or alternation
between the spirit, He, world and the human world, for human
children come from the spirit world and return there at death. The
Howler Monkey objected to this on the grounds that the Tapir’s
instrument should be used for the opposite purpose, to facilitate the
birth of children. The Howler Monkey then took the Tapir’s He
instrument and replaced it with his own (see M.5.A. 18—23).
There is thus a formal correspondence between the story of the
Sun and Moon who swap the properties of heat and light (see above)
and of the Tapir and the Howler Monkey who swap He instruments.
This correspondence is the more striking for two reasons: firstly
because the Tapir is on the side of water whilst the Howler Monkey
is on the side of fire. The Barasana say that the Moon is the father
of water and that when he came down to earth it became very cold,
and rain blotted out the sun (see M.3.5 —16). The moon is thus on
the side of water and the sun on the side of fire. Secondly, the
Barasana associate the head or top with seniority and the tail or bottom
with junior status. Thus, by taking the top of the palm, the Tapir
starts off as senior (elder brother) to the Howler Monkey and after
the swap of He instruments the relative status of the two is reversed.
Let us now consider the story of Manioc-stick Anaconda and
Macaw (M.6.A). Manioc-stick Anaconda and Macaw are children of
the Primal Sun Yeba Hakie. This immediately suggests that they are
228
The Sun and the Moon

the Sun and Moon. The He instruments are the bones of Manioc-stick
Anaconda and Macaw, created when they were burned to death in
fires equated to burning manioc gardens. This is clearly a variant of
the story of the death of He Anaconda, but whereas in the He Ana¬
conda story, the He come from one body, here they come from two.
This in turn suggests that Manioc-stick Anaconda and Macaw are two
manifestations of He Anaconda just as the Sun and Moon are two
manifestations of the Primal Sun. Hence it appears that He Anaconda
is indeed the Primal Sun.
Manioc-stick Anaconda is the elder brother of Macaw. Initially
Macaw is aggressive towards Manioc-stick Anaconda and effectively
dominant over him: Macaw takes Manioc-stick Anaconda’s wife and
then symbolically kills him by sending him down to the Underworld.
In order to do this Macaw turns himself into a tapir (M.6. A. 1 —7).
Initially then, Macaw behaves like the threatening elder brother
at the start of the Sun and Moon story and also like the threatening
Tapir of the Tapir and Howler Monkey story. But whereas, in these
latter stories, the aggressor is an elder brother (or like one), in the
Manioc-stick Anaconda story the aggressor is a younger brother. At
the end of the story however, it is Manioc-stick Anaconda who is
dominant over Macaw: Macaw tries to maroon Manioc-stick Anaconda
in the macaw’s nest (M.6.A.47—52) but is outwitted by his brother.
Then Macaw tries to drown Manioc-stick Anaconda in a fish trap
but again his brother outwits him and very nearly drowns Macaw
instead (M.6.A.52—4). Whereas, at the start of the story, Macaw is
in a relatively high position (on the land while Manioc-stick Anaconda
is in the Underworld), by the end the situation is reversed (Manioc-
stick Anaconda is high in the macaw’s nest while Macaw is down
below him and then Manioc-stick Anaconda is on the earth while
Macaw is underwater). Finally, Manioc-stick Anaconda’s patience is
tried to the limit and he kills his brother by burning him to death
(M.6.A.54—60). Thus by the end of the story, though the relative
seniority of the two remains the same, their relative dominance is
reversed.
The key to this reversal between Manioc-stick Anaconda and Macaw
lies in the former’s encounter with the Sun in the Underworld. There,
Manioc-stick Anaconda obtains the Sun’s fire in the form of snuff
and it is with this that he ultimately kills his brother. The story of
Manioc-stick Anaconda’s adventures in the Underworld (M.6.A.7—25)
is very clearly one of a set that is discussed in Levi-Strauss’s Mytho-
229
Explanation and analysis

logiques III (1968: 109—60). Levi-Strauss demonstrates convincingly

that these stories, in which two (or more) characters travel by canoe,
are stories about the sun and moon. If the Sun takes Manioc-stick
Anaconda along with him in his canoe, it is reasonable then to
suppose that Manioc-stick Anaconda can be identified with the Moon.
Initially, the Sun threatens to bum Manioc-stick Anaconda to
death, but Manioc-stick Anaconda cools him down with shamanism
(M.6.A.13): this suggests that Manioc-stick Anaconda, like the moon,
is colder than the sun. The people in the Sun’s canoe then tell
Manioc-stick Anaconda to steal the Sun’s snuff (fire) in order to avoid
being burned to death (M.6.A.16). The Sun then tries to burn
Manioc-stick Anaconda to death by blowing snuff at him, but fails.
Then Manioc-stick Anaconda blows snuff at the Sun and hurts him
so much that he tells Manioc-stick Anaconda to stop. While he tries
to burn the Sun, he bums up his feather crown (M.6.A.20—4).
Manioc-stick Anaconda (the Moon) therefore (1) diminishes the Sun’s
heat by cooling him down and by taking his fire (snuff) and (2)
diminishes the Sun’s luminosity by burning his feather crown. This
is almost exactly what happens in the story given above in which
the Sun and Moon change roles (see also M.3). It is appropriate that
Manioc-stick Anaconda is described as being ‘bright and shiny like
the sun’ (M.6.A.2). However, if Manioc-stick Anaconda becomes like
the Sun, the Sun does not become totally like the Moon for later on
he rises into the sky at dawn (M.6.A.24).
The relationship between the Sun and Manioc-stick Anaconda
hinges on the meaning of the kinship term hako maku-, mother’s son.
Hako makur (mother’s son), hako mako (mother’s daughter) and hako
ria (mother’s children) are kinship terms referring to ego’s own
generation. The Pira-parana groups have Dravidian-type kinship
terminologies in which the terms in generations -1,0 and +1 are
divided into those for members of ego’s own patrilineal exogamous
group and those for other like groups. The ‘mother’s children’ terms
are the only ones to occupy an ambiguous position here: people
cannot marry their hako ria even though they may be affines of the
correct generation. These terms are used reciprocally in three ways:
(1) between individuals whose fathers are of different exogamous
groups but who either share the same mother or have separate
mothers belonging to the same exogamous group; (2) between men
of different exogamous groups who are married to a pair of sisters
or who are co-husbands to the same wife; (3) between strangers
230
The Sun and the Moon

belonging to exogamous groups whose members do not usually

interact. The implication here is that both are fellow Indians and
that, indirectly, their respective groups are linked in marriage ex¬
changes. These different usages may be represented diagrammatically
as shown.

Group B Group B
Group A r/-—, . Group C Group A V Group C

A =f 0 6 T A A = 0 ( 0) = A

(3) no marriage ties

' Group A ' i Group B J i Group C l

(sorae marriage ties) (some marriage ties)

A«- hako maku ->A

From these diagrams it can be seen that the term hako maku-is
used between those who, despite their being members of different
groups, stand in the same relationship through marriage to a third
group (usually represented by a single woman). It is the equivalence
of his position to that of ego that makes a hako maku-\ike a brother
with whom women cannot be exchanged. But he also remains like
an ‘affine’ in that he belongs to a different exogamous group from
ego’s own. Finally, it should be added that co-husbands to the same
wife who belong to the same exogamous group are also seen as
being hako maku- to one another although they do not use this term
between themselves.1
In M.6.A the Sun tells Manioc-stick Anaconda that if he really
is his mother’s son then he will be all right but that if he is not, he
will be burned to death (M.6.A.20). Earlier Manioc-stick Anaconda

1 The principles of Barasana kinship classification, including the various uses of the term
hako makit (mother’s son) and their social implications, are dealt with in detail by
Christine Hugh-Jones (1979).

231
Explanation and analysis
argues that because he is the Sun’s mother’s son, the Sun’s heat will
not harm him (M.6.A. 14). When the Sun sees that his heat does not
harm Manioc-stick Anaconda and that instead Manioc-stick Anaconda
can harm the Sun with his own heat, the Sun is convinced that they
are related as mother’s son (M.6.A.23). The implications of this are
as follows: in Barasana kinship terminology there is no term for sibling
of either sex which does not at the same time specify whether that
sibling is senior or junior. Had Manioc-stick Anaconda called the Sun
‘brother’ he would automatically have had to say whether he was
senior or junior to him. By claiming to be the Sun’s mother’s son he
is claiming to be his equal: he is neither senior nor junior (brother)
nor is he simply different (affine). Initially, however, his claim is
false for in fact he is the Moon which means that he must be either
senior or junior to the Sun. The Sun (rightly) doubts his claim and
puts him to the test of fire. By this stage, Manioc-stick Anaconda has
become like the Sun for, by a trick, he has obtained his fire. When
the Sun sees that Manioc-stick Anaconda is also possessed of fire,
he naturally concludes that they are equals and agrees that they are
indeed each other’s son. Thus Manioc-stick Anaconda starts off as
the Moon and ends up as equal to the Sun and it is only after this that
he becomes dominant over his younger brother Macaw.
If, as I have argued, Manioc-stick Anaconda starts off as the Moon,
then Macaw should start off as the Sun. At the start of the myth,
Macaw does indeed behave like the aggressive Sun at the start of M.3
and also like the aggressive Tapir of M.5.A. By the end of the myth the
relative status of Manioc-stick Anaconda and Macaw is reversed just
as that between the Sun and Moon and the Tapir and Howler Monkey
is reversed. But if Macaw starts off as the Sun, then it should be
Macaw, in the guise of the Sun, whom Manioc-stick Anaconda meets
in the Underworld. This may at first sight seem absurd but it is in
fact consistent with certain details of the story. If Manioc-stick
Anaconda starts as the Moon and ends as the Sun, then Macaw should
start as the Sun and end as the Moon; I have shown above that the
Sun in the Underworld does in a sense end up as the Moon for he has
both his heat and luminosity diminished by the actions of Manioc-
stick Anaconda. Secondly, as effective co-husband to the same
woman, Manioc-stick Anaconda and Macaw are indeed related to
each other as mother’s son.
I am aware that this argument raises almost as many problems as
it solves but I do not propose to enter here into an extended discussion
232
The Sun and the Moon

of the relative seniority of the different suns and moons of the

Barasana cosmos. There are yet more myths concerning this
problem which I have not presented here. If the reader feels con¬
fused his confusion is shared to some extent by the Barasana and
their neighbours — the Barasana say that the Tatuyo are the children
of the Moon whilst they are the children of the Sun. The Tatuyo
dispute this and say that it is the other way round. Each side argues
the case by manipulating the inherent ambiguities in the start of
M.3 (see also above): in the initial situation, was the person who
threatened to dry up the wombs of the women the Moon (his name
was Moon) or was he the Sun (his qualities were those of the Sun)?2
In spite of the problems, I think that I have presented sufficient
evidence to say that, as a pair, Manioc-stick Anaconda and Macaw
are the Sun and Moon, also as a pair. The two He spirits that appear
at the climax of He House represent Manioc-stick Anaconda and
Macaw; if the arguments presented above are correct, they also
represent the Sun and Moon. This would clarify certain details of
what happens at He House. I have argued above that the two He
spirits are homologous with the two characters, dressed in Macacaraua
masks, who appear at the climax of Tariana Yurupary rites. If these
two characters also represent the sun and moon, then it is entirely
appropriate that the masks they wear should represent both howler
monkeys and sloths, for howler monkeys, linked with fire and heat,
are like the sun, whilst sloths, linked with rain and cold, are like the
moon.
The He spirits are in particular linked with aspects of male aggression;
when they appear, they play the long flutes with the ends raised in
the air while the other participants act-out spearing; they teach the
other participants to be aggressive. In chapter 8, I mentioned that
acting-out spearing was also done at lunar eclipses when people try
to steal fierce magic from the Moon. During lunar eclipses, the Moon
is believed to come down to earth (see M.3); at He House too the
Moon comes down to earth as a He spirit.
During He House, all contact with fire is prohibited, and after the
rite, there is a general prohibition on contact with all sources of heat.
After He House, the initiates must eat food which is either in a natural
raw state (raw ants and termites, fruit, etc.) or which, though boiled,

2 See Ldvi-Strauss (1967) for a discussion of the complexities involved in the analysis
of ‘Sun and Moon’ myths.

233
Explanation and analysis

has been allowed to become totally cold and has also been treated
by the shamans to remove the harmful effects of the heat used in
cooking. I have argued that the initiates are symbolically dead and
also on the side of nature and it is entirely consistent with this that
they should eat food which is either raw (on the side of nature) or
that is as far removed from the cooking process as is possible. The end
of the marginal period is marked by the initiates being made to
chew smoked pepper and to drink boiling hot liquid. Clearly, the
emphasis on contact with hot food and drink is opposed to the
previous prohibition on contact with heat and it is significant that
after the blowing of pepper, the initiates can not only once again
eat hot food but can also once again have contact with sources of
heat in general. The rite of the blowing of pepper is thus a rite of
reintegration into normal social life and following it, the initiates
can once again have contact with women.
Though the Barasana emphasise that contact with any source of
heat is dangerous to the initiates, they place particular emphasis
on the prohibition on contact of any kind with pepper. In chapter 8,
I argued that tobacco snuff represents destructive, celestial fire
and that this fire comes from the mouth. I showed that this fire is
opposed to creative, terrestrial fire represented by beeswax and
said that this fire came from the vagina. The fact that both wax
smoke and pepper smoke are used to drive away malevolent spirits
suggests that beeswax and capsicum pepper can be identified with
one another. Like beeswax, pepper is also associated with the vagina
for the Barasana jokingly refer to the vagina as a ‘pepper pot’ (bia
sotu) a pot in which peppers are boiled up with scraps of fish — an
example of this usage is found in M.6.A where the Tapir’s wife asks
him if he has been ‘stirring her pepper pot’, meaning, has he been
making love to her? (see M.6.A.36). There is good evidence, then, to
suppose that, just as tobacco is the cultivated, vegetable equivalent
of celestial fire, so also is pepper the cultivated, vegetable equivalent
of terrestrial cooking fire.
Everything indicates that during He House and the period afterwards
the use of cooking fire is symbolically abolished, at least with regard
to the male section of society. In an informant’s description of He
House it was stated that, at the start of the rite, all fires in the men’s
section of the house were extinguished. At the end of the rite, when
the He were taken back to the river, the shamans blew spells over
fire, after which old men rekindled fires in the men’s section of the
234
The Sun and the Moon

house. This did not happen at the rite I observed and I find it hard
to reconcile this practice with the ceremonial burning of beeswax that
takes place. However, the idea that cooking fire is symbolically
extinguished is consistent with this statement.
In Mythologiques I (1970), Levi-Strauss argues that cooking fire
averts the threat of a total disjunction between the earth and sun, a
situation he calls the ‘rotten world’. Cooking fire also prevents the
sun from approaching too close to the earth, a situation described as
‘the burned world’. (The expression ‘burned world’ is also used to
connote such things as the long day and the universal conflagration
- see M.1.A.7 and M.2.B.1 and also M.5.A.11-12, M.6.A.59, M.6.B.
1—4 and M.8.59—62 where the burning of various Yurupary characters
is likened to the burning of a manioc garden in summer and also to
a universal conflagration. The expression ‘rotten world’ is also
used to connote such things as the long night, catastrophic floods
and solar and lunar eclipses — see M.1.A.3—6, M.2.B.7 and also
M.3.1 where the Moon comes down to earth; when this happens there
is a lunar eclipse and the moon causes rain to blot out the sun =
the long night.) Cooking fire thus mediates between the sun and earth,
keeping it in a position which is neither too close nor too distant.
Levi-Strauss argues that, in the myths he is discussing at this point,
the acquisition of cooking fire demands a cautious attitude to noise.
He states:

If the mediatory action of cooking fire between the sun (sky) and the earth
demands silence, it is normal that noise should mark the reverse situation, whether
it occurs in the literal sense (disjunction of the sun and earth) or figuratively
(disjunction, as the result of a reprehensible union, of two people who were a
potential married couple by virtue of their position within the normal marriage
system): in one instance, the eclipse is greeted with a din; in the other, charivari
is organised. However . .. the ‘anticulinary’ situation can occur in two ways.
It is an absence of mediation between sky and earth, but this absence may be
thought of as a lack (disjunction between the poles) or as a form of excess
(conjunction). (1970 : 291—6)
Mediation As excess As lack
absent: total conjunction - total disjunction
‘a burned world’ ‘world of rottenness’

Mediation interpo sition of

present: cooking fire:
conjunction + disjunction

235
Explanation and analysis

The situation of mediation requires silence, the situation of

disjunction (‘rotten world’) requires noise and, he states, the situ¬
ation of conjunction (‘burned world’) requires something half¬
way between silence and noise, either speech (profane) or chanting
(sacred). I shall represent this as follows:

Conjunction- ■ Disjunction
‘burned world’ ‘rotten world’

fire + chanting (sacred) fire + noise

or speech
Conjunction +
Disjunction
fire +
silence

According to this scheme, He House appears to be a somewhat

hybrid situation: cooking fire is abolished (i.e. mediation is absent),
the He instruments make a deafening noise, normal speech is strongly
discouraged but periods of chanting (the sacred alternative to speech)
comes between the periods when the He are played. This hybrid
situation is consistent with the fact that during He House the Sun
and Moon come down to earth and appear as the He spirits. The
‘burned world’ is real enough, for if the initiates should expose
themselves to the sun during the rite, they would be burned to death
as Manioc-stick Anaconda burned up his brother Macaw with the
Sun’s fire. I have stated above that when the Moon comes to earth
(eclipse) this threatens the long night, the ‘rotten world’.3
In Mythologiques II Levi-Strauss shows that the use of the instru¬
ments of darkness is associated with a period during which cooking
is literally or symbolically abolished and during which direct contact
is established between man and nature. This contact with nature is
marked either by famine or by ‘a lavish supply of substitute foods,
such as wild fruits and honey, in a natural instead of a cultural form’.
The state of famine corresponds to the ‘rotten world’ and the abun¬
dance of fruit to the ‘burned world’ (1973 : 403 — 14). Again, all
this seems to correspond to the arguments presented above, including
the fact that after He House (a contact with nature) the diet is very
much reduced (like a famine — the ‘rotten world’) but also consists
of raw, natural foods (the ‘burned world’) —again a hybrid situation
3 It should be noted that the Barasana view an eclipse as a conjunction and not as a
disjunction.

236
The Sun and the Moon

consistent with the one mentioned above. I have shown in chapter 7

that the wax gourd is an instrument of darkness; the instruments of
darkness are used when cooking fire is abolished and the Sun comes
down to earth — as it does at He House as a He spirit.
As part of his argument concerning bull-roarers and instruments
of darkness, Levi-Strauss states that myths of the origin of day or
night describe either an initial situation of permanent day or one of
permanent night. Myths with a ‘diurnal preliminary’ describe an
initial situation, the ‘long day’, in which though both day and night
exist, they are disjoined from one another. (For example, in M.2.B
night exists only within a house, Night House.) The ‘long night’
which precedes the regular alternation of day and night is caused by
what Levi-Strauss calls a ‘subsidiary act’ of conjunction (e.g. in
M.2.B, when the Ayawa open the pot containing night, this night
invades the day and causes the ‘long night’ and only afterwards is
a regular alternation between night and day established). Here then,
is a disjunction (between night and day) that corresponds to the
‘burned world’ and & conjunction (between night and day) that
corresponds to the ‘rotten world’ whereas, in the myths discussed
in Mythologiques I (1970) it is a conjunction (between sun and
earth) that corresponds to the ‘burned world’ and a. disjunction
(between sun and earth) that corresponds to the ‘rotten world’.
Levi-Strauss explains this apparent reversal by saying that whilst
the myths of the origin of cooking discussed in Mythologiques I
concern the notion of absolute space (the position of the sun relative
to the earth), myths about the origins of day or night concern the
notion of relative time (1973 : 419—20).
In myths of absolute space, mediation consists of maintaining the
sun (or sky) in the right place, neither too close nor too distant.
In myths of relative time, mediation consists of establishing a regular
alternation between day and night. He goes on to say, ‘Consequently,
according to whether the myth is thought of within the context of
absolute space or relative time, the same signifieds (conjunction and
disjunction) will call for opposite signifiers.’ (The ‘signifiers’ are the
‘rotten’ and ‘burned worlds’.)
Levi-Strauss writes:

The bull-roarer and the instrument of darkness are the ritual signifiers of a dis¬
junction and a conjunction, both non-mediatized, which, when transposed into
a different tessitura, have as their conceptual signifiers the rotten world and

237
Explanation and analysis

the burned world. The fact that the same signifieds, insofar as they consist of
relationships between objects, can, when these objects are not the same, admit
of contrasting signifiers, does not mean that these contrasting signifiers have a
signified/signifier relationship with each other. (1973 : 421)

By which, if I understand him correctly, he means that the bull-roarer

and instruments of darkness do not signify the rotten and burned
worlds, nor do the rotten and burned worlds signify the bull-roarer
and instruments of darkness. Finally he concludes,

it follows from what has gone before that the bull-roarer and the instrument of
darkness do not effect conjunction or disjunction pure and simple. We ought
rather to say that the two instruments effect conjunction with the phenomena
of conjunction and disjunction; they conjoin the social group or the world at
large to the possibility of these relationships, the common feature of which is
that they exclude mediation. (1973 : 423)

If I have followed this intricate argument correctly, it would

appear that empirical evidence from the Barasana suggests the same
conclusions regarding the significance of the He instruments and
the beeswax gourd, the former being homologous with bull-roarers
and the latter being an instrument of darkness.4 I have stressed
throughout that both the He instruments and the beeswax gourd are
inherently ambiguous symbols which combine in themselves comp¬
lementary but opposed attributes, and I have argued above that,
insofar as both the Sun and Moon come down to earth at He House,
it is a hybrid situation that combines both the rotten and burned
worlds. Finally, Levi-Strauss argues that if both bull-roarers and
instruments of darkness are associated with an absence of mediation,
there must be a third instrument that represents mediation (1973 :
423). This instrument, he says, is the gourd rattle. In chapter 2, I
stated that each kind of Barasana dance festival has its own associated
dances and accompanying musical instruments. After He rites, the
instruments used are gourd rattles.
4 Limitations of space do not allow for a full demonstration of the homology between
bull-roarers and sacred flutes and trumpets. To do so would involve a comparative
study of both the rites in which these instruments are used and also of their associated
mythology. Such a study should not be limited to lowland South America but should
include material from other parts of the world, notably from Australasia where secret
men’s cults show striking similarities with those of the Amazon region. For the purposes
of this discussion, the reader will find that Ldvi-Strauss’s arguments concerning bull-
roarers apply also to the He and other Yurupary instruments (cf. LAi-Strauss 1973 :
411-22).

238
 PART IV

Conclusion
I
11
Conclusion

I shall divide my conclusion into two sections. In the first, I shall

place the description and analysis of Barasana//e rituals presented
in this book within the wider context of knowledge concerning the
Yurupary cult throughout the Vaupes region as a whole. In the
second, I shall discuss some of the broader issues concerning the
interpretation of myth and ritual which emerge from my study of
the Barasana.

Comparative

Throughout this book I have tried, where possible, to relate my

description and analysis of Barasana Yurupary rites and myths to
those of other writers whose works refer to the different Tukanoan
and Arawakan groups of the Vaupes—Igana region. I have done
this for three reasons. First, because I am convinced that a proper
understanding of the Indian societies of Northwest Amazonia will
only come when the different socio-linguistic groups or ‘tribes’ are
seen as forming an open-ended regional system that spreads across
cultural and linguistic boundaries and when their cultural differences
are seen as variations on a common theme. Secondly, as the basic
details of Yurupary rites and myths are broadly similar for all the
groups of the Vaupes—Igana region, it is clear that they should be
treated as variations or transformations of one another. Thirdly, I
believe that the only people who can make effective use of the
valuable but fragmentary data relating to the now acculturated Vaupes
Indian groups, contained in the reports of missionaries, travellers
and ethnologists, are those who have first-hand knowledge of similar
but more traditional groups within the same culture area. Thus, I
hope that this work will be treated as being of relevance not only
241
Conclusion
to the Barasana and their neighbours in particular, but also to the
Northwest Amazon region more generally.
Amongst the Barasana and their neighbours, the rites and beliefs
that focus on the sacred flutes and trumpets are, without question,
the most important and fullest expression of their religious life, and
there is ample evidence that the Yurupary cult is, or was, of similar
importance throughout the Vaupes region. But any attempt to com¬
pare Barasana Yurupary rites with those from elsewhere in the Vaupes
is immediately made difficult by a problem of scale: I have devoted
a whole book to a topic treated by other writers in the space of a
chapter at most, and very often in less. Although a large body of
Yurupary myths have been recorded from a number of different
Indian groups in the Vaupes—Iqana region, descriptions of Yurupary
rites from these and other groups are highly superficial. One of the
aims of this book has been to show that unless Yurupary rites and
myths are taken together as the unit of investigation, and unless
analysis of the rites is based upon an accurate and detailed account
of their organisation that pays attention not only to the more exotic
and salient features (such as Yurupary instruments, ritual flagellation,
sexual antagonism, hallucinogenic drugs, etc.), but also to less
striking but no less significant features (such as difference in dress,
categories of participant, positions in space, sequence through time,
etc.), the significance of this cult will not be fully understood.
Considering the importance attached to it by Indians and ethno¬
graphers alike, at first sight it seems surprising that so little serious
attention has been paid to the Yurupary cult. One possible expla¬
nation for this relates to the distinction between the Barasana rites
of Fruit House and He House. With few exceptions, virtually all
the accounts of Yurupary rites from the Vaupes region describe a
ritual that corresponds to Fruit House and not to He House. The
Barasana attach relatively much less importance to Fruit House than
they do to He House; it is the latter rite that is considered to be
really important and sacred. The importance of Fruit House comes
partly from the fact that it is an attenuated version of He House and
partly from the fact that it forms the preliminary stages of an extended
process of initiation that culminates in He House.1 If, in other parts
1 Some informants dismissed Fruit House rites as mere play and claimed that in the past,
when ‘men were really men’, and when people lived more by their traditions, these
rites were never held at all and that instead He House was held several times a year.
Whilst I find this hard to believe, it does give some idea of the relative importance
attached to the two rites.

242
Conclusion

of the Vaupes area, there are, or used to be, two different kinds of
Yurupary rite, corresponding to the two different Barasana rites,
then this would explain a great deal, for whilst it is relatively easy
to explain the significance of many of the features of Fruit House in
the light of He House, it would be much harder to work the other
way round.
There is some evidence for supposing that something equivalent to
He House did take place elsewhere in the Vaupes. Amorim (1926/8 :
52—5) describes Wanano initiation as having two stages marked by
different rites: as amongst the Barasana, it was only at the second
stage of initiation that young men were shown the more sacred
Yurupary instruments, and Amorim’s account of this rite has im¬
portant points in common with the Barasana He House. Though the
details are less clear, the division of initiation into two stages, one
more sacred than the other, appears to have been true of the Tariana
also (Coudreau 1887 : 198ff). Finally, in the context of initiation,
Briizzi da Silva (1962 : 438) describes the ritual eating of chilli
peppers amongst the Tukano; for the Barasana, this act forms part of
the terminal rites after He House.
A second point, related to the question of whether there are, or
were, rites corresponding to He House in other parts of the Vaupes
concerns the use of beeswax and the beeswax gourd. In my analysis
of the rites, I have placed great emphasis on the significance of
beeswax, an emphasis that reflects the importance that the Barasana
attach to this substance themselves. Again, whilst I know that the
ritual use of beeswax is common to all the Indian groups of the
Pira-parana area, I cannot find any direct evidence for its use in
Yurupary rites elsewhere. The Barasana burn beeswax on a number
of occasions outside the context of Yurupary rites (see ch. 7) and it
is significant that many other authors mention the use of ‘smoke from
burning embers’, ‘resin and embers’, ‘burning resin’, ‘fumigation’, etc.,
in exactly these same contexts. Considering that the beeswax in
question (cerumen) is made largely from resin, these references suggest
that its ritual use may be more widespread than might at first be
supposed. Whether or not beeswax is, or was, also used in the context
of Yurupary rites I cannot say, but there is evidence from myth for
the existence of something like the beeswax gourd amongst the
Tukano (see ch. 7, nn. 22 and 30). Finally, it must be pointed out
that the ritual use of beeswax is easily overlooked, especially during
Fruit House rites, partly because it is less eye-catching than Yurupary
243
Conclusion

instruments and ritual whipping, and partly because it looks and

smells very like the resin that is used to light the house.
A third point relates to the connection between Barasana Yurupary
rites and menstruation, a connection which rests in part on an
understanding of the significance of beeswax and the beeswax gourds.
But, as I have indicated in my analysis, there is evidence for this associ¬
ation, independent of that of beeswax, from elsewhere in the Vaupes
region. This is especially true in relation to the Macacaraua masks
which incorporate into their fabric the hair cut from girls at rites of
first menstruation, but it is also implied by the widespread myth of
the theft of the Yurupary instruments by women. In spite of this,
with the exception of Reichel-Dolmatoff, the connection between
Yurupary rites and menstruation appears to have gone unnoticed by
other writers. Reichel-Dolmatoff states merely that Tukano initiates
are called ‘menstruation people’, are compared with girls, and are in
danger of menstruating if they do not follow the requisites demanded
of them (1975 : 86).
The last point to be made about my accounts of Barasana Yurupary
rites in relation to those from elsewhere in the Vaupes concerns the
question of their timing. I have stressed that the timing of He rites
and especially of He House is of crucial significance and I have
demonstrated that this timing is related both to the movements of
constellations and to seasonal subsistence activities. Although there
is good evidence that timing is an important feature of Yurupary
rites elsewhere, it has received virtually no attention.
Having tried to indicate the main areas in which my description
of Barasana Yurupary rites appears to differ from those from else¬
where in the Vaupes, I shall now briefly consider two other inter¬
pretations of the Yurupary cult, by Goldman and Reichel-Dolmatoff,
in relation to my own analysis. Goldman’s analysis is particular to
the Cubeo and he makes no claims for a more general applicability.
He concludes that the flutes and trumpets represent the Bekiipwanwa,
the Ancients, and that the Cubeo Yurupary cult is an ancestor cult.
Young men are incorporated into this cult through a long-drawn-out
process of initiation, a central part of which are the rituals that
correspond to the Barasana rite of Fruit House. Goldman (1963 :
190—210) observed that the significance of the fruits used in the
rites lies in their connection with growth magic that makes the young
men grow fast and strong. These conclusions are all entirely consistent
with my own regarding similar rites amongst the Barasana.
244
Conclusion

Reichel-Dolmatoff s interpretation is based upon data from the

Desana but is intended to be of more general application to the
Tukanoans as a whole. He writes: ‘To the Tukano of the Vaupes,
the yurupari rite represents the commemoration of an act of incest
which the Sun Father committed with his own daughter in the time
of creation, and the principal motivation behind the ceremony in
which these trumpets are played is the promulgation of strict
exogamous laws that are characteristic of the Tukano’ (1972 : 94).2
By ‘Tukano’, Reichel-Dolmatoff means the Tukanoan-speaking
Indians of the Vaupes, a label that includes the Barasana. I am in
no position to evaluate this interpretation as it applies to the Desana
in particular, but certain points should be made concerning its more
general application, especially with regard to the Barasana. The
Desana Yurupary rite described by Reichel-Dolmatoff (1971 : 167—71),
whilst basically corresponding to the Barasana rite of Fruit House,
differs from it in a number of important respects.3 The interpretation
relies heavily upon the Desana myth of incest between the Sun and
his daughter, a myth not told by the Barasana and not forming part
of any Yurupary myth from elsewhere in the Vaupes region. Con¬
sidering that very little of the evidence from the account of the
Desana ritual, some of it relating to the Desana language in particular,
applies to the Barasana material and, considering the fact that the
Barasana lack the myth of the Sun’s incest, it would seem that
Reichel-Dolmatoff s interpretation could not possibly apply to the
Barasana. Reichel-Dolmatoff rightly insists that attention should be
paid to the Indians’ own explanations of Yurupary rites: his own
informant told him that ‘Yurupary is a warning not to commit incest
and instead to marry only with women of another phratry’ (1971 :
171). No Barasana ever told me anything that could possibly be
interpreted in this light.
In spite of these divergences, there are however certain points in

2 The evidence for this interpretation is set out in Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971 : 167-71.
3 Reichel-Dolmatoff s account of the Desana Yurupary rite is based on informants’ accounts
rather than on direct observation. The rite is held approximately once a year — much
less frequently than its Barasana equivalent; fish and smoked meat are used as well as
fruit - the Barasana, like the Tukano (Brtlzzi da Silva 1962 : 353), use Yurupary instru¬
ments only in connection with fruit; meat and fish are exchanged at a different category
of rite; the rite is held as a preliminary to marriage exchange, in a house where nubile
girls are present — no such considerations are operative in the Barasana rites; ritualised
sexual antagonism, prominent in Desana rites, is virtually absent in their Barasana
equivalents; etc.

245
Conclusion

common: the Desana myth of the Sun’s incest with his daughter
forms part of a longer myth, the rest of which is a variant of the
Barasana myth of the Sun and Moon (M.3) and it also resembles the
start of the myth of Manioc-stick Anaconda and Macaw (M.6.A)
(Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971 : 24). The Barasana also have a myth about
incest, the story of the Moon who sleeps with his sister Meneriyo
(M.4.A); the Barasana Moon, like the Desana Sun, is called Abe. On
the basis of his analysis of myths concerning the journey of the Sun
and Moon in a canoe, Levi-Strauss (1968 : 137—8 has come to
almost exactly the same conclusion as Reichel-Dolmatoff concerning
the significance of the Vaupes Yurupary cult. We are thus faced once
again with the problem of the identities of the Sun and Moon in
Barasana myth (see ch. 10), a problem which would, it appears, be
made yet more complex by attempting to relate Barasana myths to
those of the Desana. In spite of this, whilst I would agree that the
Barasana Yurupary cult, like other secret men’s cults in the Vaupes
and beyond, is bound up with relations between the sexes, I do not
find that either Levi-Strauss or Reichel-Dolmatoff presents convincing
evidence to relate it to the specific theme of incest and exogamy.
Finally, even if this interpretation is accepted, it cannot be said to
account for anything like all that is known of the Yurupary cult in
the Vaupes region.
Throughout this book, I have avoided giving a single, unitary in¬
terpretation of Barasana Yurupary rites because I do not believe that
there is such a thing as one true and privileged interpretation of this,
or any other, ritual complex. This point was made long ago by
Richards (1956) in her analysis of female initiation amongst the
Bemba. More recently, Levi-Strauss has said of the interpretation of
myth, ‘A myth must never be interpreted on one level only. No
privileged explanation exists, for any myth consists in an inter¬
relation of several explanatory levels’ (1977 : 65). This statement
can, I think, be applied with equal force to the interpretation of
ritual and especially to the Yurupary cult, an elaborate complex
involving both myth and rite. So far, most of the interpretations
offered have stuck to one or two levels of interpretation. The cult
has been interpreted variously as an ancestor cult, as growth magic,
as a warning against the sin of incest, as a fertility rite, as a means
whereby men dominate women, as the commemoration of Yurupary
the culture hero, etc. But none of these interpretations taken on their
own, whether right or wrong, provides a satisfactory explanation
246
Conclusion

of the supreme importance of the cult in the religious life of Vaupes

Indians.
One thing is certain: Yurupary rites provide the context for the
initiation of young men into adult male society, a theme that I have
stressed throughout this book. But these rites are much more than
simply rites of initiation: the young men are initiated into a cult
that has an existence and receives expression quite independently of
rites of initiation. Goldman’s (1963 : 190—1) portrayal of the Cubeo
ancestral cult as involving a number of different rites in which the
ancestors are invoked, of which initiation rites are but one example,
would certainly apply to the Barasana also. The focus of the Barasana
cult is the concept of He. At its narrowest level of meaning," He
refers to the sacred instruments and to the ancestors that they
embody; more widely, it refers to a state of being that existed prior
to contemporary society and that now exists as another dimension
of everyday reality. This He state is known indirectly through myths
or bukura keti, the stories of the ancients or ancestors, but it is
also experienced directly. This direct experience comes, in dangerous
and uncontrolled form, through dreams, illness, childbirth, menstruation
and finally through death. Direct experience is achieved, in a con¬
trolled and beneficial way, through ritual and shamanism and through
the use of the hallucinogenic yage: this experience is made accessible
only to initiated men. The essence of Barasana shamanism is both
the profound and detailed knowledge of myth, and also the ability
to enter into contact with the He state at will. Other men, with the
help of shamans, enter into this contact by dancing, chanting and by
wearing feather ornaments or He possessions {He gaheuni) at each
communal dance or ritual. He House, the model for all these dances,
represents the culmination and highest point of this experience.
The Barasana conceive of the He state frequently in terms of
spatial metaphor: initially life existed in an undifferentiated He
state, in the form of Yeba Haku-, the Primal Sun, outside the world
or cosmic house, beyond the Water Door in the east. Today, the
He state, represented by the He instruments, exists outside the
house in the forest; the He state is on a par with, though not identical
to, the world of nature — both are external to everyday human
society. Transitions between these states are also represented in
spatial terms: by entering the world and ascending the rivers, the
ancestral anacondas, as manifestations or sons of Yeba Hakic, trans¬
formed both their bodies and state of existence and gave rise to
247
Conclusion

human beings; ontogeny repeats phylogeny when human babies,

born outside the house and coming from the He state, are brought
into the house and made human by the intervention of the shaman;
at He House, the He instruments, as ancestors on a par with jaguars
and anacondas, are taken from the rivers and forest and brought
into the house where they change their state from dead to living,
from spirit to human; when shamans enter into contact with the
He state, their souls leave their bodies and travel between the layers
of the cosmos; and when chanters recite the myths of origin, their
souls leave their bodies and repeat the ancestral journeys. What is
separated in time is seen as being separated in space; transitions in
space effect transitions in time. At He House, categories that are
normally kept separate are merged and confounded: the house becomes
the universe, the past and present are merged so that the dead are
living and the living are dead, present time becomes mythic time, a
time when human beings, animals, and ancestors are as yet un¬
differentiated. The major ritual symbols, theHe instruments and
the gourd of beeswax, which combine opposed but complementary
attributes, are the means by which this merging of categories is
brought about.
Barasana myths describe the establishment of a differentiated
cosmos from an undifferentiated life principle, and describe the
establishment of order from chaos. This ordered cosmos, implied by
the concept of He, and established as changeless in the mythic past,
is seen by the Barasana as being the ‘really real’ (Geertz 1966) of
which the human social order is but a part. When Barasana tell
myths which refer to the creation of this order, to the division of
the cosmos into layers, to the alternation of day and night and of
one season with another, to the regular succession of the constel¬
lations across the sky and to the establishment of human society,
they continually emphasise its goodness, perfection and changeless¬
ness. The social order, projected out into this wider cosmic order,
is seen as having been created independently of human agency.
The human world is seen as being ordered by principles established
in this mythic past when society itself came into being. In the
beginning, there was only one house, the universe, with one father,
Yeba Hakur and his sons, the ancestral anacondas. These in turn
became fathers in their own houses, with their sons, the He People,
as the sib ancestors of different exogamic groups. In each case,
society is presented as being only two generations in depth. The maloca
248
Conclusion

community reproduces this structure in miniature; its core consists

of a group of male siblings, united as the children of one father.
But human society is in danger of becoming separated from, and
out of phase with, its generative source. Through time, a maloca
community grows big and splits up. In simplified terms, a man’s
sons grow up, get married and have children of their own. As these
children grow up, their parents hive off and establish new maloca
communities, the splitting usually occurring at the death of the
last surviving member of the senior generation, the unitary focus of
the group. The continuity, implied by an ideology of patrilineal
descent, between the social order of the mythic past and that of the
present, also implies an increasing separation in time and space. By
comparing the succession of generations to the leaves that pile on top
of one another on the forest floor, the Barasana show themselves to
be aware that descent implies time-depth and separation. They say
that He House ‘squashes the pile’ of generations so that each gen¬
eration of initiates is brought into direct contact with, and adopted
by, the first ancestor. Barasana men inherit the name of a dead
patrilineal kinsman in the second ascending generation, the names
being those of the He People or first ancestors. Related to this,
there is an ideology of ‘soul recycling’ such that new-born babies
receive their souls from dead grandparents and are seen as being
reincarnations of them. This again suggests a society of two generations
in depth. At He House, such a society is brought about, for the ana¬
conda ancestor, the father of the group, adopts the participants as
his sons. Thus, in each generation, the mythic order is re-established
and society is created anew.
Barasana myths make it clear that the continuity and differentiation
of descent also imply death. Only when the anaconda ancestor was
burned to death could his sons, the Yurupary instruments, be made
from the palm tree that sprang from his ashes and by extension, when
the anaconda ancestor gave rise to the He People by the segmentation
and transformation of his body, he himself died. The origin myths
of Yurupary are also myths of the origin of death: because Yurupary,
the first ancestor, died, so all men must die; because the He People
refused to eat from Romi Kumu's gourd of beeswax, they lost the
power to shed their skins and with it their immortality. In myth,
the death and destruction of a single source lead to the segmentation
and continuity of its parts: the body of the anaconda ancestor
gives rise to sons who live on through their descendants, or to the
249
Conclusion
Yurupary that live on in the He world. In the maloca community,
men give rise to sons who in turn give rise to their descendants. As
the senior generation dies off, their sons split up and form new
communities. But the myths of Yurupary and the rite of He House
also concern immortality. The myths suggest that death is not final
and that through death immortality is achieved: the He ancestors
live on in another world. At He House, the ancestors are brought
back to life and come to adopt the living.
The metaphor that underlies these myths is taken from slash-and-
burn agriculture, a metaphor of repetitive and reversible time.
Through the destruction and burning of the forest, the death of one
plant generation, new life is created as plants spring from the ashes.
Two modes of creation are suggested, one involving the alternation
of death and life, the other involving the continuity of life through
replacement. These two modes involve the two sexes who stand in
a complementary relation to one another. Male creation, involving
destruction, is linear and progressive througK time; female creation,
involving replacement, is repetitive and reversible. In agriculture,
as in hunting and fishing, men destroy life in one sphere to enable
its continuity in another. In reproduction, women create life with
their bodies and in agriculture they tend crops which they plant in
the soil. The complementary relation between the sexes in repro¬
duction, in agriculture, in seasonal activities, and by extension in
the ordering and creation of the cosmos, is given expression at He
House. But He House is considered to be not merely expressive, but
also instrumental in establishing and perpetuating this order.
Female creativity is seen to be natural and uncontrolled; women
do not dominate nature by destroying it, but rather they manipulate
it in agriculture and become dominated by it in reproduction.
Female reproduction and agriculture are intimately associated in
Barasana thought so that manioc tubers are referred to as ‘the
children of the women’. The Barasana say that women are semi¬
immortal: through menstruation, they continually renew their
bodies by an internal shedding of skin — hence they live longer than
men — and through childbirth they replace themselves with children.
These processes are thought of as being akin to the succession of
seasons and the growth of animals and plants in the natural world.
The key to female creativity is seen to lie in the fact that women,
like the world of nature, are periodic and cyclical. The periodicity
of women, and the immortality it suggests, are emulated by men
250
Conclusion
during the rites of Fruit House and He House, themselves closely
linked to a periodic seasonal cycle. Perhaps the ultimate secret of
this exclusive men’s cult is not the He instruments themselves, about
which the women know a great deal, but what lies behind them in
terms of their esoteric significance. Women are excluded from He
rites but not from contact with the He world. At menstruation, and
more especially at childbirth, an occasion from which men are
systematically excluded and about which they profess to know nothing,
the women enter into contact with this world and thereafter must be
ritually protected like the men. But this contact, and the creation that
it makes possible, is not controlled by the women themselves; rather
it is they who are seen to be controlled by their nature and their
bodies. Their He is in their bodies and in their hair whilst that of
the men is embodied in cultural symbols. In one sense, the women
are seen as being closer to the He world than the men, but this world
is on the side of nature and beyond the control of human society.
Material birth is distinguished from spiritual birth. Women give
birth to children, but only men give birth to men. In this perspective,
women and children are spiritually unborn, and only initiated, reborn
men are truly spiritual beings. Men, through ritual and through the
possession of cultural symbols, such as the He instruments and the
gourd of beeswax, seek to dominate and control thq He world. At
a social level, this involves the dominance of men over women; at
a more general level, it involves the dominance and control over the
cosmos through shamanic activity.
There are many possible ways of understanding the religion of an
alien culture. In this book, I have not attempted a general description
and analysis of Barasana religion. To do so would require a more
thorough and extended analysis of their mythology, a more detailed
treatment of rites of birth, naming, first menstruation and death, and
a more extensive treatment of shamanism and many other things
besides. Instead, I have focussed attention on one particular ritual
complex, set selectively in its wider context. But by doing so, I have
not only given an extended and detailed analysis of Barasana in¬
itiation, but have also shown that through such an approach, important
insights can be gained into their religion and cosmology as a whole. I
have sought to show not only that He rituals have many meanings
and can be explained from a number of different perspectives, but
also to show how these different explanations are interconnected —
what, with reference to myth, Levi-Strauss calls ‘an inter-relation of
251
Conclusion

several explanatory levels’. Ritual is a multidimensional phenomenon:

a number of different activities and events, involving different
individuals and groups, happen simultaneously through time, and the
participants (and observer) receives information simultaneously
through a number of different sensory channels. Any description
and analysis of ritual must therefore be correspondingly multi¬
dimensional.

Myth and ritual

Although this book is first and foremost a monographic study of the

Yurupary cult amongst the Barasana and their neighbours, certain
points emerge which bear upon anthropological analyses of myth
and ritual more generally. Without assuming either that myth is
indissolubly linked with ritual or that myth, as a statement in words,
necessarily ‘says’ the same thing as ritual, as a statement in action,
I have taken a complex involving both myth and rite as my unit of
analysis. This complex involves, not simply one ritual overtly related
to one myth in such a way that the myth is a recounted rite and the
rite an enacted myth, but a number of different rites and myths,
many of which bear no apparent or superficial relationship to each
other. Up till now, no systematic effort has been made to relate
Yurupary rites to their associated mythology: either the myths have
been analysed more or less in isolation from the rites (see e.g. Bolens
1967; Levi-Strauss 1968 : 137—8), or, more usually, the rites have
been analysed with only haphazard reference to the myths (see e.g.
Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971; Goldman 1963). What I have shown is that
many aspects of these myths and rites, obscure when considered in
isolation, are clarified when related together as a set. I would emphasise
that this applies not only to relations between myths and rites but
also to those between one myth and another and between one rite
and another.
Anthropological discussions of the relationship between myth and
ritual generally focus on two separable but interconnected issues:
the first concerns the way in which myth can or should be used to
elucidate the meaning of ritual (and vice versa); the second concerns
the relationship between myth and ritual in terms of formal organ¬
isation, structure and function. A full discussion of this topic, which
has a long history and about which a considerable amount has been
written, is beyond the scope of this work. In what follows I want
252
Conclusion

merely to raise some points, emerging from my study of the Barasana,

which relate to some recent contributions to this debate.
In his writings, V. Turner adopts a rather contradictory attitude
to the use of myth in the interpretation of ritual. On the one hand, in
discussing the role of native explanations of ritual and ritual symbols,
he notes that such explanations may take the form either of myths
or of piecemeal exegesis and that these two forms may be found
together or separately in different societies (1969a : 11 — 12); on the
other hand, some of his writings imply a critical attitude towards
those who interpret ritual with reference to myth: ‘My method is
perforce the reverse of those numerous scholars who begin by
eliciting the cosmology, which is often expressed in terms of mytho¬
logical cycles, and then explain specific rituals as exemplifying or
expressing “structural models” they find in the myths’ (1969b : 15),
and ‘There are no short cuts, through myth and cosmology, to the
structure — in Levi-Strauss’s sense - of Ndembu religion. One has
to proceed atomistically and piecemeal ... if one is properly to
follow the indigenous mode of thinking’ (1969b : 21).
Levi-Strauss, in reply to this criticism, distinguishes between two
modalities of myth:
Either it is explicit and consists in narratives whose importance and internal
organisation makes them fully fledged works. Or, on the contrary, mythic
representations exist only in the form of notes, sketches or fragments; instead
of being joined together by a connecting thread, each one remains linked to one
or other phase of ritual; it provides a gloss for it, and it is only on the occasion
of ritual acts that these mythic representations will be evoked. (1971 : 598;
my translation)

This position is not so different from that of Turner when he states

that piecemeal exegesis (implicit myth) and (explicit) myth are
equivalent to one another.
To some extent at least, the anthropologist must adapt his approach
to suit the particular idiom in which his informants choose to explain
their rituals. When the Barasana discuss, comment upon or attempt to
explain their rituals to each other or to outsiders, they do so sometimes
in terms of piecemeal exegesis and sometimes in terms of connected
narratives. No distinction is made between these two forms of ex¬
planation: all esoteric knowledge of this kind is classified as bukura
keti (bukura: ancestors, ancients; keti: myth, stories, news, etc.).
The Barasana told me repeatedly that if I wished to understand their
rituals, I should first understand their ‘myth’ in this wider sense. At
253
Conclusion

first sight, there would appear to be a difference in what constitutes

an understanding of exegesis in each case. When exegesis is produced
in the form of piecemeal glosses for particular symbols or actions in
ritual, it would seem that the anthropologist has a ready-made
explanation or, at least, that he can know whether or not his own
understanding corresponds to that of his informants. But when
exegesis is offered in the form of connected narrative, matters become
more complicated. Very often, such narratives as produced by the
Barasana bear no obvious or apparent connection with the rites,
symbols or ritual acts that they purport to explain; further questioning
often fails to clarify the connection beyond statements like ‘It’s
obvious.’ Either such narratives must simply be accepted as ‘charters’
without any clear understanding of how or why they are so used, or
they must be analysed to establish a connection at a deeper, structural
level. But having carried out such an analysis, it is often difficult to
tell how the anthropologist’s interpretation and understanding
relate to that of his informants. But I think that this difference is
(or should be) more apparent than real, for all too often anthropo¬
logists accept informants’ interpretations of ritual as their own,
especially when such interpretations are offered as piecemeal exegesis.
I would rather take the position that all native explanations, in what¬
ever form they are given, should be treated as part of the data to be
explained and not as anthropological explanations in their own right,
a point made long ago by Radcliffe-Brown (1964 : 235) and echoed
more recently by Sperber (1975).
Levi-Strauss is concerned not only to take Turner (and others) to
task for their failure to distinguish between implicit and explicit
myth, but also, and more importantly, for treating exegesis or
implicit myth as part of ritual and thus failing to distinguish between
myth, in whatever form, as an essentially verbal phenomenon, and
ritual which is essentially non-verbal (1971 : 598). Nonetheless,
Levi-Strauss both claims the right to make use of any manifestation
of the mental or social activities (including ritual) of a given com¬
munity that allows him to complete or explain their myths (1970 : 4),
and also emphasises that myths can clarify the nature and existence
of beliefs, customs and institutions that appear incomprehensible
at first sight (1971 : 571). This view of myth and ritual, as separate
but closely linked entities that shed light on one another, is one
shared by many contemporary analysts and one that I have adopted
throughout this book. But, with few exceptions, notably that of
254
Conclusion

Tambiah (1970), this view has neither been explored in sufficient

depth nor applied in a systematic way.
Leach, in his analysis of the Tongan kava ceremony, sees myth as
a charter for ritual performance in such a way that what is symbolised
in ritual can only be understood with reference to what is ‘said’ in
myth, the message being conveyed not by the superficial content,
but by the structural patterns embedded in the myth (1972 : 240).
I have taken the same line in showing that the story of Manioc-stick
Anaconda (M.6.A) only makes sense as a charter for the rite of He
House when both are reduced to their structural elements. But the
set of myths that Leach chooses for analysis is defined largely in
terms of their superficial content, i.e. their explicit reference to kava
and the kava ceremony and by the fact that these myths are offered
by the Tongans as charters for their rites. What I have tried to
show in this book is that the myths offered by the Barasana in
explanation of their rites are themselves only fully comprehensible
in the light of other myths which make no explicit reference to these
rites and which are never offered as explanations for them, and that,
at a structural level, some of these other myths show a clear relation
to the rites which is not apparent from their superficial content. In
other words, the set of myths taken as relevant to the understanding
of a particular rite must be defined by criteria other than those of
superficial content and of their use as explanations by native in¬
formants. As one of his three rules for the interpretation of myth,
Levi-Strauss states: ‘A myth must never be interpreted individually,
but in its relationship to other myths which, taken together constitute
a transformation group’ (1977 : 65). Myths given as explanations
for ritual must be analysed not only in their narrow relation to the
rite in question, but also in relation to other transformations of these
myths. As the Barasana give myths not only as charters for their
rites as wholes, but also as explanations for particular objects and
actions that occur in these rites, such an exercise involves the exam¬
ination of something approaching the entire corpus of their myths.
In this respect, the analysis presented in this book is incomplete.
One of the aims of this book has been to lay the groundwork for
a more extended treatment of Barasana ritual, and in particular of
their rites of passage, which would see such rites as a set of trans¬
formations. I have shown that the rites of Fruit House and He
House, homologous in terms of basic structure and following one
another in time as part of an initiatory process, are only fully
255
Conclusion

comprehensible when taken together as a set. More generally, I have

tried to show that certain aspects of Barasana initiation can only be
understood in relation to other rites of passage such as birth, first
menstruation and death. Since the work of Van Gennep (1960) it
has become almost an anthropological cliche that rites of passage
typically involve three stages of separation, liminality and reincor¬
poration and that rites of initiation frequently involve a symbolic
death and rebirth. Yet few, if any, analyses of such rites attempt to
compare and interrelate rites of symbolic death with real mortuary
rites or rites of symbolic birth with those of real birth. In my analysis
of Barasana initiation, I have taken a step in this direction, a line of
research I hope to follow up later. One of the main points of signi¬
ficance that I see emerging from my work so far is that rites of
initiation, which combine ‘birth’ and ‘death’ and which are con¬
ceptually half-way between these two uncontrollable natural processes,
recreate them, through the use of symbols, in a controlled and ordered
fashion. By doing so, they seek to confer power on those who undergo
them, a power that is believed to enable adult men to control the
processes of life itself. The real secret of the Barasana men’s cult is
not the secret items of ritual equipment themselves but the power
that they imply. To some extent at least, this is made explicit by
informants’ statements, but it is even more explicit when the rites
are seen in conjunction with the myths that are said to explain them.
Finally, I should like to offer some comments upon Levi-Strauss’s
analyses of Amerindian mythology as a whole. One of the objectives
of our field of research was to examine some of Levi-Strauss’s ideas
in the light of a detailed body of ethnography, including a corpus
of myth, collected with this end in mind. Although the primary focus
of this book is on ritual and not on myth and although a more
thorough analysis of Barasana mythology remains to be done, certain
preliminary conclusions can be offered on the basis of this study of
the Yurupary cult. Throughout this book, in the text and in notes,
I have tried to indicate where my findings on Barasana mythology
are in accord with those of Levi-Strauss, based on the study of myths
outside the Vaupes region. In particular, Levi-Strauss’s intricate
argument, arrived at deductively through a comparative study of
myths from a large number of different societies, concerning the
relationships between the rotten and burned worlds, and between
bull-roarers and the instruments of darkness, appears to be confirmed
directly by empirical data from the Barasana. Again, though the
256
Conclusion

Barasana gourd of beeswax is not a musical instrument in strict

organological terms, the discovery of this ‘instrument’ adds weight to
Levi-Strauss’s arguments concerning such instruments in a South
American context, for the only such instrument that he was able to
find, outside the realm of myth, was the Bororo parabara about
which there exists only sketchy ethnographic data (Levi-Strauss
1973 : 369-70).
On the basis of the analogy that he draws between mythic thought
and language, Levi-Strauss argues that there can be no such thing as
a finite corpus of myths from a given society: the myths of a society
are like sentences (parole), or expressions of an ordered system of
mythic thought (langue) that operates above the level of a particular
social group. Just as new sentences are continually produced in a
given language, so, through time, new myths are produced and old
ones become transformed or disappear. Myths, at the level of parole,
are an open set, whilst Myth, or mythic thought, at the level of
langue, is a closed system (Levi-Strauss 1970 : 7—8, 1971 : 565—6).
But whilst it is in some ways true that each and every telling of a
myth will produce a new variant, variants at this level are without
significance for Levi-Strauss’s analysis which is carried out at the
level of the gross features and elements of the story as a whole.
Because the significance of myth lies at a meta-linguistic level, it is
resistant to distortion at the level of language itself (1971 : 580).
And although it is also true that, through time, new myths are
produced and old ones varied and transformed, changes in myth,
at the level at which Levi-Strauss analyses them, are also unlikely to
occur over relatively short periods of time; when they do occur,
they are likely to be correlated with other changes in the societies
that produce them, as is the case for variations of myths that occur
between different societies in space. But in any case, the significance
and extent of variations through time of the myths of a given society
must be decided on the basis of empirical enquiry and not assumed
a priori.
During our field research we attempted to obtain as full and detailed
a corpus of myths as we could. Working with check-lists, we obtained
versions of the same myths from different informants, versions of
different myths from different informants, and versions of the same
myth from the same informant on different occasions. By the end
of our stay, we had more or less exhausted the repertoire of myths
that the people with whom we had contact were able (or willing)
257
Conclusion

to tell us. Two things emerged from this work: first, there was
surprisingly little variation between versions of the same story as
told by the same or different informants on different occasions:
when telling myths, the Indians of the Pira-parana region both aim
for and achieve consistency and correctness at a level well below that
of the gross features of the story. Secondly, within this known
repertoire of stories, informants were well able to distinguish between
stories that are considered to belong to the common culture of the
area (involving in particular the Barasana, Bara and Tatuyo) and those
that are alien (mostly stories from the Arawakan groups to the south).
Thus, at least in this area, there is something that approximates to a
finite and relatively closed corpus of myths at a particular point in
time.
Two points follow from this. If it is possible to demonstrate
empirically, and without straying beyond the confines of a particular
cultural group, what Levi-Strauss arrives at deductively on the basis
of a massive cross-cultural comparison of myths from a number of
different societies widely separated in space, one is led to wonder
if, for some purposes at least, he is not making a virtue out of a
necessity. Throughout the four volumes of Mythologiques there
seems to be a progressive tendency away from analysing myths in
relation to the social context of the societies that produce them,
towards analysing one myth in terms of another and working out
the relations of transformation between them. I do not question
the value of the comparative exercise per se but when it is claimed
that myths from one society can only be fully understood by
reference to myths from other societies widely separated in space,
I would ask if this may not be so much a methodological principle
as a necessary and inevitable by-product of the fragmentary nature of
much of the ethnographic data on which the analysis is based. To
quote T. Turner (n.d.), ‘I simply question the tendency to substitute
[comparative analysis] for, or to regard it as prior to, the compre¬
hensive analysis of the structures of individual myths and their
relations to their particular social and cultural contexts of reference.’
The second point, related to the first but of greater importance,
concerns the significance of the myths within their social and cultural
context. Levi-Strauss is frequently criticised for ignoring the social
context of the myths that he analyses. Such a criticism is largely
unfounded, at least at the level of methodology but not always at
the level of practice, if by context is meant the ethnographic back-
258
Conclusion

ground of the myths. Although ethnographic data on some of the

societies whose myths he analyses is highly fragmentary and some¬
times misleading, Levi-Strauss’s interpretations of Amerindian
mythology depend upon knowledge of their social context and
consist in relating the myths to details of the ecology, economy,
kinship and political structure, ritual, etc. of the societies from which
they derive (see also Levi-Strauss 1977 : 65). But if by context is
meant the role and significance of the myths in question in the
function and organisation of the societies from which they derive,
then the criticism carries some weight. By shifting progressively
from the question of what myths mean to how they mean and how
they are organised internally, and by shifting from the study of myths
in relation to their specific social and cultural context to the study
of myths from one society in relation to those of other societies, he
is left with a vast self-contained and self-enclosed system which relates
to nothing but itself, a set of signifiers with no signifieds — ‘myths
which operate in men’s minds without their being aware of the fact’
(Levi-Strauss 1970 : 12). For my part, unless the myths of one
society are seen as a relatively bounded and self-contained system,
and the evidence suggests that they can be, then we must indeed ‘see
in these Mythologiques the description of a language of which each
Indian society knows only bits which have been assembled by Levi-
Strauss’ (Sperber 1975 : 72). I hope that I have shown in this work
that it would be neither possible nor fruitful to study the signifiers
of Barasana myth and ritual without at the same time studying their
signifieds, and also that such a study is only possible when the rites
and myths are seen within a specified social and cultural context.
In the concluding section of Mythologiques vol. IV, Levi-Strauss,
apparently going against some of his earlier statements concerning
the relationship between myth and ritual (1963 : chs. X and XII;
1973 : chs. V and XIII), appears to reduce ritual to a spin-off from
myth, a vain endeavour to re-establish and reassert the continuum
of experience that has been fragmented by the polarising procedures
of mythic thought: ‘whilst myth resolutely turns its back upon
continuity to cut up and dismember the world by means of dis¬
tinctions, contrasts and oppositions, ritual moves in the opposite
direction: starting with discrete units which are imposed upon it
by this prior conceptualisation of the real, it chases after continuity
and tries to catch up with it, although the initial split brought
about by mythic thought makes the task for ever impossible’ (1971 :
259
Conclusion

607; my translation). Such an idea might appear to be confirmed by

my discussion of Barasana Yurupary rites, for in them, as in so much
religious ritual elsewhere, can be seen an attempt to overcome the
unpleasant consequences of a manner of thinking that sets up life
and death as polar opposites. But at the same time, these rites, in
harmony with mythic thought, build upon and emphasise differences
of age and sex and establish a fundamental cultural distinction
that permeates every aspect of Barasana society. Ritual is thus fore¬
most amongst the various mechanisms that amplify and convert
distinctions in thought to produce divisions in society.
Rather than reduce one to the other, I would see myth and ritual
as drawing upon a common set of cultural categories, classifications
and ideas, expressed not only in the myths and rites themselves but
also in the activities of daily life, and producing transformations of
a common set of elements. But ritual is not the same as myth for it
stands half-way between thought and action. It is through ritual
that the categories of thought can be manipulated to produce effects.
Myth may exhibit order in thought, but it is through ritual that this
order is manipulated to produce order in action and in society at
large.

260
 PART V

The Myths
The myths

Leaving aside stories about spirits (watia), most Barasana myths can be divided
into five major cycles, each of which centres on the activities of one or more
principal characters. Most of the myths presented in this book are drawn from
these cycles (M.l, M.2, M.4, M.6 and M.7). With the exception of the story of
Manioc-stick Anaconda (M.6), I have never heard any of these myth-cycles told
right through from start to finish at one sitting. Usually, part of a cycle is told
as a discrete story with the rest either left out altogether or briefly summarised
at the beginning or end. As presented here, the longer cycles are divided up
into numbered sections. These sections correspond to the way in which informants
might divide up the myths but it must be emphasised that the divisions are in
no way fixed. Different people will divide up the myths in different ways
according to the particular circumstances of telling.
In order to save space, in most instances I have had to reduce the myths to
their bare essentials, often reducing to a few lines whole sections that might
take an hour or more to tell. I have also had to leave out whole sections of the
myths which contain material that is not of immediate relevance to my argument.
The only myth which is anything like complete is that of Manioc-stick Anaconda.
With the exception of M.8, all the myths were recorded in the Pira-parana
region. In most cases the sections of each myth presented are based on a number
of different versions collected from both Barasana and Bara informants; M.2.F
and M.5.A are based on versions from a Tatuyo informant. M.8 is an abridged
version of the Yurupary myth recorded by Biocca from a Tariana informant
living at Jauarete on the Vaupes river.

262
M.1
Romi Kumu

M.l.A Romi Kumu makes the world

1. In the beginning the world was made entirely of rock and there was no life.
Romi Kumu, Woman Shaman, took some clay and made a cassava griddle. She
made three pot-supports and rested the griddle upon them. The supports were
mountains holding up the griddle, the sky. She lived on top of the griddle.
2. She lit a fire under the griddle. The heat from the fire was so intense that the
supports cracked and the griddle fell down on the earth below, displacing it
downwards so that it became the Underworld; the griddle became this earth.
(Variant: the griddle fell through the earth below and became the Underworld.)
She then made another griddle which is the layer above this earth, the sky.
3. She made a door in the edge of the earth, the Water Door, in the east. There
was lots of water outside and when she opened the door the waters came in and
flooded the earth.
4. The waters rose inside the house. All the possessions in the house became alive.
The manioc-beer trough and the long tube for sieving coca became anacondas;
the post on which resin is put to light the house became a cayman and the
potsherds and other flat objects became piranha fish. These animals began to
eat the people.
5. The people made canoes to escape the flood but only those in a canoe made
from the kahuu-(unidentified sp.) tree survived. Everyone else and all the animals
were drowned.
6. The survivors landed on top of the mountain called Ruriho near the Pira-parana.
There they began to eat each other as there was no food and the animals that
survived ate each other too.
7. Then the rains and floods stopped and it was summer. The sun stayed high in
the sky and it became hotter and hotter and drier and drier. This went on till
the earth itself caught fire. (Variant: Romi Kumu set fire to the earth.) The earth
burned furiously and everything was consumed. The fire was so hot that the
supports of the layer above cracked and it came crashing down (see 2. above).

263
The myths

M.l.B The nature of Romi Kumu

1. Romi Kumu is very old. In the evening she is old and ugly but in the morning
when she has bathed she is young and beautiful. She changes her skin. She has
the old beeswax gourd up there with her in the sky so that she can do this.
2. When Romi Kumu urinates it is very cold; her urine is the rain.
3. She has fire in her vagina.
4. Urucu (Bixa orellana) is her face paint; it is her menstrual blood; it is her He.
She puts the paint on her face and then removes it again taking off a layer of
skin so that her face becomes white. This is what women do today.
5. Her body has He within it; she has He here in her hair. When shamans blow
spells on food for a menstruating woman, they hide her hair back behind her
head. The hair stays there for a month and then falls back in front of the woman's
face; then she sees the He and menstruates once more. When the hair is behind
her head she cannot menstruate.
6. Romi Kumu is the mother of the sky or day (Umuari hako). She is the grand¬
mother of the He People, all peoples’ grandmother.

M.l.'C Romi Kumu creates the He People

1. Romi Kumu was a virgin; she had no husband. She made two daughters, the
Women-that-squeeze-manioc-in-a-press (Buhe Romia).
2. She created all He, all the He People. They had no father, they simply came
into being. The people were inside that palm, that womb.
3. Romi Kumu was a shaman, she was like a man. She turned the He People into
beings like women; they were like women in that they menstruated.
4. Romi Kumu was going to give the He People shamanised substances from the
gourd of beeswax.
5. She made manioc beer and then made the He People sit out on the plaza in
front of the house.
6. The MeniMasa were like wild beasts, like warriors and killers. They went into
the house, greeted Romi Kumu, then out again and round and round the house.
7. She offered them one gourd but they gave it back to her without eating from
it; she offered them another but they gave it back angrily.
8. Anacondas and snakes came and ate from the gourd that they had refused.
9. At midnight, Romi Kumu did protective blowing for the He People. They
went round and round the house looking for her gourd.
10. They came back into the house and she offered them a gourd of shamanised
substances; it was the gourd of beeswax.
11. ‘Take that gourd away, you filthy beast’, said Old Star (Nyoko Baku), the
tierce one, their warrior, ‘I’m not going to eat from your vagina, it is very bitter
and smells.’ He ran off again.
12. She put the gourd between her legs and took out another gourd and offered

264
M. 1 Romi Kumu

it to them. Old Star saw her do this. ‘That’s not the right gourd. You have
hidden it from us’, he said as he ran behind her to look.
13. There was nothing there. Snakes and spiders had come and eaten from the
gourd and then the white people had come and taken it away.
14. The white people had taken the gourd for changing skins. With this gourd,
when you get old you slough off the skin and become young again. The priests
have this gourd, it is their incense. That gourd was for us but they cheated us
and took it away.
15. As the He People put on the head-dresses to dance, Romi Kumu escaped
from them and ran away. They chased after her. First they went round the edge
of the world and then down the middle but they could not find her.
16. They went to the east and found her there. She gave them the gourd that
we have today, the one that we use during He House. They were going to kill
her for taking away the good gourd.
17. As she gave them the gourd, she went through the Water Door and climbed
up into the sky, up to the layer above. She became the Pleiades (Nyokoaro)
and she is there today.
18. Cubeo and Siriano men still menstruate today; Romi Kumu made them like
that.
19. The He People returned to the Pira-parana. People tried to give them fish to
eat as they were initiates. That is why when we see the He we dream of eating
fish caught with poison.
20. They were the He People, our people. That is why we have He. There was
Guan (Kata) and Cotinga Jaguar (Rasuu- Yai) — they all had names like jaguars.
There was Sloth Jaguar (Kerea Yai)] he is Old Sloth (Kerea Buku). Old Callicebus
Monkey (Wau Buku) was their shaman like Romi Kumu. We don’t see that one;
it stays inside the shamans’ enclosure together with their gourds. There was
Manioc-squeezing Woman (Buhe Romio), two of them, short trumpets, and
Kana Flower (Kana Goro), a short trumpet. There was Wenandurika, two of
them. There was Old Star (Nyoko Buku), the fierce one, the warrior. Their
protection was the whip and the sword-club. The snail-shell snuff holder was
their shamanism.

M. 1 .D Romi Kumu steals the He

1. Romi Kumu’s father, Poison Anaconda, told his sons to get up early and go
down to the river to bathe, vomit water and to play the He.
2. In the morning the sons stayed in bed but Romi Kumu got up early and went
down to the river where she found the He.
3. (Variant: the women/woman did not know what to do with the Yurupary.
They put them over all the orifices of their bodies but not in their mouths.
Finally a fish, jacunda (Crenicichla sp.), showed them what to do by signalling
with its big mouth — Fulop 1956 : 361—2; Prada Ramirez 1969 : 131—2.)

265
The myths

4. The father was at first pleased when he heard the noise of the He but when he
saw his sons still asleep he realised what had happened and was very angry.
5. The men ran down to the port but Romi Kumu had already gone, taking the
He and all the other sacred equipment of the men with her.
6. They chased after her, following the sound of the He, but each time they got
near she ran off again. She walked along the rivers and one can still see her
footprints (carved) on the rocks in the Pira-parana area. She came to Yurupary
Cachoeira (Sunia Hoero), on the Vaupes river. There the men caught up with
her and took back the He and ritual equipment.
7. The men punished Romi Kumu and the other women by making them
menstruate. (Variant: When the women stole the Yurupary they talked a lot and
were drunk. The men attacked the women and rammed the instruments up their
vaginas — Fulop 1956 : 366.)
8. When the women stole the He from the men, the men became like women:
they worked in the manioc gardens producing manioc, they had a bend in
their forearms like women and they menstruated.

266
M.2
Ayawa, the Thunders

M.2.A The Ayawa create their younger brother

1. In the beginning there was no earth and no trees, only a hard land made of
rock. There were no people, only the Ayawa, Thunders. There were three of
them: Bosuu Waimi, the eldest, Bo Ayawa, the next, and Masame, the youngest.
They did not know who their parents were so they concluded that they must be
the children of the sky.
2. They came to a kanea, caimo (Chrysophyllum caimito) tree with lots of fruit.
They ejaculated into the fruit and then gave it to their grandmother to eat.
3. Another woman, Hatao, warned her not to eat the fruit telling her that the
Ayawa had put their sperm in it. The grandmother ignored the warning and
after eating the fruit she became pregnant.
4. The grandmother gave birth to a son. The Ayawa decided that the child must
be their younger brother and they called him Kanea after his ‘father’. He grew up
very fast and became a very powerful shaman. His elder brothers were ignorant —
today too, it is the youngest brother who becomes the shaman.

M.2.B The Ayawa obtain night

1. The sun stayed high in the sky all the time and there was no night. The Ayawa
complained that there was no beginning and no end to their day and that their
life was not ordered and regular. Especially important to them was the fact
that there was no established routine for the picking, processing and eating of
coca.
2. They went to Night House where Day Father (Umuari Haku), Night Father
(Nyamiri Haku), Nyami Sodo, lived. They stayed in his house.
3. In the afternoon they went with their host to pick coca; in the evening they
processed the coca and at night they ate the coca as they sat and talked in the
centre of the house. When they went to bed at Night Father’s bidding they woke
up in the morning refreshed instead of feeling tired as they had done after the
fitful rests to which they were accustomed. Only at Night House was day and
night ordered in this way.

267
The myths
4. They decided to ask Night Father for night. They said to him, ‘Mother’s son,
give us night.’ He gave them a box telling them not to open it without tirst
carrying out the appropriate blowing.
5. They went home and after blowing spells on the box, they opened it. A resin¬
like substance fell out and covered their bodies with sores. They were angry
with Night Father saying that they had asked for night (nyami) not sores (kami).
6. They went back to Night House and asked once again for night. Night Father
gave them a pot and told them not to let the women see it. He told them also
that they must blow spells against the night animals and against the illness of
women, the latter because they would sleep with the women at night. He also
warned them not to open the pot until they got back to their house.
7. They were very suspicious of the pot, thinking that it too would contain
sores. When they reached the edge of their manioc garden they decided to open
the pot and see what was inside. As they opened it, the lid flew off and covered
the eyes of the sun. Everything became pitch black with heavy rain falling and
wind whistling through the trees. The rivers rose and flooded the land and the
Avawa were very frightened. The night was very long.
8. Finally, Kanea, the youngest, went up into the sky and, using his powers as
a shaman, found dawn. During the night the Ayawa had turned into night
animals; they became douroucouli monkeys, owls, potoos, etc. As dawn broke
they became umamur frogs (Hyla sp.) that croak after heavy rains. They also
became kata rihoa borea, white-headed guan {Pipile cumanensis) and kata maha,
rufous-breasted guan {Penelope jacquacu), both dawn-feeding birds.
9. Buko, Anteater, then began to laugh at them, teasing them about the catastrophic
night that they had caused. They told him that they would deal with him later.
10. They went to Anteater’s house and began to prepare tobacco snuff. When
they had finished they blew the snuff up each other’s noses and then offered
some to Anteater. They blew the snuff at him making his two nostrils. Kanea
had blown spells into the snuff to make it strong. Anteater became very dizzy
and the Ayawa then chased him out of the house. As he ran off, they threw a
flowering arrow cane after him which hit him in the rear and became his tail.

M.2.C The Ayawa obtain fire

1. The grandmother of the Ayawa owned fire which she guarded jealously between
her legs as she squatted on the ground. (Variant: She kept the fire in her vagina.)
When she blew on the fire, huge sparks came out with loud bangs. Without
this fire the Ayawa could not have thunder. They asked their grandmother for
the fire but she refused to give it to them.
2. The youngest Ayawa, Kanea, turned himself into a callicebus monkey (wau)
which the other Ayawa then killed. They took the monkey to their grandmother
and asked her to singe the hairs off so that they could eat it. She took urucii

268
M.2 Ayawa, the Thunders

branches and squatted over them and made a fire. As she did this, the other
Ayawa ran up, grabbed the fire from her, and ran away.
3. The grandmother told Fire Cayman (Hea Guso, Caiman sclerops) that she had
lost the fire and he promised to get it back for her.
4. The Ayawa ran till they came to a big river. There, Fire Cayman offered to
ferry them across in his canoe. They put the fire in the prow of the canoe which
was Fire Cayman’s nose. In the middle of the river Fire Cayman ate the fire and
then dived under the water leaving the Ayawa to swim.
5. The Ayawa then turned themselves into umamu- frogs (Hyla sp.) and
began to croak. Fire Cayman came along to eat the frogs and as he came near,
the Ayawa turned back into people, grabbed Fire Cayman and cut him open.
They looked for fire in his guts but couldn’t see it. They called Macaw Wasp to
fan the fire with his wings until it glowed. They took the fire from the belly of
Fire Cayman, then wove a palm-leaf mat to put over the hole. Then they filled
his belly with stones and put him back in the water.

M.2.D The Ayawa seek water

1. The Ayawa were very thirsty but all the water in the world was poisonous so
that they could not drink. Their grandmother owned water so they went to ask
her for some.
2. Their grandmother told them that they would find water inside a tree. They
went and cut down various trees without success.
3. Finally, she revealed the right tree to them. After many adventures, they
succeeded in cutting it down. Its trunk and branches gave rise to all the major
rivers in the area and all fishes came from the water inside its trunk.

M.2.E The Ayawa steal thunder

1. The Ayawa went to Thunder Chiefs (.Buho Boku) house to steal thunder
from him. They turned themselves into macaws and flew into the house and flew
out again carrying the thunder-club; Thunder Chief was asleep. As they flew into
the air, Thunder Chief awoke and tried to kill them with another club. The
thunder that the Ayawa stole was tree thunder that makes a loud noise (forked
lightning); the thunder that Thunder Chief had left was distant rumbling thunder
and sheet lightning.
2. The Ayawa went back to their grandmother’s house. She was outside weeding
the cleared space round the house. They struck her with the thunder-club in
order to try out their new possession. The thunder-club killed their grandmother
but the Ayawa brought her back to life.

269
The myths

M.2.F The Ayawa and Tree-Fruit Jaguar

1. Kanea, the youngest Ayawa, ate sabalo fish (huwai) without having bathed
after working at clearing the forest to make a manioc garden.
2. The fish inside him grew big and he became pregnant. The child inside him
was Tree-Fruit Jaguar {He Rika Yai). Kanea became very ill as he was unable to
give birth to the child.
3. The Ayawa called two shamans; one was the little woodpecker that cries
‘ruputurrrruputttru-’, the other was a big woodpecker, spotted like a jaguar.
They made a hole in Kanea's body and delivered the baby. They were helped
in their work by their women, ria tiiha frogs {Leptodactylus sp.).
4. The baby would not stop crying. They tried shamanism to change his soul
but he went on and on and would not stop. Finally they beat the walls with
sticks and he stopped. He was a jaguar, one who eats people.
5. Tree-Fruit Jaguar told the Ayawa to decorate the house with tree-fruit. They
hung uacu (simio), iauapischuna (toa), gubotea, pataua {nyomu-, Oenocarpus
baccaba), assai {Euterpe oleracea), wahu-{Hevea sp.), rubber {bid, Hevea sp.)
and bubi, all the tree-fruit, on the posts and beams of the house.
6. They hung tree-fruits on their bodies; all their dance ornaments were tree-
fruits.
7. They were making the tree-fruits ripen; they were changing the soul of the
tree-fruits.
8. They asked, ‘Who will be the tree-fruit feather crown?’ Blue-crowned Motmot
{Utu, Momotus momota), whose cry is ‘utu utu utu’, replied, ‘I will be that
(yurti, yuti, hutu).'
9. Fearing that people might eat the tree-fruit people, protective blowing was
done with tobacco to make them smell and become poisonous.
10. After the dance, the tree-fruit people began to leave the house; this was the
maturation of the fruit. Some of them had black paint on only one part of their
body, others were covered all over. The pataua were black all over. The iauapischuna
were covered in red paint. The tree-fruit spread out over the land.
11. There were two Guans in the house, Kata Maha, Red Guan, and Kata Rihoa
Borea, White Guan (see M.2.B.8 above).
12. Red Guan wanted to show that he was a true shaman; he put White Guan
under a basket.
13. Up on the roof beams of the house were tocandira ants, snakes and scorpions.
If Red Guan had been a real shaman he would have got rid of these creatures by
knocking them off the beams with a whip but he failed to do this.
14. They called White Guan out from under the basket. He took a whip and
after blowing spells on it, cleared all the noxious animals from the beams.
15. Red Guan called his daughter to bring cassava bread for him to eat together
with the tree-fruit but as he was afraid of the poisonous animals he flew off.
White Guan ate up all the tree-fruit.

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M.2 Ayawa, the Thunders

16. After dawn, Tree-Fruit Jaguar left the house and went to look at all the fruit
dispersed throughout the forest. Then he went to He hudoa wi in the east where
he is today.
17. It is because of Tree-Fruit Jaguar that tree-fruits are well shamanised and
have their souls changed. By doing this, the fruit never finishes and there is
always more. Today, because people do not do this properly, there is less fruit.
If they hold Fruit House, do the right shamanism and burn beeswax then there
is lots of fruit. They do that so that the soul of the fruit does not become ex¬
hausted and stop.
18. Uacu (simio) fruit is yage, that is why the fruit is so bitter. It is tree-fruit
yage.

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M.3
Sun and Moon; day and night

1. The Sun and the Moon were brothers. The Moon, the elder of the two, said,
‘I am going to heat up and dry the wombs of the women. I shall be the day.’
2. His younger brother, the Sun, thought about the need for seasons, and the
need for water for drinking and cooking. He said, ‘No, I shall be the one who
owns the day.’
3. He took the day from his elder brother and gave him night. Then he went
away to escape from his elder brother.
4. The Moon had a very feeble light, the thing that he thought would be the day.
His younger brother, the Sun, shone bright and clear.
5. The Moon’s body then turned to blood. That is what really happens when
people tell you that the moon is ‘dying’ (the conventional explanation of lunar
eclipses and of the red moon in a red sky). The whole of the Moon’s place turned
to blood and he appeared as a little red lump like a lump of red paint.
6. The Moon came down to the earth and arrived at an abandoned house where
all the inhabitants had died. As he went in, the house was filled with light from
his feather crown. He took off his crown and hung it on the lighting post in the
middle of the house.
7. Then the Moon became an armadillo and began to eat the bones in the grave in
the floor of the house.
8. A Siusi man had come into the house earlier and had hidden up on a shelf and
gone to sleep. Seeing the crown on the post, he took it and put it under a pot
and then got back up on the shelf. The house went dark.
9. The Moon stumbled around looking for his crown. At last he saw a chink of
light and, lifting up the pot, put his crown back on his head and then left the
house. He climbed back up into the sky.
10. The Moon comes down to the earth to eat the bones of dead men who made
love to menstruating women when they were alive. As he comes into the house
he says, ‘was it so good to make love to a woman like that, son-in-law?’ This is
why men are afraid of menstruating women and avoid looking at them.
11. Today, when the Moon ‘dies’, if there is any food in the house it becomes
filled with blood. All the objects in the house become covered in blood. To

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avoid this, all food and all possessions must be taken on to the cleared space
outside the house.
12. If we sleep when the Moon ‘dies’ our arms and our mouths become fdled
with blood so everyone must be woken up. The blood is the Moon’s blood,
menstrual blood.
13. When the Moon ‘dies’, the shamans do protective shamanism with beeswax.
Everyone must be outside the house. The shamans blow on red paint and then
wipe it on the people’s bodies.
14. The men act-out spearing; they go to steal the fierce magic of a spirit who
appears at this time. They hit him hard and steal his magic.
15. The sky is like a gourd around which the Sun travels. He owns and holds us
all; he is our father. When he goes high in the sky it is summer; when he is not
so high it is the rainy season. When it is summer down here it is the rainy season
up above. In the beginning the day was the summer and the night was the rainy
season. The seasons are good.
16. When the Moon ‘dies’ people call out; if they are going to die soon the spirit
of a dead relative answers them. If the spirits do not reply they will live longer.

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M.4
Warimi

M.4. A WarimVs conception (1)

1. The Moon, Abe, had a younger sister called Meneriyo, Inga Woman.
2. The Moon used to come to his sister’s hammock at night and make love to
her. Meneriyo did not know who it was that came to her and she decided to find
out.
3. She prepared a pot of black paint and during the night she painted her lover’s
face.
4. In the morning, the Moon looked in a mirror and saw that his face was covered
in paint. He tried many different ways to wash off the paint but he could not
get rid of it.
5. The paint on his face made the Moon ill and he died. His body rotted and
turned to water. Bats that live by the riverside came and ate his rotting flesh.
This gave them diarrhoea so today they hang upside down to stop their food
from running out.
6. The Sky People brought the Moon back to life by shamanism after tying his
body together with string. The dying Moon and his subsequent revival was the
beginning of the moon’s periodicity.
7. Meneriyo was by this time pregnant and very frightened. When she returned
to her father MeniKumu, Meni Shaman’s house, he was very angry with her.
8. Outside the house was a parrot (weko, Amazona sp.) sitting up on a caimo
tree. Meni Shaman told his daughter to go and feed the parrot.
9. As Meneriyo pulled the branch on which the parrot was sitting down towards
her, it sprang back and catapulted her up into the sky. There, lots of bees came
and buzzed round her head.
10. Meneriyo had a tame japu (umu, Icteridae sp.) bird. He looked into a pot of
water and saw Meneriyo\ reflection high in the sky. He flew up to join her.
11. Meneriyo sent the bird back down to the house to bring her her work-
basket containing the string she used to weave garters. She then climbed down the
string back on to the ground.
12. She set off in search of her father. She came to a fork in the path; one fork

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M.4 Warimi

was marked by blue-crowned motmot tail feathers, the other by a macaw tail
feather. She asked some people which path to take. They told her to take the
one marked by the macaw feather, but her child Warimi, from inside her belly,
told her to take the other path.
13. She arrived at a house. Inside there was a huge pot covered in white mould.
The pot was a woman, White Worm (Wasi Bomo). Meneriyo laughed at the pot
saying that it was horrible. The pot replied, ‘You come from on high, you are a
beast. Your mother went that way.’
14. She set off again and arrived at the house of Oa, Opossum. In the house
was another huge pot, this time a man. There was a hammock above the pot and
Opossum’s mother told her to sleep in it as it belonged to her son. The floor
under the hammock was covered in water so Meneriyo spread ash to make it
dry.
15. As she lay in the hammock, a huge ‘worm’, ayokeri maste(Amphisbaena)
came and lay in the hammock with her. The ropes broke and the hammock fell,
breaking the pot. The mother said, ‘Oh! My son is broken.’ Meneriyo went off
in disgust.

M.4.B Warimi'’s conception (2)

1. Little Sticky Man (Umuaka Widau) lived up in the sky. He used to catch
people to eat by letting down a line baited with brightly coloured objects. When
people picked up the objects to see what they were, they stuck fast and were
hauled into the sky. He caught lots of people in this way and ate them.
2. One day he caught Meneriyo who at this time was menstruating. He was
frightened of her in this condition so he put her on a shelf and waited. She
became pregnant by him.
3. When Little Sticky Man went out to pick coca, his mother warned Meneriyo
that unless she escaped she would be eaten too. She brought her the line that her
son used to go down to earth; on the end was a kind of seat like the ones that
Vaupes Indians use to teach their children to walk. Meneriyo got into the
seat and was lowered to the earth below.
4. Just as she came down on top of an inga tree, Little Sticky Man arrived back
in his house up above. Seeing that Meneriyo had escaped on his line, he pulled
it upwards so that Meneriyo’s thighs were jerked into the air and she fell to the
ground.

M.4.C Warimi’s conception (3)

1. Sky Anaconda (JJmtm Hino) lived in the roof of the Moon’s house.
2. He would come down to the ground, catch people and then take them up
into the roof and eat them.
3. One day he caught a woman who was menstruating. He put her aside to

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eat when her period was over but she escaped from him. She came down and
landed at Inga Mountain.

M.4.D WarimTs birth

1. After her return from the sky, Meneriyo came to the house of the Thunder
Jaguars (Buho Yaiya, Ho Yaiya) (also called Jaguar Tooth Sea) at Jaurarete on
the Vaupds river. Jauarete, meaning ‘jaguar’ (rapid), is the home of the Tariana.
2. There was only one old woman in the house — all her children were out
felling the forest to make a manioc garden. Meneriyo addressed this woman as
imekaho\ father’s sister.
3. After listening to Meneriyo's story of her adventures in the sky, the woman
told her that she must hide from her children who would otherwise eat her.
4. The woman hid Meneriyo under a basket up on a shelf, telling her that her
children were about to hold a dance and that on no account should she show
herself.
5. When the Jaguars returned, they asked their mother who had come to the
house. She told them that no one had come but they knew that she was lying
as they had seen Meneriyo through their special eyes.
6. The Jaguars started to prepare for the dance and again their mother warned
Meneriyo not to show herself.
7. As the Jaguars began to dance, Meneriyo peeped out from under the basket.
The Jaguars were her tenyua, potential husbands, and she found them very
attractive.
8. As soon as she looked, the Jaguars began to sing, ‘Meneriyo is watching us,
we’ve seen her, there’s food around.’
9. Convinced that she had been seen, Meneriyo said to the woman, ‘They’ve
seen me, I’m coming down.’ The Jaguars’ mother told her to stay where she
was, but she insisted and came down.
10. Meneriyo began to paint the legs of the Jaguars with red and black paint.
Their mother told her to paint the eldest first but instead she painted the youngest,
whom she found most attractive. The eldest Jaguar began to get angry and his
mother warned Meneriyo again that if she ignored her advice, the Jaguars would
eat her.
11. When the Jaguars were all painted, Meneriyo went out to dance with them.
Their mother told her only to dance with the eldest who was the lead dancer
but instead she danced first with the youngest and then with the others in the
dance line. Only just before dawn did she dance with the eldest Jaguar. Again
the mother warned her to dance only with him.
12. The Jaguars were dancing with hollow bamboo stamping tubes. One of the
tubes hit Meneriyo's toe and knocked off the nail. The tube ate the toe-nail and
then sucked out her soul through the hole in her toe.

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M. 4 Warimi

13. At dawn the Jaguars danced in a circle round Meneriyo. Suddenly the eldest
Jaguar killed her by biting her in the back of the neck.
14. The Jaguars took Meneriyo outside the house to singe the hairs off her body
before cooking and eating her (Variant: to roast her body under an inga tree).
They cut off her head and began to eat her.
15. The Jaguars’ mother asked them for Meneriyo's viscera to boil separately.
She took them down to the river to wash them. She opened the womb and saw
a male child. He jumped out of her hand and into the water. She told him that
the Jaguars had killed his mother. He had a tiny, feeble voice and simply said,
‘we we we we’.
16. There was a dam where Warimi, Meneriyo's child, had escaped into the
water. The Jaguar children came there to play with him. They tried to catch
him with sieves and nets but he slipped through them as if he was made of
water.
17. The Jaguars urinated on the sand near the water and butterflies came to
drink there. Warimi caught the butterflies and drew designs on their wings.
18. Meni Shaman came to visit his sister, the mother of the Jaguars. He brought
his children and they too tried to catch Warimi.
19. They dug a hole in the sand and buried their young, pre-pubertal sister in
it with her legs apart. Then they urinated on the sand on top above her heart.
When they had gone away the butterflies came to drink the urine and Warimi
came out of the water to play with them. As he stood above the girl’s vagina,
she slammed her legs shut and caught him in her legs and arms.
20. Warimi then turned into a little baby who cried and cried and refused to
stop. He only stopped crying when he had been blown over to change his soul
and when the little girl carried him.
21. They took Warimi back to Meni Shaman’s house where he grew very fast into
a boy.
22. Meni Shaman’s wife, a Jaguar woman, went one day to visit her own people
to get manioc. She took Warimi along with her. In the manioc garden he turned
himself into various species of small bird. Each time he did this, a Jaguar girl
would chase him. Suddenly he would turn himself into a grown man, make love
with her and then turn back into a child.
23. On the way back home, Warimi was in a canoe with his grandmother, Meni
Shaman’s wife. He dived into the water saying that he was going to fetch a hollow
log full of fish. Instead he came up with an anaconda full of fish which he
tipped into the canoe. His grandmother fainted with fright but Warimi revived
her with medicine taken from the anaconda. By this time Warimi was an adult
man though he still looked like a child.

M.4.E Warimi returns to the Jaguars’ house

1. Warimi’s grandfather, Meni Shaman, made lots of basketry to take to his

277
The myths

affines the Jaguars. Warimi asked to go but was told that the Jaguars would
eat him.
2. Meni Shaman told Warimi to go and see if there were fish in a trap for him to
eat while he was away. As he went to look, Meni Shaman set off, leaving him
behind. Warimi cooked the fish very quickly and after eating, he went after
Meni Shaman.
3. Warimi followed Meni Shaman as a little bird, kuri. Meni Shaman kept trying
to catch him to send him home. He warned him that if he came, the Jaguars
would eat him just as they had eaten his mother.
4. They arrived at the headwaters of a stream where there was a canoe waiting.
Meni Shaman filled the canoe up with basketry so that there was no room for
Warimi. Warimi then stacked the baskets neatly and got into the canoe.
5. As they got near to the Jaguars’ house, Meni Shaman rubbed the bitter juice
from a leaf on to his head. This is why Warimi is also called Bitter (Sue).
6. He followed his grandfather into the house. He looked like a young boy.
After greeting Meni Shaman, the Jaguars asked who was with him. ‘That’s
Bitter, my grandson.’
7. The Jaguars wanted to eat Warimi and in order to find out if he really was
bitter, one of them gouged out some flesh from his head and tasted it. ‘He really
is bitter’, said the Jaguar. Another Jaguar suggested that he might be less bitter
underneath so he dug deeper into Warimi's head. Quickly Meni Shaman squeezed
more bitter juice into Warimi's head and the Jaguars finally decided that he was
not fit to eat.
8. The Jaguars held a dance during which they began to play football with
Warimi's mother’s head. The head rolled towards him and when he saw it he
began to cry. Warimi then played football too and was very popular with the
Jaguar children.
9. Meni Shaman then returned home leaving Warimi with the Jaguars; Warimi
assured him that he wanted to stay.
10. Warimi began to ask the Jaguars how his mother died. They told him a
number of different stories about her death but Warimi did not believe them,
as he knew that it was they who had killed her.
11. Warimi slung his hammock over the cassava griddle at the back of the house.
He swung so violently in his hammock that the ropes broke and he fell on to
the griddle, breaking it. He put it all back together but kept some of the pieces
aside.
12. He then told the horoa ants to cross a big river and return with the scales of
the miriti'fruit belonging to the Miriti'Tapir (Re Weku). The ants brought the
scales; Warimi made piranha fish out of the bits of pottery and used the scales
to make their teeth.
13. Warimi made a bridge across the river and went to visit Miriti'Tapir. Miriti'
Tapir did not recognise him but told him that there was a character called Warimi
around and that if he met him he would kick him to death with his big feet.

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M.4 Warimi

14. On the pretext of extracting jiggers from Miriti'Tapir’s feet, Warimi lifted
them up and filled them with jiggers and then made them very sore by clumsily
trying to extract them again.
15. Warimi then challenged Miriti' Tapir to a race. The outcome was that Miriti'
Tapir ran headlong into the river and was eaten by the piranhas that Warimi
had put there. This was a trial run and Warimi was pleased with the results.
16. Warimi went back to the Jaguars’ house and told them to hold another
dance. During the dance they again played football with Meneriyo's head.
Warimi kicked the head high into the air so that it went across the river and
landed in the crook of a hou- tree. It became a wasps’ nest.
17. Warimi made a bridge across the river in order to get the head back. He cut
assai palm logs and bound them together with vine. The logs were anacondas
and the vines were snakes.
18. On the first day of the dance, Warimi told all the Jaguars that they were to
dance across the river on the bridge.
19. When all the Jaguars were on the bridge, at a signal from Warimi, the bindings
of the bridge came undone and all the Jaguars were thrown into the water. The
piranhas in the river ate them all up and the water turned red with blood.
20. Only one Jaguar, Steel Tapir (Kome Weku-), survived, as he already had one
foot on the opposite bank when the bridge collapsed. The piranhas ate his other
leg but he managed to scramble ashore. He is the ancestor of the white people.
21. Warimi went back to the Jaguars’ house, turned all the household possessions
into people and then bashed them to pieces with a club, carefully making it
look as if there had been a bloody fight.
22. Then he went back to Meni Shaman’s house and told him that other people
had come and killed all the Jaguars and that they should go and bury them.
Meni Shaman went back to the Jaguars’ house with Warimi and realised that it was
in fact Warimi who had killed his affines. In anger, he stuffed Warimi into a coca
mortar and pounded him to death. Then he poured out the powder and Warimi
flew off as a small parrot, butu kiri. Then 7Meni Shaman went home and mourned
Iris affines.

M.4.F Warimi obtains poison

1. Rame, a man-eating eagle, ate up many of the first people. One day he picked
up a man by his belt and carried him off to his nest to give to his children to
eat.
2. The man killed Rame’s children and then climbed down the tree from the
nest. He took the down from the fledgling eagles for use in shamanism.
3. The man then went and told Warimi about Rame and Warimi decided to kill
him. Warimi made some poison but found that it had no strength; he decided to
obtain poison from Poison Anaconda.
4. He stood on a hill and soon a big flock of Wood Ibises (Eoroa,Mycteria

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The myths
americana) came past on their way to give ants in a ceremonial exchange of food
to their umaniko, mother-in-law, RomiKumu.
5. Warimi greeted the birds, calling them hako maku-, ‘mother’s son’, but they
told him that his hako maktt- was following along behind. He greeted other
Ibises in the same way but again they told him that his hako makur was following
behind.
6. Finally one of the birds answered his greeting and Warimi asked him if he would
take him along with him. The birds made many excuses in order to dissuade
Warimi but each time he assured them that he would manage to overcome the
obstacles they told him about.
7. The Ibises put down on Warimfs body and feathers on his arms. They began
to teach him to fly. At first he could only go a short distance before crashing
to the ground. Finally he learned to fly properly and set off with the Ibises on
their journey.
8. Soon they arrived at fire-manioc garden, where flames shot high in the air and
blocked their path. Warimi made rain which put out the fire so they could go
past. This made the Ibises very pleased with him.
9. They had to pass through other obstacles, first a strong wind and then two
mountains that crashed together and threatened to kill them. Warimi overcame
both and made it safe for the others to pass.
10. They arrived at Romi Kumu's house; as they came in through the door,
Pouncing Jaguar (Taho Yai) began to kill them. He was a deadfall-trap placed in
the door of the house which fell on the Ibises. Pouncing Jaguar ate the birds as
for him they were all the different kinds of game birds.
11. With his shamanic powers, Warimi fixed the trap so that it no longer fell.
Pouncing Jaguar became angry and asked the Ibises if there was anyone with
them. They told him that they were alone. Warimi was invisible to both Pouncing
Jaguar and Romi Kumu.
12. The Ibises danced all night and in the morning they presented their mother-
in-law Romi Kumu with the packets of ants.
13. After the dance, Romi Kumu and Pouncing Jaguar kept noticing that, though
they could see no one eating it, small pieces of cassava bread kept disappearing.
Again they asked the Ibises if there was anyone with them but they denied that
there was. Finally the Ibises flew off home, leaving Warimi behind.
14. As Romi Kumu began to sweep the floor of the house after the dance, she
felt someone tugging at her pubic hair. She could see no one so she felt around
on the floor looking for him.
15. Romi Kumu had a huge crop of pubic hair; it was eho misi, fish-poison vine
(Lonchocarpus), and covered with flowers.
16. The more that Warimi tugged at her hair, the more excited Romi Kumu
became. Warimi became a green bee, berua bukm who came and drank from
the flowers on the poison vine. Then he began to make love to Romi Kumu
and went inside her body. He was looking for poison with which to kill Rame.

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M.4 Warimi

He could find no poison so he came out through her head as a poison lizard
(rima yau, Uracentren flavicepsT).
17. By this time Romi Kumu had become sexually voracious and made love to
Warimi again and again, raping him.
18. Romi Kumu’s father, Poison Anaconda, lived nearby in a stone house. Romi
Kumu took Warimi into the house with her and left him there, shutting the
stone door behind her so that he would not escape.
19. Poison Anaconda was asleep but she woke him up, saying, ‘Father, here is
someone who will be your servant and blow your fire up for you.’
20. Warimi jumped up on to the lighting post in the centre of the house. Poison
Anaconda began to look for him on the floor of the house; he wanted to eat
Warimi. He called Warimi to come and blow the fire so that he could catch him
but Warimi used his powers to blow the fire from afar, still sitting up on the post.
21. Warimi climbed to the roof of the house and drilled a hole in it. A sunbeam
came through the hole and lit up Poison Anaconda’s body; this was Warimi's
blowpipe. Poison Anaconda then went to sleep.
22. Warimi turned himself into a flea and after biting Poison Anaconda on the
back to distract him, went inside his body to look for poison. He tied a string
round Poison Anaconda’s heart and another round his gall-bladder. Poison
Anaconda cried out in pain, ‘It’s Father of the Sky, it is Warimi, she left him with
me, that stupid bundle of pubic hair.’ Warimi took poison from the gall-bladder.
23. Warimi tried to get out of Poison Anaconda’s body; he went down to his
anus but Poison Anaconda blocked it with his hand; he went up to his mouth
but Poison Anaconda clamped it shut and gritted his teeth. Then Warimi tickled
the inside of Poison Anaconda’s nose; he sneezed and Warimi escaped.
24. Warimi went out through the hole in the roof that he had made, turned into
a parrot, toi, and flew off. Then he turned into a moriche oriole (nyaho mini,
Icterus chrysocephalus)', he carried the poison round his neck, which is why this
bird has a yellow throat. As he flew above Romi Kumu's manioc garden she
threw a club at him to kill him. He dodged the club and flew on.

M.4.G Warimi makes curare poison

1. Warimi flew off to Rame mountain where he began to distil the poison he
had taken from Poison Anaconda.
2. As the poison boiled, froth rose to the surface. He flicked the froth off with
a feather and it gave rise to emoa, tiny red ants with a burning sting, and to roe,
another ant with a painful sting.
3. Then Lizard Woman (Yuo), came along and began to laugh at him, saying,
LHako maktr, mother’s son, your poison is not very strong.’ Warimi shot her with
his blowpipe.
4. As the poison boiled, fumes rose up and went into Warimi's nose and mouth.
He began to suffocate and choke, going ‘hu hu hu hu hu’, the noise of the howler

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The myths
monkey. Then he fainted. While he was unconscious all the snakes, spiders,
centipedes and other creatures that have poison came and drank from the poison
pot. Not all the snakes managed to drink before he woke so some are not
venomous.
5. Warimi put the poison in a poison pot; the spatula used to put poison on the
arrows was the scorpion, the string that tied on the cover was a poisonous
spider, the string round the top of the pot was the centipede and the cover of
the pot was a nest of poisonous wasps.
6. Warimi then made all the different kinds of blowpipe, selecting for his use the
one made from two concentric tubes of palm wood.
7. He made all the different kinds of blowpipe dart and all the different kinds of
cotton used to wind round the end. Then he put poison on the darts and set off
to kill Rame.

M.4.H Warimi kills Rame

1. Rame sat on top of Rame mountain, and from there he swooped down and
ate up all the people.
2. Warimi looked through his blowpipe and saw him sitting there. He shot one
dart but it missed. Where it landed, poison vines grew up. He shot another
dart and the same thing happened.
3. Then he shot a dart that went high in the sky, turned over and fell and pierced
the top of Rame’’s neck.
4. Rame flew all over the Pira-parana region trying to escape from Warimi but
he kept cutting off liis retreat. As he flew and as the poison began to kill him,
he sang Rome's dance-song. For each of the places he flew to, he sang a different
section of the song.
5. Finally Rame fell dead. The Tukano and Desana came and took poison from
him and took his down. This is the stuff they use for shamanism and it explains
why they have so much poison.
6. From Rame's body, the Tatuyos obtained all their ceremonial equipment. For
them Rame is called Eagle Jaguar (Ga Yai), and also Round Gourd Jaguar (Tuga
Yai). They took his wing feathers — these are the strings of yellow feathers they
wind round their He instruments. They took his bones which are their He instru¬
ments; these instruments are called the Sun’s bones, Eagle Father Bones. They
took his other bones to make the jaguar bones that they tie on their feather
head-dresses. They took his skull and made their sacred gourds, the beeswax
gourd and the tobacco gourd. They took his blood to make the red paint used to
anoint initiates. Rame's shadow was deer (nyama); from this they made the tapir-
skin screen behind which the shamans sit at He House.
7. Rome's brain was their shamans’ tobacco and his liver their beeswax. His down
was the down they use in shamanism.
8. The Letuama and Tanimuka came and obtained their shamanic substances

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from him also. They took his eyes, the quartz crystals that shamans use for
seeing. They took his down too.
M.5
He Anaconda

M.5.A He Anaconda (1)

1. He Anaconda’s grandsons had seen the He for the first time in their lives.
2. He climbed a uacu (simio, a tree with large, green pods which are bitter but
edible when roasted — unidentified sp.), picked some of the fruit and dropped
them into a fire he had lit at its base.
3. The children smelled the fruit, took them from the fire and ate them.
4. He Anaconda came down from the tree and immediately the world went dark
and a terrible thunderstorm with heavy rain came up.
5. He Anaconda lay on the ground like a huge hollow log with a wide opening
at one end.
6. The children, seeking shelter from the rain, ran into the hollow log and thus
into He Anaconda’s mouth.
7. With a noise like thunder, He Anaconda went off to the east, to the river
mouth, to He hudoa wi, to the Water Door. There the children died.
8. Later it was time to show the He to others of his grandchildren who had
grown up. He Anaconda told his son to prepare beer, coca, tobacco and yage
for the rite.
9. On the appointed day, He Anaconda arrived. As he approached, the He
sounded; the sound of the He was He Anaconda himself.
10. In the afternoon he arrived; he went round and round the outside of the
maloca.
11. Then his son blew tobacco snuff into his nose. He Anaconda lost consciousness
and then vomited up the bones of his grandchildren. They were the Sun’s bones,
the bones of the son of the Sun. He vomited the bones into an enclosure.
12. Then he told his son to light a fire and burn him on it so that there would
be more He. His son lit a fire, dragged He Anaconda round and round the
house and then out of the front door on to the plaza. There he put him on a
big fire till he burned to ashes.
13. In the place where the fire had been, tobacco, caraiuru, fish-poison, calaloo
and a paxiuba palm grew up, first tobacco and then the palm. They grew very

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fast making a ‘tu-tmtu-tu’ noise as they went upwards. When the palm reached
the sky, it stopped growing.
14. From the place where He Anaconda was burned, the people came and obtained
all kinds of magic substances used in shamanism.
15. White Toucan Woman (Rase Bomo), He Anaconda’s daughter, came and sat
on the top of the palm mourning her father. She said that because they had
killed her lather, from then on all people would avoid seeing the He as it would
be an unpleasant experience.
16. The paxiuba palm bore fruit. The Toucan began to eat the fruit and it fell
trom the tree to the world below. From these fruits, the paxiuba palms of the
world grew. The fruit of this palm makes one ill if eaten as it comes from the
palm of He Anaconda.
17. Red Squirrel came and cut the palm trunk into sections, making He instru¬
ments for all people.
18. Tapir came and took the instrument made from the very top of the palm.
With it he made a loud, deep noise, saying, ‘I shall suck in the people, the
children of the people, and kill and eat them, 1 shall be the one that does not
like people.’
19. The Howler Monkeys heard him say this and told him, ‘No, that’s not what
that instrument is for. That is for shamanism to open the He People’s doors to
make men.’
20. They told the Tapir to bring his instrument over to them so that they could
try it. The instruments that the Howler Monkeys had came from the very bottom
of the palm and made a tiny, squeaking whistle, ‘owi owi owi owi’, like that of
the tapir today.
21. They gave their instruments to the Tapir and when he gave them his, they
ran immediately up a tree so that he could not catch them.
22. They left the Tapir with their instrument; now it is they who have deep,
loud voices. They do well by making men.
23. The tapir is an animal that does not like his instrument and stamps his feet
in anger.

M.5.B He Anaconda (2)

1. Toucan landed on top of the He palm. He let fall a fruit which fell and grew
up into another palm. It grew very fast and touched the sky.
2. The toucan then cut the palm up into sections, making He instruments for
all people. The Toucan is He Father.
3. He gave the He to all people: to the Yukuna, Tanimuka, Makuna, Letuama,
Bara, Tukano, Maku, Cubeo, Baniwa, all of them.
4. The very bottom of the palm was He Bohori Yageomie, the He instrument
used at mourning and death rites. This instrument belongs to the Siriano. It
was the one that belonged to the Toucan and had death inside it.

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The myths

5. It sounds ‘pu poe he he he’ and is crying and mourning.

6. This is why today the Siriano have death He (bohori He).
7. They said, ‘That bone will become a man.’ This is why they drink the water
from the top of that palm; it is why they scrape the bones of their dead parents
and drink them in manioc beer. They are the ‘bottom end’ of the He People.
8. The instrument Fish Anaconda’s Son (Wai Hino Maku) fell into the water.
The Bara people fished around in the water for it. This is why they have the
instrument Old Water Thrower (Oko Yue Bukbt), their shaman.

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M.6
Manioc-stick Anaconda

M.6.A Manioc-stick Anaconda and Macaw

1. Manioc-stick Anaconda, also called Cross Eyes (Kahe Sawari) and Old Gourd
(Koa Buku), was the child of Yeba Hakht, the Primal Sun, precursor of the sun
and moon today. His mother was the sky.
2. Manioc-stick Anaconda was bright and shining like the sun.
3. He did not know who his parents were and this made him very sad. Yeba Haku
came and told him that he was his father. He said that though he was going to leave
the world, Manioc-stick Anaconda was to stay to bring people into being.
4. Macaw was Manioc-stick Anaconda’s younger brother. Manioc-stick Anaconda
was married to Jaguar Woman, and they had children. Macaw had no wife. He
seduced his brother’s wife and told her not to obey her husband any longer.
5. Macaw decided to kill Manioc-stick Anaconda. He turned himself into a
tapir and ate the crops in their manioc garden. Then, turning back into a man,
he suggested to his brother that they went to catch the tapir in a pitfall trap.
6. As they cut stakes to line the bottom of the pit, Macaw tried to stab Manioc-
stick Anaconda but Manioc-stick Anaconda outwitted him.
7. They dug the trap and when it was deep, Macaw told his brother to jump in
to finish the digging. Manioc-stick Anaconda jumped in and fell through the
bottom down to the Underworld below. He landed on an inga tree by the side
of the Underworld River.
8. As he sat by the river, the Moon came by. ''Hako makttr, mother’s son’, called
Manioc-stick Anaconda but the Moon replied that his mother’s son was following
on behind.
9. Then Morning Star, Morning Venus, came past. Manioc-stick Anaconda called
out to him too but he went by without answering; he was going up into the sky
to shine in the morning.
10. Then a striped water snake (ria neri) came past. Manioc-stick Anaconda
greeted him as ‘Hako maku-, mother’s son’, but he too went by without answering.
11. Then the giant otter and small otter, the Sun’s canoe paddlers, came down
to the river on their way to fetch the Sun to take him up to the headwaters of

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The myths
the Underworld River. ‘Take me with you, mother’s son’, called Manioc-stick
Anaconda. The otters replied that his mother’s son would be following behind.
12. Then Sun Grebe came by catching spiders and grasshoppers to use as bait.
‘Mother’s son’,called Manioc-stick Anaconda. ‘Yes, who is it?’ replied Sun Grebe.
Manioc-stick Anaconda asked him to take him in his canoe and the grebe agreed
on condition that he did not fart at all. Manioc-stick Anaconda agreed and got
in. After a short distance he could contain himself no more and let out a tiny
little fart. Immediately Sun Grebe’s canoe split asunder throwing Manioc-stick
Anaconda into the water. He became a spider and bounced along the water
to a tree stump. Sun Grebe flew off upriver.
13. Manioc-stick Anaconda sat by the river and after a time the Sun approached
in his canoe. His heat spread out in front and threatened to burn Manioc-stick
Anaconda to death. Manioc-stick Anaconda cooled him down with his shamanic
power.
14. ‘Mother’s son?’ called out Manioc-stick Anaconda. ‘Yes’, replied the Sun,
‘what do you want?’ Manioc-stick Anaconda asked the Sun to take him with
him in his canoe. The Sun told him that it would be too hot but Manioc-stick
Anaconda argued that because he was the Sun’s mother’s son, he would be
all right. The Sun agreed and they set off upstream together.
15. At midday (in the Underworld, midnight on this earth), the Sun told Manioc-
stick Anaconda to dive down under the water and to bring up a hollow log full
of fish. Manioc-stick Anaconda dived down but all he could find was a huge
anaconda. He came up and told the Sun that there was no log there. The Sun
told him to try again. The same thing happened. Then the Sun, not believing
Manioc-stick Anaconda, dived down himself.
16. While the Sun was under the water, the Sun’s canoe paddlers, Fire Callicebus
Monkey (Hea Wau) and Fire Howler Monkey (Hea Ugu), Red Squirrel, Giant
Otter and Small Otter, told Manioc-stick Anaconda to take snuff from the Sun’s
bag as the Sun would try to burn him to death.
17. The Sun blocked up the mouth and anus of the anaconda log and then tipped
it out into the canoe. As many fish as have names in the Barasana language came
out from that log. The large fish, the Sun’s fish, Underworld River fish, disease
fish, evil shamanism fish, came out of this log. They must be carefully blown
before they are eaten.
18. They went on upstream to an otter’s feeding place on the bank of the river.
The Sun told Manioc-stick Anaconda to gut the fish but he refused. The Sun’s
paddlers did so instead. The Sun sent Manioc-stick Anaconda off to fetch his
cooking pot. Manioc-stick Anaconda went off but all he could see was a fer-de-
lance snake lying coiled up. He went back and told the Sun. The Sun sent him
to try again. The same thing happened. The third time the Sun went off and
brought back the snake, his cooking pot. He put the fish in the pot and put it
on to boil.
19. Manioc-stick Anaconda refused to eat the fish. When urged on by the Sun he

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M. 6 Manioc-stick Anaconda

pretended to eat but let the fish drop from his mouth. He knew the fish were
harmful, they were anaconda-body fish (see 17 above). They set off upriver
again.
20. The Sun was not happy with Manioc-stick Anaconda as he doubted that he
was really his mother’s son. He said to Manioc-stick Anaconda, ‘It’s no good,
we cannot approach one another closely. Are you really my mother’s son?’
Manioc-stick Anaconda assured him that he was. The Sun then told him that if
he was his mother’s son he would live but that otherwise he would be burned
alive.
21. The Sun tipped out some snuff, put it in his mouth and then blew it out in
a cloud of fire. Manioc-stick Anaconda became a spider, jumped over the side
of the canoe and then got back in when the heat had passed. The Sun tried again
and the same thing happened. Each time he blew out the snuff, the Sun called
out, ‘Mother’s son?’ and Manioc-stick Anaconda answered, ‘Yes’, in a confident
voice.
22. After two tries, the Sun told Manioc-stick Anaconda to try burning him.
Secretly, Manioc-stick Anaconda put the snuff he had taken from the Sun into
his mouth and then blew it out in a cloud of fire. The Sun’s feather crown caught
on fire and the heat was so intense that the Sun cried out, ‘Stop, stop.’
23. Then the Sun said to him, ‘You really are my mother’s son. I care for you
very much. You are a man. Your brother thought that he would get rid of you
but you will not disappear, you will not die.’
24. They went on upstream till they arrived at the Sun’s landing place, a big log
sloping into the water. The Sun told Manioc-stick Anaconda that there were
lots of fire ants (emoa) around and that he should shut his eyes to avoid
being stung. As Manioc-stick Anaconda shut his eyes, the Sun rose up into the
sky and left him. Manioc-stick Anaconda tried to hit the Sun with his club but
missed. He used his club to vault upwards but only got as far as the Ka People’s
layer, the home of the maniuara termites (meka).
25. Manioc-stick Anaconda arrived at a place looking like an abandoned manioc
garden. He saw Tapir there collecting cecropia leaves to make ash to mix with
coca. Manioc-stick Anaconda called out, ‘Nikit, grandfather’, to him. Tapir told
Manioc-stick Anaconda that he was going to the Ka People’s house where he
was to be the shaman at a dance.
26. Manioc-stick Anaconda asked Tapir if he would take him with him but he
replied that there was a large river that Manioc-stick Anaconda would be unable
to cross.
27. Manioc-stick Anaconda told him that he would become his tick and lodge
behind his ear. Tapir agreed and they set off together. When they came to the
river, Tapir told him that when he was out of breath he was to bite him hard
and he would come up to the surface to breathe.
28. Tapir set off across the river, walking along the bottom. After he had gone
a quarter of the way across he came up for air. He set off again and came up when

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The myths

he was half-way across. Then he came up three-quarters of the way across and
the next time he came up they were on the other bank.
29. Each time that Tapir came up for air, he recited a piece of shamanic chanting
to Manioc-stick Anaconda. The chanting is that used at the birth of babies and
for blowing spells into the mother’s milk.
30. On the other bank, Tapir shook himself violently and Manioc-stick Anaconda
fell to the ground. Tapir told him to take a path in the distance and that a fork
in the path he would find Path Fork Dancer (Ma Hido Bay a), a kind of lizard
also called sebero (Plica plica). Tapir set off leaving Manioc-stick Anaconda
behind.
31. Manioc-stick Anaconda went along the path indicated and found Path Fork
Dancer. He split a stump of wood down the middle and jammed Path Fork
Dancer into the fork by his neck so that he was trapped. Manioc-stick Anaconda
then set off again for the house.
32. When he got to the house, the termites asked Manioc-stick Anaconda if he
had seen Path Fork Dancer, who was coming to be the lead dancer at their
dance. Manioc-stick Anaconda told them that he had seen him back along the
path. Eater on Manioc-stick Anaconda slipped out of the house and went back
and released Path Fork Dancer. Then he came back.
33. Soon after, Path Fork Dancer arrived in the house with a sore, flabby neck
(the sebero lizard has a red, erectile pouch under its neck). After greeting the
termites, Path Fork Dancer got very angry, saying that there was an imposter
in the house who had treated him very badly. The termites reassured him and
he began to lead them in dancing.
34. Tapir sat on a stool doing the protective shamanism for the termites who
would leave the house in the morning.
35. Tapir’s wife, asleep in her hammock, suddenly let out an enormous fart.
Manioc-stick Anaconda was sitting next to Ant Bird (Meka Mini, Formicaridae),
who said to him, ‘Mother’s son, did you hear that? Off you go and make love
to her.’ Manioc-stick Anaconda declined so Ant Bird went instead.
36. When he had finished, Tapir’s wife said ‘Tapir, have you been stirring my
pepper pot? It’s all wet.’ Tapir denied that it was him and went over to see if
what she said was true. He became very angry.
37. Fighting a taper, he went round each of the termites in turn, making them
pull back their foreskins to see if there was sperm underneath. Termites must
have spells blown on them before they are eaten otherwise they make one waste
away and die. They are shamanised for the initiates to stop them from vomiting.
This is related to this incident.
38. Ant Bird began to panic but Manioc-stick Anaconda told him to put white
ash from the fire on his penis. When Tapir inspected him, the ash dropped on
to the floor and Tapir was satisfied. He said to his wife, ‘None of my grand¬
children did it, you must have done it yourself.’

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M. 6 Manioc-stick Anaconda

39. The termites danced all night and at dawn they crowded round the door of
the house ready to leave. Tapir told the worker termites to go and see if the
way was clear. They went out and immediately a jaguar (a termite-eating bird)
ate them. This made the other termites very frightened.
40. Manioc-stick Anaconda wanted to urinate badly so Ant Bird led him out
through a hole in the wall at the side of the house.
41. Manioc-stick Anaconda found himself on the termite hill near his house
where he used to come to get termites. He heard the sound of the He instruments
played by his children. They had been initiated by Macaw and were coming to
collect termites, their diet after initiation.
42. Manioc-stick Anaconda became a katydid (diro) and clung to a tree. His
daughter followed his footprints and found him there. He told her that he was
still alive though his brother had tried to kill him.
43. He told his children to make two termite traps, one in the east and another
in the west. Then he blew spells on the termites to make them safe to eat. He
told his children that the termites had been drinking yag^ all night and that if
they ate them without being blown they would he harmed by the drug.
44. They set off back home. Before they got there, Manioc-stick Anaconda
told his daughter to go on ahead and make a compartment just inside the men’s
door using a fish trap. She was to sling his hammock there. He told his children
not to tell their mother or uncle that he was alive and then slipped into the
compartment unnoticed.
45. As they ate the termites, one of them bit the daughter’s finger, making it
bleed. The blood fell on to her mother who began to beat her. For protection
she revealed the presence of her father in the compartment. The mother was
pregnant by Macaw and became very ashamed and subdued.
46. Macaw told his brother that he had initiated the children and suggested that
he and his brother went to get a young macaw to teach the initiates how to
make feather head-dresses.
47. They set off together for Macaw Mountain, where the macaws were nesting.
They made a scaffold to reach the nest and Macaw told his brother to go up and
bring down the macaws. By magic, Macaw turned himself into an anaconda
inside the hollow where the macaws were nesting. He was going to kill Manioc-
stick Anaconda. Manioc-stick Anaconda turned the anaconda back into a macaw.
Then Macaw took away the scaffold, leaving Manioc-stick Anaconda stranded.
48. Manioc-stick Anaconda took the young macaws and rubbed them all over
with yellow ochre to make their feathers grow yellow.
49. He called the snake badi re guhia (Oxybellis) to stretch across from a nearby
tree but he was too short and fell down. Manioc-stick Anaconda called other
kinds of snakes all of which were too short and fell down. The snakes draped
over the tree and became lianas.
50. Then Manioc-stick Anaconda called the snake wakuako {Clelia clelia clelial).

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The myths

He stretched high into the air and toppled over on to the place where Manioc-
stick Anaconda sat. He pulled himself taut and Manioc-stick Anaconda slid
down his body. As he slid, the snake’s body resounded ‘ma’toooooor’.
51. Manioc-stick Anaconda returned to the house, much to the displeasure of
his brother Macaw then suggested that they should go and trap fish for the
initiates to eat.
52. At the river, they put the traps in position. Macaw then told Manioc-stick
Anaconda to dive down to check that there were no gaps under the traps. While
Manioc-stick Anaconda was under the water, Macaw opened the doors to the
world below, hoping that Manioc-stick Anaconda would go through and be
drowned. He failed, so he sent him down again but with no success. Then
Manioc-stick Anaconda sent Macaw down — he was testing him to see how strong
were his shamanic powers. By now he had begun to plot to kill his brother.
Manioc-stick Anaconda opened the doors to the world below and Macaw went
through. He did not come back, but finally Manioc-stick Anaconda went down and
saved him. Macaw came up again as a small otter with red eyes who panted,
‘kara kara kara’. Lots of fish went into the traps and the next day they went
and took them out to smoke them.
53. In the dry season, when the rivers are very low, Macaw suggested that they
went to poison fish. They went first to collect the poison vines. Manioc-stick
Anaconda went to the Sun and got vines from him. His bundle of vines was
small, whilst that obtained from the manioc garden by Macaw was large. Macaw
laughed at him for having such a small bundle.
54. They rinsed the vines in the water and lots of fish died. At midday, Manioc-
stick Anaconda called his wife to come and cook fish for him. Macaw told her
not to go and told Manioc-stick Anaconda to cook the fish for himself. This
happened twice and then Manioc-stick Anaconda got really angry. He decided
to kill his brother and wife but to try and save his children.
55. He told his children to go and collect leaves to cook the fish in. He told
them to get the leaves from a long way away but they refused to listen and re¬
mained nearby.
56. Then Manioc-stick Anaconda once more tried to persuade his wife to cook
fish for him. Macaw told him that he could cook for himself and that his wife
would not come.
57. Manioc-stick Anaconda became furious. He put the snuff he had obtained
from the Sun into his mouth and then blew it out in a cloud of fire. Everything
burned up like a burning manioc garden. Macaw and Manioc-stick Anaconda’s
wife flew up into the air as macaws. Macaw cried out, ‘agu-gagu-agu-gagmagu-
gagu-’ (the cry of the macaw but also translatable as ‘ow, elder brother, ow,
elder brother ...’).
58. Manioc-stick Anaconda went up into the sky and cut off their retreat. He
burned them again. They began to come down and he cut off their retreat to

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M. 6 Manioc-stick Anaconda

the world below. Then they fell, dying. They cried, ‘aa aa aa aa aa aa’, fell into
the river and sunk under the water.
59. Manioc-stick Anaconda’s children were burned up too. As they burned they
cried out, ‘hea soekoa, hea soekoa, the fire has burned’, and turned into birds
called Hea buekoa. Manioc-stick Anaconda said to them, ‘You will not disappear.
You will become the birds that keep the food mothers (women) company as
they work in the manioc garden. You will make them happy as they work.’ They
went off to the tree people’s layer.
60. Manioc-stick Anaconda went to the river and felt around under the water;
lying there were He flutes, the ones called Old Macaw (Maha Baku). The longer
flute was Macaw and the shorter one was Manioc-stick Anaconda’s wife.
61. Manioc-stick Anaconda was very sad and began to mourn his wife and
brother. He said, ‘You will not disappear. You will be He. You will be shown
to each generation of children and adopt them as your own.’
62. Then Manioc-stick Anaconda went to Jaguar Path House and married Jaguar
Woman. She bore him a son called Yeba. The story of Yeba is another ‘line’
(story), it is more alive and more living (see M.7 below).
63. Then Manioc-stick Anaconda went to the east. His bones became the He
instruments. They became Dance Anaconda {Basa Hino), Manioc-squeezing
Woman (Buhe Romio), Old Callicebus Monkey (Wau Baku) and Kana Flower
(Kana Goro).
64. The top of his skull became the tobacco gourd and the bottom became the
beeswax gourd. His liver and tongue became beeswax; his heart became a snuff
gourd and his brain became tobacco snuff. His eyes became kahe makuri, small
pieces of polished brass worn on sticks over the ears. His penis became the
ceremonial cigar and his testicles became little gourds of snuff and red paint
kept in the feather box and used at initiation. His elbow became the elbow
ornament (rika sariayasi) and his ribs became the sacred shell belt called hino
wamka, anaconda ribs.

M.6.B Manioc-stick Anaconda burns himself

1. Manioc-stick Anaconda was angry with himself. He put snuff in his mouth
and then took it out and put it in a little heap on the ground. It began to burn
and a spark landed on his neck.
2. Manioc-stick Anaconda burned and everything round him caught fire. The
whole land was white from the ash of the fire.
3. His soul left his body and became another man, also Manioc-stick Anaconda.
He was a man like us.
4. Manioc-stick Anaconda’s shadow lay on the ground burned to ash. From the
charcoal on the ground grew up manioc, all the manioc there is today.
5. From his liver grew up green calaloo (au sumerikur, Phytolacca sp.)

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and from his lungs grew red calaloo (au suarikhe, Phytolacca sp.); it is red from
the colour of his blood.
6. Kuma au, an edible fungus, grew up on the charred logs, Manioc-stick Ana¬
conda’s bones. Then wahe riti and wahe riti abase, other edible fungi, grew there.
7. Wati Kome, an edible bracket fungus, grew up from his skin.
8. Then mute au, an edible fungus, and another inedible one grew up.
9. The taga, an edible fungus, grew up from his body-fat. The osoa, another
fungus, also called ehaga, grew up from the lining of his stomach and guts.
10. From his bile grew a poisonous fungus looking like wahe riti. Worms came
and ate his rotting liver; these are the insects that eat holes in calaloo leaves.
11. From his bile grew nimi hu and wai rima, two cultivated fish poisons. Taro
buku-rima, another fish poison looking somewhat like a pineapple plant, also
grew from his bile.
12. Because of the fire and burning, if we eat fish caught with cultivated fish
poison but not first made safe with spells, our bodies become hot and our
fingernails rot.
13. All the plants came from the liquid parts of Manioc-stick Anaconda’s body.
The myth underlies the spells blown on calaloo to make it safe for the initiates
to eat. If not treated in this way, it causes violent stomach pains.
14. The order in which the plants grew from Manioc-stick Anaconda’s burned
body is the same as that in which they grow after the vegetation has been
burned off a new manioc garden.
15. The myth underlies the spells used to cool down a manioc garden after it
has been burned. The shamans blow spells on beeswax which they then take
to the garden.

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M.7
Yeba

M.7. A Yeba's birth and early childhood

1. Yeba was the first man. His mother was Jaguar Woman, and his father was
Yeba Hakur, the Sun, the Primal Sun.
2. The Sun told his wife to cook food for him but she refused to do so.
3. Yeba's mother could not, or would not, suckle him. He lived off white
water, stone water, the origin of milk. His mother would not tell him who his
father was. He asked the animals but they could not talk.
4. Finally the Sun came and told Yeba that he was his father. The Sun created
Yeba in a gourd of beeswax which was the world itself. The Sun went in circles
round the earth so that Yeba knew that he was there.
5. Yeba grew up fast and when he was a boy Romi Kumu took him away and
initiated him. She had a big gourd of beeswax which she was able to take on
and off like clothing.
6. Yeba began to look for a wife. The animals were his people and he made
tongues for them so that they could speak. When they could talk he asked them
where he could find a wife. They offered him one of their women but he refused,
saying that he was a man not an animal.
7. Yeba made people by blowing on earth or clay. These were the Maku. He
asked them where he could find a wife. They offered him one of their women
but again he refused, saying that he was a true man not a Maku.

M.7.B Yeba meets Yawira

1. Yeba went out hunting with a blowpipe. He came to an ucucf(Pouteria
ucuqui) tree with lots of empty fruit shells lying underneath — clearly the
remains of someone’s meal.
2. Blue Morpho Butterfly (Emu) was sitting on one of the fruit shells, licking
it. Yeba said to him, ‘Niku-, grandfather, where are the women?’ The butterfly
replied that he didn’t know. Yeba squashed him under the end of his blowpipe

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and asked again. Morpho told him that there were Fish Women around who
had been eating the fruit.
3. Yeba climbed up the ucucftree and hung down from a branch as a double,
testicle-shaped fruit. The Fish Women came back but were very frightened as
they could smell Yeba. Yeba dropped to the ground among them.
4. One of the women, Yawira, picked up the fruit to eat it. Immediately Yeba
grabbed her with a length of thorny, creeping palm.
5. Yawira thrashed around trying to escape. She was a big anaconda and lots of
fishes came into being from her body.
6. Yeba took Yawira back to his house at Manao Lake. She lay under his hammock
and as Yeba felt with his hands he could feel a huge anaconda. He could not
make love to her as his penis was in the wrong place, up on his belly like that of
a jaguar.
7. Yawira changed her skin and became human. She sloughed off one skin and
became a boa constrictor, then she sloughed off another and became a woman.
8. Yawira would only eat the winged form of the termites called bukoa.
9. Yeba went fishing to catch something for them to eat. He brought back
Jacunda (Muhabuhua, Crenichichla sp.). Yawira protested saying, ‘That’s my
father’s penis.’ He brought Wena and again Yawira protested, saying that they
were her younger brothers. He brought back Rasowai and she said that they were
her grandparents; he brought Acara (Wani, Cichlid sp.) and she said ‘They are
my cousins’, and of Sarapo (rike, Gimmotidae) she said, ‘That’s my father’s
cigar.’ She refused to eat any of them.

M.7.C Yawira brings cultivated crops

1. Yeba told Yawira to go and bring his ‘manioc’, a fruit called ibisa, from his
garden, the forest. She went off but came back soon after saying that ibisa was
not manioc and that Yeba was an ignorant beast. He sent her to another garden
to bring bananas. She went and came back saying that wild bananas {Yeba oho;
Heliconia bihai) were not bananas at all and she refused to eat any.
2. As Yawira sat in the doorway of the house weaving garters, some rubber fruit
{bid, Hevea sp.) that Small Black Squirrel {Kahebua, Wahuha he rika) had hung
above the door, dehisced explosively so that the nuts inside landed on Yawira's
lap. She called Yeba over and told him that the nuts were food.
3. Yeba told Squirrel to go and get rubber fruit with Yawira. They set off together
and as Squirrel threw down the fruit from the tree, Yawira told him to wait at
the tree while she went to visit her father Fish Anaconda {Wai Hino).
4. She went to the river and went under the water to her father’s house, taking
rubber truit with her. Squirrel, thinking that she was drowning, ran into the
water to save her.
5. When she got to the house, Yawira told her father her news about how Yeba
had captured her and married her and how he was very uncivilised.

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6. After a while they heard a rustling in the roofing leaves — it was Squirrel
looking for Yawira under the water. They brought him into the house wet and
cold and Fish Anaconda blew spells on him to bring him back to life. Yawira
said to Squirrel, ‘Niku-, grandfather, I told you to wait at the tree.’
7. Fish Anaconda gave his daughter all the different kinds of cultivated crops
for her to take back to Yeba. He blew spells on them so that Yeba, eating new
food for the first time, would not be harmed.
8. Yawira went back to Yeba's house and gave him the crops, telling him that
in fact it was he who was uncivilised and who knew nothing.

M.7.D Yawira creates coca

1. Yawira told Yeba that she was going to make him something good to eat but
that he should not care too much about his younger brother Nyake.
2. She told Yeba to go and make a proper garden by felling the forest and
burning the trees. Then she asked Nyake to help her carry manioc sticks there
to plant. In the garden she made love to him so violently that he died. He
lay spread-eagled and his body became the rows of coca bushes in the garden.
The coca was nyake coca, a variety that belongs to the Barasana.
3. Yawira was pregnant by Nyake and had a son from whom the Nyake
Hino Ria, a Barasana sib, are descended. She cut off the baby’s umbilical cord
and planted it in the ground and from it a gourd vine sprang up. From the
gourds, the Koamona, another Barasana sib, are descended.
4. Yeba could only make love to Yawira with his finger as his penis was in the
wrong place. From doing this, the Barasana sib Roe Masa and Yeba Masa came
into being.

M.7.E Yawira plants manioc

1. Yawira called her younger sisters to help her plant manioc. Meneriyo was
mene-mkur and Hatio was hatio-rukte, varieties of manioc, Wakuo was wakubu-
(Cecropia), a garden weed, and Widio was all the other weeds. Yawira told
Yeba not to watch them as they planted the garden. They went off and their
chatter became the birdsong that accompanies women’s work today.
2. As they worked, Yeba lifted a section of the roof of the house and peeped
out at them. Immediately the women started running around and in the con¬
fusion, Wakuo and Widio, who had been told to stay at the edge of the garden,
ran into the middle so that today weeds grow amongst the manioc plants.

M.7.F Yawira changes Yeba's penis

1. When the manioc had grown, Yawira called her sisters to help her process it.
As they did so, they began to tease Yawira about the way that Yeba made
love to her. She decided to alter the situation.

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2. She cooked some tapioca flour in the fire to make a heavy, sticky lump.
Yeba was sitting in the doorway weaving a basket to give to his mother-in-law.
She gave him some toasted manioc starch to drink and then came up behind
him and hit him on the back of the neck with the lump of tapioca flour.
His penis dropped down to the place where it is on men today, leaving a scar
on his belly, the umbilicus.
3. Yawira then made love to Yeba to try out his penis. At first it hurt Yeba
very much but Yawira pared down the end making the glans. Then she tried
again and Yeba liked it.

M.7.G The origin of tobacco

1. Yeba and Yawira went off together to visit Fish Anaconda. Fish Anaconda
was very angry with Yeba for marrying his daughter without first asking his
consent. He ordered Yeba to bring him meat and tree-fruit at a dance. He told
him that if he failed to bring the food he would eat him. Yeba went off to get
the food.
2. Fish Anaconda gave Yawira tobacco to give to Yeba', the tobacco was in
the form of a cigar looking like the sarapo fish. He told Yawira to tell her
husband not to eat the cigar.
3. She took the cigar to Yeba and told him not to eat it. Yeba said that it was
clearly a fish and ate it. His belly swelled up and he had violent diarrhoea. He
went out of the house and defecated violently; from his faeces grew tobacco
plants.

M.7.H Yeba gives meat to Fish Anaconda

1. Yeba went out and shot lots of animals and birds with his blowpipe. He killed
guans, and Uacari Monkeys (Rutrn), his own people. Then he took the meat to
Fish Anaconda and gave it to him at a dance.
2. As Yeba handed the meat over, Fish Anaconda cast off his skin and became a
man. His shed skin became the tipiti (manioc-squeezing tube). He lunged forwards
and grabbed the meat from Yeba, making him very frightened. Yawira reassured
her husband, saying that this was how anacondas normally behave.

M.7.I Yeba gives fruit to Fish Anaconda

1. Yeba told all his people, the animals, to go and collect tree-fruit for him. The
Monkeys were the people who carried the fruit.
2. Yeba ordered Spider to make painted bark-cloth aprons for the dance. Spider
went and brought back a tiny bundle of aprons and gave it to Yeba. Yeba was
angry with him, telling him that he had not made nearly enough. He undid the
bundle and more aprons than he could possibly use flew out in all directions.

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Yeba, in anger, had hit Spider in the teeth. Spider now became angry with
Yeba and cursed the aprons and other ritual ornaments, saying that from hence¬
forth they would be death possessions.
3. All the animals began to assemble for the dance. The Peccaries carried all
the fruit, blowing the trumpets as they went. The sound of the trumpets is their
grunting. The Woodpeckers carried the box of feathers which is why today
they have white patches on their backs. The Woolly Monkeys were the elbow
ornaments used at the dance. The shaman was Callicebus Monkey, and Jaguar
and the Otters were also shamans. Sloth (Kerea) was the bundles of animal
fur worn on the back (umaria yasi) and Agouti (Bu) was the women making
for the dance.
4. Red Squirrel (Timoka) sat secretly chewing on a tucum palm nut. He was
carving designs on the nut to make part of the special elbow ornament that the
Barasana use at initiation. The other animals asked him what he was doing and
he told them that he was chewing his tail. All the animals began to copy him
which is why today some animals have no tails.
5. All the birds began to paint themselves for the dance which is why today they
are all different colours. Blue Crowned Motmot was one of the feather crowns.
Musician Wren was one of the long flutes and Cotinga was another. Macaw was
their dancer and he was the feather head-dresses. Egret (Yehe) was also part
of the feather head-dresses.
6. All the birds began to chant; the sound of their chanting is the sound of the
He flutes.
7. Yeba gave Fish Anaconda the fruit and then began to dance. He did not know
how to dance but Yawira and her sister Nacuo danced with him and taught him.
He sang rubber-fruit dance, the dance that the Barasana and Bara sing after
Fruit House rites.
8. After the dance. Yeba's brothers-in-law (tenyua) wanted to kill him in revenge
for his having killed and eaten fish, their people. Yeba and most of the animals
left the house in a hurry, but a few of the animals were left behind, which is why
some animals, like capybara, now live in the water.

M.7.J Yeba and Tapir

1. During a dance, Fish Anaconda gave Yeba and Tapir some Umari fruit (Wamu).
The fruits were people, women.
2. Both Yeba and Tapir planted their fruit; from Tapir’s fruit grew a huge umari
tree with lots of fruit but from Yeba's fruit grew a tiny tree with no fruit at
all. Yeba decided to get umari fruit from Tapir.
3. Tapir was very jealous of his umari fruit. Yeba asked Tapir to come to a dance
where Tapir would present Yeba with fruit. Tapir asked what kind of beer
would be served and on hearing that it would be made from rutu (Xanthosoma),
he refused. Yeba asked him again, this time offering beer made from arrowroot

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The myths
(,ngalia), but again Tapir refused, as he did when offered beer made of yam
(nyamo). Only when offered beer made from coca yam (kaho) did he agree
to come.
4. Tapir came to the dance bringing lots of rotten little fruit. Yeba decided
to steal the umari fruit from Tapir instead.
5. With the aid of Red Squirrel and Small Agouti (Boso) Yeba finally obtained
the fruit. Tapir tried to kill Small Agouti but failed.

M.7.K Yawira seduced by Opossum

1. During a dance, Opossum (Oa) and Tinamou Chief (Ngaha Uhu) were dancing
in the dance line. While Yawira danced with Tinamou Chief, he made a tryst with
her but Opossum overheard their plans.
2. After the dance, Yawira went along the path from the house till she came to
a fork. Tinamou Chief had told her to take the path, marked by the tail feather
of a japu bird, which led to his house and he warned her not to take the path
marked by the tail feather of a blue macaw. Opossum had however switched
round the feathers so that Yawira took the wrong path.
3. She arrived at the house and Opossum’s grandmother told her that she should
go and lie in her grandson’s hammock. As she approached the hammock, clouds
of flies flew off it; Opossum stank and all his possessions stank too.
4. Yawira did not like living with Opossum so she resolved to escape. Opossum
had told her not to look up- or downstream while she was bathing at the river.
The next time she bathed she looked downstream and saw the handsome Tinamou
Chief, bathing at his port. She swam down to join him.
5. At first Tinamou Chief would not accept her, as she stank so much after having
slept with Opossum.
6. Later on Opossum came down to Tinamou Chiefs house looking for Yawira.
Yawira hid and Tinamou Chief denied that she had been with him. Opossum had
told his grandmother that if he should ever be killed it would immediately start
to rain.
7. After a quarrel, Tinamou Chief did kill Opossum and immediately it started
to rain heavily (a rain of blood according to a Tatuyo informant).
8. Tinamou Eagle (Ngaha Ga) saw the rain and began to mourn Opossum, saying
iyUrhako makbeoa oa oa oa oa’ (‘My mother’s son, oa oa oa oa oa’ — this bird
cries ‘oa oa oa oa oa oa’ on a descending scale).
9. In revenge, Tinamou Eagle killed Tinamou Chief and from his bones the Cubeo
obtained their He instruments.

M.7.L Yawira seduced by the Vulture

1. After having been seduced by Opossum and Tinamou Chief, Yawira then ran off

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M. 7
with Vulture Chief ( Yuka Bokit, Sarcohamphus papa) and went and lived with
him in the sky.
2. Yeba followed her to the Vultures’ house and after a series of adventures he
waged war on the Vultures and killed all except Vulture Chief.
3. He set off with Yawira once more and on a path they came upon Irara (Wasobr
Wehero, Tayra barbara) sitting in a tree drinking honey. Yeba went up to join
him and Yawira, still down on the ground, implored Yeba to let her come and
drink honey too.
4. Finally Yeba allowed her to come up and drink but warned her to drink
very carefully and slowly. She came up and began to gulp the honey down in
big mouthfuls, making Yeba very angry. He pushed her head down into the
honey so that she gasped for breath and drowned. As she died she cried, ‘eo
eo eo eo’.
5. Yawira became the cunauaru frog (ehoka, Phyllomedusa bicolor). Yeba told
her that she would not disappear and that instead she would become He mother,
the mother of feathers and dance ornaments. (The cunauaru frog lives inside
water-filled hollow trees. There are very often bird feathers floating in the water
and the Barasana use the juices of this frog for tapirage, a process whereby tame
birds’ feathers are plucked out and the new ones made to turn yellow. The
yellow feathers are used in head-dresses. The frog also makes brood cells using
the collected resin of Protium heptaphyllum — von Ihering 1968 : 267.)

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M.8
The Thunders and Jurupan1

1. Before the earth existed, a young virgin girl lived alone in empty space; her
name was Coadidop, grandmother of the days.
2. She made a cigar holder from her left and right legs. She made tobacco from
her body, squeezed milk into it from her breasts and put it in the holder. She
smoked the cigar and took coca.
3. The smoke produced thunder and a thunderbolt and a figure of a man came
and then went. She smoked again and the same thing happened. The third time
she smoked, the smoke became a human body. She said, ‘You are the son of
Thunder, you are Thunder; you are my grandson. You will have all powers and
do what you want in the world.’ The Thunder was called Enu.
4. She said, ‘I made you as a man; you can do what you want, all things, both
good and bad. I am a woman; I order you to make companions for yourself
to live well. I will make my own companions too.’
5. The Thunder made a man from cigar smoke. He said to the man, ‘You are my
brother, my son; we are brothers and have the same name: Thunder, son of
Thunder, emerged from the blood of Thunder’. He blew tobacco smoke again;
the smoke made thunder and lightning which went up and down. He made more
smoke; the third time, a third man appeared.
6. The first Thunder said, ‘You are my brothers, the blood of my blood, you
come from my being. The second Thunder will be the Thunder which guides
the day, son of the days, Enu Koana. The third Thunder will be Enu Pokurano,
and the fourth, the Thunder which does not give rise to hunger.’
7. The Thunders said to the Virgin, ‘Our mother, our mother, our aunt, our
blood, we will do whatever you want.’ The Virgin replied, ‘You are men, I cannot
remain with you; now I will create women, I must have women by my side.’
8. The Virgin made a woman in the same way as she made Thunder. ‘Your name
will be Caiqaro.’ Then she made another woman, Paramano. Now there were
four Thunders and the three women. The Thunders lived on tobacco and
coca. They all lived in a stone house in the sky.

1 Tariana; abridged and adapted from Biocca 1965 : 269-81.

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M.8 The Thunders and Jurupan
9. The time came for the maidens to become ill (first menstruation). The Virgin
remained alone to show them what they should do. The Thunders did not under¬
stand: they wondered what to do to make the women well again. The youngest
Thunder said, ‘You, my elder brothers, are so old you don’t know what to
think. In the same way as she created us, she will teach us the things to do.’ He
went to the Virgin and said ‘What should we do with you?’ She replied, ‘You,
my grandson, are the last one; the last of each generation will be the wisest and
most able. Your elder brothers could not even think.’
10. She taught them to make an enclosure (pan) painted with urucu and charcoal.
‘With this enclosure you will enclose me.’ She taught songs, prayers, everything.
She said, ‘I’ve got an enclosure, I’ve got tobacco, I’ve got genipapo for painting,
I’ve got caraiuru.’ She made all these things with milk squeezed from her breasts.
‘I have told you all this as you are the cleverest and most able. Go and teach
your brothers these things’, she said.
11. He enclosed and isolated the Virgin in the enclosure to blow on her and
exorcise her. The four Thunders took the bark of a tree (paiuma — they use
this scraped bark to wash a girl entering puberty), painted her, blew on her,
exorcised her as she had told them, and after five days they were already bathing
her.
12. After this she asked the other women if they were well. ‘We are hungry; we
want to eat, we have nothing’, they replied. The Virgin said, ‘Your life will be
different; you won’t be like the Thunders who only smoke and take coca. You
will work. I will give you the earth.’ This is why people must work to eat.
13. She took a rope, wound it round her head, took it off and divided it in half
and then squeezed milk from her breast into the circle and made the earth. The
next day a big field had formed in the earth. She gave the earth to the women,
saying, ‘With this you can live.’ The women came down there too; the Thunders
remained in the air; they made only thunder.
14. The two women wanted to make many people so that they would be happy.
The Thunders said, ‘We are four; we must make another person appear.’ They
blew on coca. There was a ball of abil, caimo (Pouteria caimito), juice of cucura
(Pourouma sp.) and of cuma (Cuma sp.) They wanted to see if, by eating those
things, yet another person could be born. They tried to become pregnant. They
made the thigh and arm muscles but it was ugly.
15. The women saw this and said, ‘These old shamans are mad! Look how they
have made the belly grow in their arms and legs! The Thunders resented this
teasing and said, ‘Let us do the work on them. Becoming pregnant is for them
not us!’
16. The Thunders came down to earth. They called the young girls and spread
perfume to attract them and went to the river to bathe. The girls were curious
as to what the Thunders were doing. There was a huge cigar with a nice smell of
tobacco; there was a beautiful ball of abil and there was coca. The three Thunders
had done this; the first had remained to one side.

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The myths

17. One of the girls took the abil, licked it and ate it and then smoked. The
other took coca. The first one said, ‘You too eat, it’s delicious.’ She opened the
ball of abil, inside it there was a child. The other girl said, ‘There is something
in there, I won’t eat it.’ They became very sad; it was as though they had had
contact with a man. They began to feel different. ‘Let’s run away, the Thunders
are coming’, they said, and ran off.
18. After some time, the girls were already swollen and pregnant. The Thunders,
who were keeping watch on them, said, ‘Where will they go for the delivery?’
The Virgins were writhing in pain: they were not like women today. Their bodies
had the hole to pass urine but no vaginas.
19. The first Virgin walked writhing in pain near a stream called the stream of
pains, till she arrived above Jauarete. There she found some other women and
said to them, ‘My grandmothers, look after me for I am fainting and the Thunders
are coming. Don’t let them take my baby.’ Then she lost consciousness.
20. (Even today one can see the place where she put her buttocks, her sides,
her hips and all her parts. One must not look at this place; if one does one will
have many enemies and will become blind very soon. Only old people can see
that woman’s body in the waterfall. They say it is really the body of a woman.)
21. The Thunders, who had taken the form of monkeys, followed the women to
Jauarete. When they arrived the Virgin was as if dead; the other women were
caring for her body. The Thunders opened her body from the navel downward
using the point of the cigar holder. They took out the baby. Then they put
cucura and cuma juice in the Virgin’s mouth. It ran down on to the wound from
which the baby had emerged and healed it. The Thunders took the baby to their
house in Irapoi waterfall.
22. The baby was full of holes.
23. When the Virgin awoke she saw that the baby had vanished. The Thunders had
made the women who were to guard her fall asleep.
24. This was the time when the Tukano, Wanano, Pira-Tapuyo, Arapa50 and
Tuyuka came in the shape of fishes swimming up the river. Their canoe was a
snake. They drew the canoe to the bank, got out and became people.
25. They saw the other two sisters, who were resting, and said, ‘This one must
have a baby.’ The son of the first girl was brought up by the Thunders; the son
of the second was brought up by these people; he was the father of yage. They
made yage from him and everybody drank it.
26. The Thunders brought up the first child. He was of another race, of another
kind. He had come to give laws, to instruct.
27. The Thunders created many people; the Tariana and Baniwa. Nobody had
seen the child; he was now a man. He had grown very fast; in a few days he was
a young boy, in one moon he was a man. He was Koe or Jurupari, the son of a
Virgin and the Thunder.
28. He went to dances and taught the people how to sing and dance. He was the
chief of each dance that he attended. No one knew he was the son of that woman.

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M. 8 The Thunders and Jurupari

29. His body was full of flowers but no one saw them as his body was covered
with dance ornaments.
30. His mother was among the other women but she did not know that he was
her son. He said to her, ‘You thought I had disappeared from the world; but I
am here, I am a man.’ He sang for her, ‘I am your son, I have made all the
sacrifices for you.’ He was the leader of the dancers.
31. The two sisters sat on a bench. His aunt said, ‘My sister he is singing for
you, why don’t you listen?’ She had been dozing but then she opened her eyes.
He was so handsome, so perfect that one couldn’t even look at him with one’s
eyes. He said, ‘Mother, don’t look at me; no one must look at me.’
32. He gave his mother the plant that prevents madness and made her tear off
a small branch. Then he said, ‘Come and accompany me with your singing.’
While he sang to his mother, a great noise of Jurupan'instruments could be heard
outside the house.
33. Outside, the chief of the dance, called Deer, sang so loud that the earth shook.
It was still Jurupari; inside, the mother sang; outside the noise reverberated
terribly. He said, ‘My animals have come to the feast; it is myself who is here,
myself who is out there.’
34. In the morning the dance was ending. He said, ‘When I am no longer here
on this world, you will continue to do like this. These instruments, which play
out there, are my bones.’ The whole tribe said, ‘Let us give our children to this
man so that they learn to do what should be done.’
35. The dance ended and he went back to his stone house in the mountains of
the Rio Aiari.
36. He had three generations of children with him to whom he taught everything.
They were very many, they were Tariana and Baniwa; already they sang as he
sang.
37. He took the children to make a fiesta of uacu (it was the season of this fruit).
He forbade them to eat roast uacu. The children did not listen: the fruit fell
from the tree into the fire and they smelt the pleasant smell. They roasted the
fruit and ate it.
38. He then threw a huge stone hook to kill them with. It fell in their midst.
In the waterfall of Irapoi one can still see this stone hook.
39. He called wind and rain and said, ‘Run, look for shelter.’ While the children
looked for leaves to shelter with, he lay on the ground and opened his huge arse;
‘Hide in here’, he said. The children saw a dry cave and ran in. The last one had
cleaned his mouth with cassava bread. Juripari thought that he had not eaten
the fruit and closed his arse before he could enter.
40. From the house they saw the thunderstorm and said, ‘He’s been angry recently,
he has eaten all our children.’ The women shouted, ‘Look, we have no children
any more.’
41. Jurupari took the last child to his stone house and closed the door. Jurupari
slept, leaving the child alone.

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The myths

42. The children inside him began to rot. He belched terribly and asked the
boy, ‘Does it smell bad?’ The boy, being afraid of being eaten himself, replied,
‘No.’ He farted terribly from belly and mouth. ‘Is it a bad smell? It is the smell
of children who are stubborn and disobey; it is their smell’, he said.
43. The child thought to himself, ‘I can’t stay here long, I must escape.’ He
became a small parrot with a long tail and began to peck a hole in the roof of
the house. He tried to go out; he was weak from hunger and the smell. He went
out and came back in again.
44. Jurupari awoke, farted again, and again asked about the smell. ‘It is not
good, it stinks. You are horrible’, replied the boy; ‘You were brought up by my
fathers, the Thunders, and you swallowed all my brothers and now you want to
kill me with this putrid smell.’ Jurupari tried to grab him but the boy escaped
through the hole.
45. He flew home singing. There were only old men there. The boy arrived and
told the terrible news.
46. The men plotted to kill Jurupari. They made beer with burnt cassava and
sugar-cane juice (payaru). They sent the parrot to invite Jurupari to the dance
but he replied, ‘I don’t drink payaru, it smells of fart.’
47. They sent the parrot to invite him again. Jurupari' replied, ‘Your fathers
want to kill me. They will not be able to. I will come and talk with your fathers.
I will tell them that I did not kill the children willingly. They themselves wanted
it as they provoked me.’ He closed the door and went out.
48. He arrived at their maloca; it was the day of the feast and they were afraid
of his strength. They greeted him properly.
49. Jurupari said, ‘I’ve come to tell you that you are the fathers of stubborn
children, children who don’t obey, inquisitive children and children who act
against the wishes of the elders. It is your fault that your children are guilty
as you have not brought them up properly. I will now give you back their bones.
Make an enclosure.’
50. They made an enclosure and painted it with urucu, charcoal and caraiuru.
He squeezed his belly, opened his mouth and vomited out the bones. Then he
said, ‘Throw away the bones. I’m going away; I won’t drink beer with you.’ He
went away.
51. He lived in his stone house without ever coming out. They made different
kinds of beer and sent for him again. The small parrot invited him. He said,
‘Why do they call me? I’m quiet here.’ Then he said, ‘All right. I’ll come but I
don’t drink beer as I did when I was with you. They want to kill me with poison;
poison is in my body. They want to kill me with arrows; arrows won’t kill me.
All this is nothing to me. Tell them to plant inga, lots of it. When the plants are
grown they must skin the fruit so it dries. Tell them to plant bananas so that there
are lots of bunches hanging inside the house. When they are ripe they must peel
and cook them. This will be my beer; I have never drunk it before; I know all
the others. I want just banana beer. The inga plants must be put on a fire,

306
M.8 The Thunders and Jurupari

only thus will I be able to die. I can only die by being burned.’ He really wanted
to die.
52. They made a big fire with the inga. They made banana beer and then sent
the boy to invite him saying, ‘He made us do this, now he must come.’
53. Jurupari replied, ‘I will come, I have never had that beer before and have a
great desire for it.’
54. He came out. Snake bones were his collar. As he went out, the holes in his
body produced sound. The sound was the songs of all the animals. He arrived
with that loud music at the house of the dance.
55. The three old Thunders live there; they were the chiefs. They had created
the Baniwa. The Tariana had married the Baniwa and they had many children
and grandchildren. That night they did not dance but drank lots of very strong
beer. The day passed, the night passed and by morning Jurupari was drunk.
56. They had prepared caves underground stocked with food, provisions and
seeds. They said to the women, ‘You can go in now, we are already close to the
moment.’
57. Early in the morning they danced with Jurupari, from one side to the other,
singing his song. When he was completely drunk and when a huge fire was
burning, they put all the ornaments, the bird feathers and the rest into the body
of Jurupari.
58. Then they threw the whole lot on the fire. The feathers and ornaments
burned immediately and the fire spread till all the earth was burning.
59. They jumped into the caves with all their possessions but even there lots of
ash fell in.
60. They stayed in the caves a long time and then sent one of the men out to
see if the fire was out. He became a cricket, the one with the black head that
makes its nest underground. The cricket got his feet burned as the soil was still
hot. This is why this cricket has black feet. He came back and told them the fire
was not yet out. They stayed under the ground for a long time.
61. When they came out the earth was bare with no trees or houses. They planted
seeds in the ashes and lived in Tururi rapid.
62. Jurupari turned into a paxiuba palm which grew up where he had been
burned. It made a noise as it grew. It was his body. Before going up he said, ‘I
leave you this paxiuba; divide it in pieces. Each piece will make a different
sound.’ He gave the measurements of all the instruments. He went up and up
and then disappeared.
63. When the palm fell, the fruit flew in all directions to the different waterfalls
along the rivers. The fruit grew into new palms from which the flutes were
made. Jurupari had said, ‘You will do all this in my memory.’ In the memory
of him who had gone up they made the masks and the dances. He is the chief of
the dancers and leads the dancing. Those who do not want to dance are whipped.
He is also the chief of the instruments.
64. The women must not see the instruments. From the time that Jurupari

307
The myths

had to keep the secret of that music, the women never saw the instruments. The
men kill them if they do.
65. They didn’t want to live where Jurupari had died; they dispersed and built
their houses on the banks of the rivers. This is why they live in different parts.
66. In the place where Jurupari was burned, near the waterfall on the Aiari,
a beautiful place, there is still lots of charcoal. The smell of the charcoal is
poisonous. There are lots of poisonous plants there. Fruit cannot be taken from
there. If Indians go there they die. Only the children of the Tariana and Baniwa
can go there — they know what to do to stop being killed. This is why the
Baniwa possess lots of poison; they get it from there; it is for killing their enemies.
When they walk on that ground, a noise like a drum is made. They sing, ‘I’m
coming to ask for poison, I want poison to kill my enemies.’ They can take it.

308
APPENDIX 1

Descriptions of Yurupary rites -

a list of sources

Source Indians referred to

Acebes(1954) Desana
Allen (1947) Cubeo?
Amorim (1926/8) Wanano
Biocca(1965) Vaupds in general
Boeldeke and Hagen (1958) Y^noinano — Rr'o Cauaburi
Boje (1930) Tuyuka
Bruzzi da Silva (1962) Tukano (Vaupes in general)
Coudreau (1887) Tariana
Galvao (1959) Baniwa
Gheerbrant (1953) Piaroa
Giacone (1949) Tukano
Goldman (1963) Cubeo
Gumilla (1963) Saliva
Humboldt (1966) Baniwa
Jackson, Jean (unpublished
field notes) Bara
Jacopin, Pierre-Yves
(personal communication) Yukuna, Tanimuka
Koch-G run berg (1909/10) Baniwa, Bara
Langdon, Tom
(personal communication) Barasana (Cano Tatu)
MacCreagh (1927) Upper Tiquie (Tukano?)
McGovern (1927) Pira-Tapuyo
Reichel-Dolmatoff (1971) Desana
Rozo(1945) Puinave
Schultz (1959) Maku (Parana Boa-Boa)
Silverwood-Cope, Peter
(personal communication) Maku (Maku Parana)
Terribilini (1961) Maku (Jauarete)
Wallace Wanano

309
APPENDIX 2

Yurupary myths - a list of sources

Amorim (1926/8)
Barbosa Rodrigues (1890)
Biocca (1965)
Briizzi da Silva (1962)
Coudreau (1887)
Fulop (1954, 1956)
Galvao (1959)
Giacone (1949)
Goldman (1940, 1963)
Koch-Griinberg (1909/10)
Orico (1937)
Prada Ramirez (1969)
Rozo (1945)
Saake(1958a, 1968)
Stradelli (1890b, 1928/9)

310
APPENDIX 3

The playing of Barasana He instruments

Trumpets during Fruit House

Players standing still

Ends held close to ground. Playing starts when ends circled clockwise (CW)
from player’s point of view. Both simple and complex rhythms played. At end,
trumpets held still, then ends raised upwards with playing stopped as trumpets
are 45° from horizontal. Playing ends with long fading note.

Players moving in horseshoe pattern (done most of the time)

Trumpets are laid at base on edge of dance path by post 1 or 2, mouth ends
towards centre of house. Play standing still (as above), facing in towards middle
of house (a). Then players turn as pair to face along dance path (b); walk round
dance path (c) moving ends up and down and playing simple rhythm; arrive at
point opposite start (d); stop facing end wall, play complex rhythm with ends
circled CW. Players then turn inwards towards each other and walk back round
the dance path to (a) and repeat stationary playing and turn. Go back and forth
round dance path many times. Finally, on coming back to original starting
point, turn and face middle of house. Turn made by inner of pair walking across
front of outer player as turn made towards middle of house. Stand, play complex
rhythm and stop circling ends of trumpets. Then stop as described above.
Trumpets then replaced in base (see diagrams 1 and 1(a)).

Trumpets played with short flutes

Trumpets lead flutes going away from base; flutes lead trumpets on return (see
diagram 2). The same pattern applies when two pairs of trumpets are played
from the same base.

Trumpets blown with ends circled over fruit

See diagrams 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Details of playing as above.

311
Appendix 3

1 FRUIT [

~s N
•\
6 I
I

; n
i \,
\i
11 >.
i i® r -A
v \

A A
y
:S\ /
(Base) /
OO C DX3
®

d Door

Diagram 1 The trumpets played in Diagram la The turn of the trumpets

horseshoe pattern at Fruit House

1 FRUIT

/
I •
5

• •
3 4

1,
k \
\
2
/
/

Y
I 1\ V\
; 1
.11
'\>| I'
jA 1 B 1 >Oy
A

C? Door t=o__^

Diagram 2 Trumpets played with Diagram 2(a) Trumpets played with

short flutes short flutes — the start

F t
\ ►o
Trumpets
l l
\
y
Flutes
0 l
Diagram 2(b) Trumpets and flutes at the end of playing Key

312
Appendix 3

| FRUIT]

O Ends of trumpets circled

Diagrams 3—7 The paths taken by the trumpets when blown with the ends
circling over the fruit

313
Appendix 3

The long flutes

Normal playing
Players stand just beyond posts 1 and 2 facing in towards middle of house. Start
playing and move ends of flutes in CW circle. Walk as pair up middle of house,
now keeping ends of flutes stationary. At posts 5 and 6, pause momentarily,
turn inwards towards each other, then back down the house. Repeated many
times. At end, players remain standing in 1,2, 3, 4 space till next session.
When one pair has finished playing, flutes leant against male door (or placed
on sticks by post 3 during He House), players return to seats. At start of next
session, players raise flutes in their hands and salute the men sitting.

The slow sacred dance of the flutes

Players start playing as above. Then walk very slowly up and down house, leaning
slightly backwards and walking in rhythm together. At each end, very sudden
turn made. Turn done by both turning in the same direction so that they remain
side by side and facing in same way. As turn is made, high sustained note played
which coincides with sweeping circular motion of ends of flutes (see diagram 8).

1 2

Diagram 8 The slow dance of the long flutes

Ends in the Air

Start at male end facing down house. Raise ends of flutes to near vertical above
head, then, playing ‘toooo tooo too to t t ttf, run with very smell steps with
emphasis in right foot, down to other end. Return to male end in slow dance,
then repeat end raising as above. Finally stop by fruit and play with ends raised
but without moving feet. Then continue with slow dance.

314
Appendix 3

He House

The parade
One individual takes the instruments from the base near the dance path on the
right of the house and lays them in pairs down the middle of the house (see
diagram 9). Younger men then pick up trumpets and stand in long line along
the dance path, facing away from middle of the house. Then do ‘swing x 3’
action: swing the ends of trumpets first to left, then to right, then to straight out
in front of player, each time blowing as near to the ground as possible. Then
pair nearest men’s door walk round dance path x 2, round post 5 and down the
middle of the house, followed by the rest, all in pairs. At male door: go out,
round house x 1, back in men’s door, round dance path x 2, round post 5,
down middle till leading pair reaches men’s door. Then stop with ‘swing x 3’,
replacing trumpets in pairs on ground. Or: on reaching men’s door, go out
again and twice round the house, then repeat the ending as above (see diagram
10).

Diagram 9 The He laid along the length Diagram 10 The path taken for the
of the house parade of trumpets

Going to make the tree-bark low

Start with parade as above going round house x 2. Then come into house,
straight up middle with lead pair stopping beyond posts 5, 6. Pairs form into
two lines which turn inwards to face each other. Then ‘swing x 3’. Whole line
then walks to men’s end with rear leading and repeat ‘swing x 3’, then back to
female end and repeat ‘swing x 3’. Then leaders go round post 6 followed by
rest of line now again in pairs. Round dance path x 2 (CW) then back down
middle after going round post 5. As leaders arrive at men’s door, do ‘swing x 3’

315
Appendix 3

but this time first swing to right, then to left and then out to front (i.e. reversed
order), then stop.

Named instruments

(1) Wenandurika always leads parades of trumpets.

(2) Old Deer: basic pattern of playing same as for other trumpets but when played
has to be supported by man walking in front holding the end of each of the
pair in his hands. As he walks he lifts up the ends one after the other in unison
with the alternation of the playing. Generally accompanied only by a pair of
short flutes, Old Parrot.
(3) Old Sloth: the only flute taken on the parades with the trumpets and not
played very much at all. Should go in middle of line of players. Generally preceded
by Old Star and followed by Manioc-squeezing Woman.
(4) Old Macaw: only very occasionally taken on parade round the house. When
taken, always on the end of the line.

316
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322
INDEX

Italic page numbers refer to footnotes

aggression at He House 76, 82, 85; function of

as adult attribute 86, 87, 215 189, 200
between sexes 5,13 at first menstruation 186
ritual 54, 64, 78, 79, 82, 205, 208, in myth 127
209-10, 233 for pepper shamanism 95, 96
see also warrior bees
ancestors in myth 168, 170, 177; see also M.4.A
anacondas as 24, 26, 152, 153, 216, types of 164
247,249 beeswax 76
deceased people as 10 ritual burning of 54, 56, 64, 79, 115,
He instruments as 10, 12, 79, 142-7, 177,179,183, 185, 186-9,209,
149, 150-1, 248 210, 217,234
as He people 81, 90, 95, 139, 150, symbolic significance of 154, 156-7,
152,154,182, 187 178-80,181,206, 211, 212, 222,
in myth see myth, characters in 243
predators as 124-5 beeswax and coca 47, 53, 56, 65, 72, 73, 80,
shamans as 95 186,206
and specialist-role system 146-9 beeswax gourd 163, 243
and Yurupary cult 247 at Fruit House 47, 165
animals at He House 177
as food 30; hierarchy of 93, 222 and He instruments 190, 196, 255,
in myth 141, 144, 169, 180; see also 238,248
myth; myth, characters in and myth 169, 170, 173-5, 180, 197,
210;see also M.l.C, M.7
symbolic significance of 12, 13, 145,
Barasana 18 154, 164-5, 167-8, 175, 177, 179,
He rites of 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 16, 28, 180,181,183,185,196,198,248,
207, 242, 244; see also He rites 251,238
Yurupary myths of 9, 14-15, 128, 151 — see also ‘instruments of darkness’
2, 169, 198ff, 209, 216, 246, 247, birds
248—50, see also myths; Yurupary as He 140-1
myths in myth see M.4, M.6
baskets, as ritual payment/gift 85, 86, see also He instruments
96-7, 99, 112, 114 black paint (we)
basket weaving 86, 112, 202 in myth 184; see also M.2.F, M.4.A,
bathing 110—11 M.4.D
bathing, ritual ritual use of 52, 63, 68, 80, 84, 95,
after childbirth 186, 217 96,182,184,201, 215, 219
at Fruit House 47, 51, 55, 60, 62, 67, 200 see also body painting; red paint

323
 Index

body at first menstruation 186

attitudes towards 198-202 in myth see M.8
display of 110 nature of 84, 127, 132, 179
and myth 131 of shaman 126
orifices of 11 — 12, 13; and shamanism for initiation 66, 84, 106, 179, 206;
65, 123-4, 125-6, 130, 178, 198-9 diet during 66-7, 221-2, 233-4
body painting, ritual 55, 68, 80, 201, 208 creation, Indian attitudes towards 128,
see also red paint, black paint 130-1, 212, 247-8, 250
'Troys culture 22
role of, at rituals 106 Arawak v. Tukanoan 19
see also children; initiates; men, un¬ effects of whites on 21
married

dance houses (basaria wi) 27, 33

cassava see also ritual, communal
in communal rituals 33—4 dancer/chanters 25, 32, 37, 57, 116
preparation of 28-30 elders as 115
shamanised: at Fruit House 60, 67, He instruments as 147, 149
94; at He House 83, 85 dancing, ritual 5, 28, 42, 247
see also manioc at food-exchange rituals 34
Central Brazil 47 at Fruit House 56-8
ritual instruments in 195-6 Fruit House v. He House 101—2
village organisation in 107-8, 129 after He House 97—9
chanting 32, 34, 247, 248 importance of 36
at He rites 47, 53, 55, 56, 58—9, 73, structure of 34-5
76,78,80,90,144,236 see also ritual, communal
at pepper shamanism 95, 97 death, Indian attitudes towards 10, 13, 32,
and shamanism 52, 67 214, 215,247
as specialist activity 58—9, 70 and longhouse 28
see also dancer/chanters; He instruments in myth 161, 228, 249
chief 25, 116, 148 descent, significance of 24, 249
and marriage 27 descent group, exogamous patrilineal 23,
childbirth 10, 32, 141,216, 222, 247, 248, 27
250 hierarchical structure of 26,117
in myth 182 mythical origin of 152, 154
see also rites, birth and ritual 37, 38
children 27, 105-6, 216 diet see food restrictions
and He instruments 200 dreaming 10, 65, 81, 247
__ and initiates 215
Christianity, and Yurupary cult 7
cigars education
at rituals 52, 55, 58, 76, 78 ^ of children 105-6 J
symbolic significance of 154, 211 of girls 13 W
coca 28, 29 __ of initiates 86-7, 106-7, 205-6
in myth 59; see also M.2.B, M.4.B elders 111, 115
preparation of 46-7, 60-1 and ritual 54, 73, 77, 94, 96, 115
shamanised 36, 47: at Fruit House 54, social role of 31, 86, 115
55, 58, 65; at He House 73, 76, 78, see also initiates, guardian of
80, 90, 182, 209; for initiates 62, endogamy 23
78,209 exogamous group 43
see also beeswax and coca see also descent group
confinement (seclusion) 126, 184-5, 189, exogamy
218 and social structure 22, 24
activities during 86-7, 1 12, 202 and Yurupary cult 245, 246
after childbirth 186, 218
after He House 84-8, 205-6, 218; father, obligations of 62, 70, 106
prohibitions during 88-93, 233-4 see also elders

324
Index

fire 13 and coca 59, 210

attitudes towards, after He rites 88, 233 definition of 7, 144, 197, 229
in myth 161, 179, 228, 232, 235;see description of 134-8, 155, 157-8
also M.2.C, M.5.A, M.6.A,B, M.8 at Fruit House 46, 47, 51, 52-3, 55,
symbolic significance of 123, 179-80, 94,100,130,133, 150, 155-7
197, 233-5 function of 10, 12, 41, 128, 154, 157-9,
fish 251
and He House 81 at He House 38, 61, 64, 67, 72-3,
in myth see M.2.F, M.4.E, M.6 76- 7, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 107,
as ritual food 34, 60, 95-6 118-19, 133, 134, 142-9, 153-5,
fishing 22, 30, 35, 86, 106, 175 188,189,215,248
fish poison 29 and initiation 61, 70, 78, 80, 83, 87,
in myth 180 94,147
food 30 and menstruation 87, 125, 130—1,
cooking, symbolic significance of 112-13 198,199,200
in confinement (seclusion) 85, 90, and monkeys 197
221-2 in myth 127-8, 132, 139, 149, 152-3,
hierarchy in 60, 90-1, 93, 220 157-9, 198, 217, 225, 227-8,
restrictions 17, 30, 32, 61, 66-7, 83, 229, 244; see also myths, elements
84, 85 of: origins; myths, characters in;
ritual use of 34, 60 M.l.D
shamanism of 32-3, 60, 83, 90-1, 99 names of: Manioc-squeezing Women
frog, in myth 173;see also M.2.B, C, M.7.L 148, 160; Old Deer 143, 149, 160;
fruit 28, 29, 30, 41, 85, 184 Old Guan 143; Old Callicebus Monkey
in myth 223—6; see also M.2.F 81, 121, 143, 147, 197; Old Macaw
ritual use of 5, 30, 34, 35, 51, 55, 57, 67, 73, 76, 79, 80,81,82,143,
60, 141, 207-8, 222-3 144,146,148,154,155,160;Old
see also plants Parrot 143, 160; Old Star 119, 143,
fruit, ritual 144-6, 149, 159, 209; Old Sloth
assai palm 94, 185 198
inga 65, 66, 171-2,223-4 and prohibitions 88
kana 63, 77, 215 — 16 and social status 116, 118-19
pupunha 66 and specialist-role system 146—9
umari 66 symbolic significance of 13, 38, 142-9,
see also plants, ritual 150,153,156, 159, 190, 197, 200,
201-3, 204, 211, 238, 247
and tobacco 210
garters 112, 202 and women 12, 31, 38, 51, 72, 100,
gathering, of forest fruit 22, 30, 47 125, 128, 129-31, 148, 155
girls 109, 131 and yagd 209
see also children; rites, first menstruation see also Yurupary instruments
gourds 163—4 He rites 10-11, 12, 16, 37;-8, 100, 141,
guests, at rituals 43, 55, 57, 62, 132—3 145, 150, 217, 241-7
frequence of 144
Fruit House 11, 16,41-68, 132, 140,
hair 141, 243; and initiation 61—4, 106,
at He rites 77, 203 200, 202, 207-8; interpretation of
in myth; see M.l.B 141-2, 150, 155, 185, 207, 211,
symbolism of 13, 87, 131, 132, 184, 224;and myth 156
195, 204-6, 251 v. He House 69, 100-2, 156, 165,
styles of 203, 204 208, 222, 242-3
He, concept of 9, 138—40, 247 He House 11, 17, 61, 65-6, 69-100,
He instruments (sacred flutes and trumpets) 132, 150, 175, 187-92, 200, 242-3;
12, 34, 37, 100, 138ff, 159-60, confinement during 84-8; dancing
187,242 at 97-9; frequency of 69, 184;
and beeswax gourd 12, 175, 190, 195-6, function of 37—8, 106—7, 120,
238 132,139,140, 144,179, 182, 183,

325
Index
192, 209, 247ff; and initiation Makii 25, 41, 148, 149,159; see also
37-40, 77-9, 80, 84-8, 209; M.5.B, M.7.A
interpretation of 205, 211, 214-16, Makuna (Water Anaconda People)
217, 219, 222, 236-7; and menstru¬ 18,19,24,27,43,69,83, 150;
ation 244;and myth 154, 187, see also M.5.B
219-21, 224, 233, 248-9; par¬ Pira-Tapuyo 23,136, 140, 148;see
ticipants in 70-2, 105ff, 116-20, also M.8
prohibitions during 88-93, 215, Puinave 159
22Iff, 233; spatial organisation of 81, Saliva 138, 207
107-9, 119, 146, 214-15, 248; Siriano 34;see also M.l.C, M.5.B
terminal rites of 93-7; see also Taiwano 18, 23, 24, 69, 149, 150
initiation Tanimuka 141; see also M.4.H, M.5.B
interpretation of 16, 120, 132, 150 — 1, Tariana 34, 61, 66, 69, 131, 145, 169,
153, 187ff, 211-13, 241-7 170, 193, 233, 243; see also M.8
and myth 13, 104, 139, 151-4 Tatuyo (Sky Anaconda People) 18,
see also ritual, communal; Yurupary 23,43,69, 122, 124, 145, 149,
rites 150, 152, 169, 173-4, 208, 217,
homosexuality, and kinship 110 233; see also M.4.H
hunting 22, 30, 86, 106 Tukano 21, 23 , 79,86, 142, 145,
148,149,161,180,183, 196, 198,
199,206, 207, 243;see also M.4.H,
M.5.B, M.8
illness 10 Tuyuka 18, 23, 194;see also M.8
attitudes towards 139, 247 Waikano 136
causes of 92-3, 165, 181, 187, 200 Waiwai 204
cure for 123 Wanano 23, 61, 66, 69, 77, 243;see
dietary prohibitions during 32, 92 also M.8
protection from 72, 120, 186—7 Yahuna 141; see also M.5.B
see also shamanism Yanomamo 206
immortality, Indian concept of 12, 160-2, initiates 12, 63, 72, 84, 105, 107, 126,
183,184,185 182,194,215,225
and He House 182 diet of 66-7, 85,90-1,92
and myth 181, 249 — education of 86-7
Indian groups 19, 21—6 guardian of (masori) 72, 77, 79, 95,
Akwe-Shavante 113 115
Arapaqo 178 and He House 77ff, 105-7
Arawakan Kabiyeri 18, 24, 27 and He instruments 77, 78, 147, 157,
Arawakan Yukuna 19 218, 225
Baniwa86,141,149, 161,180, 194, kinship terminology of 111; see also
206;see also M.5.B, M.8 kinship, ritual
Bara (Fish Anaconda People) 18, 23, painting of 68, 96, 112; see also black
24,27,43,69,124, 145, 149, 150, paint; red paint
152, 160, 196;see also M.5.B pepper shamanism for 94-6
Barasana (YebaMeni Anaconda People) prohibitions for 85, 87, 88ff, 214,
124, 152, 160, 196,see also M.7 220, 233; rationale of 200, 236
Cubeo 23, 24, 33, 34, 63, 64, 87,106, and shamans 126
113,133, 141,148,149,150, 160, and women 84, 96, 109, 112-13, 116,
169, 177,183,190, 199, 206, 207, 214
208,209, 244, 247;see also M.l.C, see also initiation
M.5.B, M.7.K initiation 17, 62, 66, 256
Desana 23, 148, 182, 245; see also and food shamanism 32
M.4.H and He rites 61, 70ff, 243, 247
Guayaki 187 and menstruation 84, 184, 195, 199-200
Iurupixuna 141, 142 in myth 201 ;see also M.l.C, M.5.A,
Karapana 18, 23, 141 M.6.A
Kayapo 113 -^purpose of 106, 110, 111, 128-9, 139,
Letuama 19, see a/so M.4.H, M.5.B '' 157

326
Index

as rebirth 114, 132, 182, 189, 201, 217 production of 22, 28, 30, 42, 46, 105,
and Yurupary instruments 7, 64, 107, 175,222
202 manioc garden 28, 96, 111, 139, 175
see also initiates; He rites manioc juice 95
insects manioc starch 52, 76, 83, 85, 90, 134;
as food 30 see also cassava
in myth 206; see also M.l.C, M.2.F, marriage
M.4.E, F, G, M.6, M.7.B and longhouse community 26, 27
as ritual food 34, 60, 67, 83, 85, 88, 90 and male/female relations 111-13
‘instruments of darkness’ 13, 15, 176—8, rules of 23-4, 27, 230; and Yurupary
180, 181, 183, 188, 195-6, 197, cult 245
198, 236-7, 256 and social status 111-12
meals, communal 28, 30-1, 108
at Fruit House 56, 60
jaguar meat 30, 34
He 76,79,83,90, 146, 151 see also animals, as food; food
in myth 170, 204, 220, 224;see also men
myth, characters in daily life of 28, 29, 214
as predator 92, 124 hairstyles of 203-4
and shamans 124 ritual role of 10, 141, 225
symbolic significance of 125, 157, 204 social organisation of 31, 51
status of 38, 42, 141,205; and He
rites 118
kinship and women 111-14; in myth 6, 127—8, 132
affinal v. agnatic 36, 110, 230-1 men, unmarried (mamara)
and communal rituals 37, 133 hairstyles of 203-4
kinship, ritual 77, 80, 96, 112-15 at He House 107-15
kinship terminology 27, 111; attitudes kinship relations among 110
towards 106; and myth 2, 30 obligations of 31, 111
ritual role of 47, 109, 116
menstrual blood
language 21-2, 23, 24, 26, 27, 168 attitude towards 84, 178, 181,209
laziness, Indian concept of 87, 127, 202, in myth 178, 179, 211;see also M.l.B,
205, 207 M.3, M.4.B
life-cycle, beliefs concerning 10, 141 red paint as 184
see also immortality see also menstruation
longhouse (maloca) 4, 5, 22, 27—30 menstruation 10
community 26, 30-1, 35, 36, 42, 43, attitudes towards 12, 32, 87, 127,
154,248-9 131, 178-9, 183, 185, 247, 250
organisation of, and symbolic significance confinement during 112, 127, 132
107-9, 151 and hair 205
symbolism of 216, 219, 248 and He instruments 87, 125, 131, 198
and initiation 195, 201, 244
and myth 127, 179, 184, 198-9; see also
male/female polarity M.l.C, M.4.B, C, M.8
in daily life 31, 105, 106, 111, 191 and red paint 76, 179-80
in He rites, 38, 72, 100-1, 109, 160, and shamanism 125, 178
190-2, 212 and weather 179
high/low 214ff, 221, 222, 228 missionaries
hot/cold 89-90, 110-11, 158, 215, attitude of, to Yurupary cult 4-5,
228,230,233 9, 129-30
in longhouse 28, 108 effects of 5, 21, 241
wet/dry 192, 228 monkey-fur string, as ritual ornament 79, 193
maloca see longhouse monkeys
manioc and He instruments 197,233
as beer 42, 46-7, 51,52, 59, 65, 72, in myth 123, 228;see also M.4.G, M.5.A,
76, 90 M.6.A

327
Index

masks of see Yurupary masks 197, 205, 218, 219, 228-33,

symbolic significance of 122-3, 193—5, 246, 255,see M.6.A
199 Meneriyo (Inga Woman) 169, 170,
Moon see myth, characters in 171, 215, 223, see M.4.A, B, D
myth Meni Shaman see M.4.D, E
animals in 124, 141, 142, 144, 156-7, Miriti Tapir see M.4.E
169, 180, 197;see also M.l.A, M.l.C, Moon 199,201,206,210,215,219,
M.2.B, F, M.3, M.4, M.6, M.7 227-33, 236, 245-6, see M.3,
birds in, as He 140—1, see also M.4, M.4.A, C, M.6.A
M.6 , He instruments Morning Star see myth, stars in
chronology in 168 Old Callicebus Monkey 95, 122, 197,
and concept of predator 124 see M.6.A
and He 9-10, 13, 139, 156-7 Old Star 149, 167, 178, 180,see M.l.C
and male/female polarity 38, 125, 127 Old Sloth see M.l.C
nature of 6, 9, 139, 247, 257, 258 Opossum 169-80, 172-4, see M.4 .A,
and ritual 15, 37, 252ff M.7.K, L
punishment in 131 Pleiades see myth, stars in; Pleiades
stars in 65, 144-6, 168; Adze constel¬ Poison Anaconda 180,see M.l.D,
lation 145; Morning Star, see M.6; M.4.F, G
Orion constellation 144-6, 191; Pouncing Jaguar see M.4.F
Pleiades 144, 168, 169-70, 171, Red Guan see M.2.B, F
223,224 Red Squirrel {Timoka) 100, see
and shamanic power 33, 120ff M.5.A, M.6.A, M.7.1, J
teaching 106 Romi Kumu (Woman Shaman) 95,
myth, characters in 125,127,128,144,149,152, 167,
Ant Bird see M.6.A 168,169,173,175,176,177,178,
Anteater {Buko) see M.2.B 183, 224,see M.l.A, B, D, M.4.F,
Aru 196 M.7
Coadidop 211 see M.8 Sky Anaconda 125, see M.4.C
Cotinga Jaguar see M.l.C, M.7.1 Sky People 157, 168, see M.4.A
Dance Anaconda see M.6.A Steel Tapir see M.4.E
Eagle (Rame) 125 see M.4.F, H Sun 88, 152, 161, 165, 183, 220, 227-33,
Fire Callicebus Monkey 123, 197, 236, 245-6, 247, see M.3, M.6.A,
see M.6.A M.7
Fire Cayman see M.2.C Tapir 197, 228, 229, 232, see M.5.A,
Fire Howler Monkey 123, 197, 228, M.6.A, M.7.J
229, see M.6.A Thunder Jaguar 224, see M.4.D, E
Fish Anaconda 100, 124, 156, 202, Thunders (Ayawa) 117, 123, 126,
222, see M.7.C.G, H, I, J 170, 176’, 179, 197, 223, 228, 237,
Fish Woman Anaconda see M.7 see M.2, M.8
Guan see M.l.C Tinamou Chief see M.7.K, L
He Anaconda 122, 131, 157, 169, Tinamou Eagle see M.7.K
171,797, 203, 217, 218, 227-8, Toucan see M.5.B
see M.5 Toucan Woman see M.5.A
He Jaguar 95 Tree-Fruit Jaguar 208, 225, see M.2.F
Juruparisee M.8; see also Yurupary Vulture Chief see M.7.L
Kana Flower see M.l.C, M.6.A Warimi 146, 168, 170, 171, 180, 223,
Little Sticky Man 171, 223, see 224, 225, see M.4.A, D, E, F
M.4.B White Guan see M.2.B, F
Lizard Woman see M.4.G White Toucan Woman see M.5.A
Macaw 83, 123, 228-33, 246, see White Worm see M.4.A
M.6.A Woman Jaguar seeM.6.A, M.7
Manioc-squeezing Woman 148, see Wood Ibises see M.4.F
M.l.C, M.6.A Yawira 156-7, 169, 172-3, 222,
Manioc-stick Anaconda 15, 88, 95, see M.7
113,120, 121, 122-3,125, 139, Yeba 100,125, 156-7,168,222,
147,153,161,165,171,180, see M.7

328
Index

YebaMeni Anaconda 124, 125, 139, Pleiades

152, 153, 161-2 and He House 65-6, 224
Yurupary 90, 131, 132, 157, 169, symbolic significance of 181
171, 180, 194, 197, 199-200, and weather 171, 175-6, 191
201,217,223 see also myth, stars in
myths, elements of polygymy 27
creation 248, see M.l.A, M.8 port, in ritual 55, 95, 217
He 141, 142, see M.l.D see also river
incest see M.4.A
life and death 160ff, 183, 249
matriarchy 6, 127ff, 244 red paint
origins 24, 150ff, 160-1, 216, 225, as decoration 110
248; beer 59; birth shamanism see in myth: see M.l.B, M.2.F, M.4.D,
M.6.A; coca 59, see M.7.D; day and M.6.A
night 176-8, 180, 181, 188, 227, ritual use of 51, 59, 65, 72, 73, 80,
237, see M.2.B, M.3; fire see M.2.C; 96,184,217
He instruments seeM.4.H, M.5.A, B, symbolic significance of 179, 184, 219
M.6.A, M.7.K, M.8; manioc 212, see also black paint; body painting
see M.6.B, M.7.D; plants see M.6.B, religion
poison see M.4.F, G, H; ritual orna¬ control of 115
ments see M.7.1; thunders see M.2.D; and He 247
tobacco see M.7.G; shaman see study of 4, 106
M.2.A; water see M.2.D; yage 209, see also He, concept of; Yurupary cult
217. see M.8 rites
seasons 175 —8, see M.3 birth 117, 186, 187-8, 248; and initiation
Sun and Moon 227—33, 245-6, see M.3 91, 256; see also childbirth
mythology 3, 4, 14, 22, 87, 104, 241, 242, death 186, 214, 216; see also M.5.B
246, 252ff first menstruation 32; 131, 186, 193—4,
199, 201-2, 2(^4, 206,206-7, 244,
256; see also menstruation
omen, falling trees as 79 name-giving 117, 249
Oppossum see myth, characters in see also He rites; initiation
Orion see myth, stars in ritual
ornaments, ritual and descent-group structure 24
description of 5, 86, 146 importance of 3, 4
for sacred instruments 76, 82, 134 interpretation of 4, 241
symbolic significance of 154, 156, 204, and myth 6, 10, 14-15, 24, 252, 259
227,247 ritual, communal 27, 33, 132-3
use of 55,63,96, 111, 140 bare ekaria wi (house where food is
see also monkey-fur string; Yurupary given) 34, 35, 37, 52
masks basaria wi (dance house) 33-4, 35,
37,52,69
food-exchange 30, 34-5, 150
palm, paxiuba 134, 135, 152, 157-9, frequency of 41-2
161, 199, 218, 228;see also M.5, function of 35—6, 37, 132
M.8 He 10-11, 37-8, 141, 150-see also
pepper shamanism 84, 86, 88, 89, 93ff, He rites
107,183,222,234 He rika soria wi (Fruit House) 34, 35,
Pira-parana 37, 40, 106; see also He rites
region 41, 69, 152 He wi (He House) 34, 35, 37-8, 40;
river 18, 19, 21 see also He rites
see also Vaupes region and kinship 37,43
plants 28 and male social organisation 31
in myth 6, 171, 223; see also M.2.A, nahu kuiiria wi (house containing cassava
M.5.A, M.6.B, M.7 bread) 33-4, 95-9, 112
ritual, kanea 222>\kawia beu-hii 83,sioro river
hu 83; see also palm, paxiuba functions of 27

329
Index

and He instruments 47, 59, 72, 82, 141 mythical origins of 149, 152, 169;
ritual use of 47, 51, 60, 82, 217 see also M.7.D
symbolic significance of 215 and specialist-role system 23, 25—6,
rubber 21,109 37,116-17,147,149,152, 170
sleep, attitudes towards 81, 108, 109, 139
sloth
seclusion see confinement and He instruments 195-6, 197
seniority, principle of as ritual symbol 193, 194-6, 233
and longhouse organisation 31, 117 snuff, shamanised
in myth 228 at Fruit House 47, 52, 56, 58, 60, 62,
and ritual 55, 116 65
among sibs 25, 26, 116 at He House 73, 76, 80, 81,90, 123,
servants 25, 116, 148, 149 188,209,210,215
sexes, relationship between 4, 12, 13, for He instruments 67, 81, 202, 210
38, 131, 246, 250-1 symbolic significance of 154, 210—12,
sexual division of labour 28-9, 30 215,220,229,234
sexual intercourse social structure 23, 25, 116-17
attitude towards 85, 90, 199 and He House 154-5
symbolic 211, 220 mythical origin of 248-9
sexual relations 109-10 soul (usu-)
sexual reproduction breath as 32, 151
and agriculture 250 changing 120, 141, 151, 208, 220;
and ritual 12 see also M.2.F, M.4.D
v. social reproduction 10 and He 139,141
shaman 25, 36, 116 journey of 216, 249
function of 11, 32-3, 36-7,40,42, of shaman 120
140, 179, 207, 248; at Fruit House soul food 90, 154, 210
47,52,53,54,56,58,59-60, specialist-role system 25-6, 32, 116
62-3, 65, 67, 208; at He House and anaconda ancestor 152
72, 73, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, and daily life 37
86, 90, 92, 114, 116, 120-6, 153, and descent-group structure 117ff
218, 220, after He House 94—6, 97, and He instruments 146-9, 152, 155
99 spells, blowing see shamanism
and He instruments 149, 151, 157, spirits (watia)
158-9 and concept of He 139
and initiates 126 He instruments as 79, 82, 154, 193,
and myth 6, 10, 33, 120ff, 140, 220, 233
see also part V - Myths, passim stars 244
power of 10, 12, 33, 36, 37, 70, 95, see also He rites, frequency of; myth,
120,123,248 stars in; Pleiades
and women 27, 125-6, 130, 178, 199 Sun see myth, characters in
shamanism 32, 124 symbols, ritual 12, 248
of food 32, 83, 90-1, 99 see also He instruments; beeswax gourd,
against illness 33, 65, 72, 81,92-3 Yurupary instruments; Yurupary
and menstruation 125-6, 178 masks; ‘instruments of darkness’
and myth 120-1, 125, 230
of pepper 94ff
at rituals: childbirth 220, 248; Fruit tapir
House 47, 52, 53, 54, 58, 59, 60, in myth 141,200, 228; see also myth,
62-3, 65, 67; He House 67, 72—3, characters in
76, 81,82, 83-4,86,90,99,121, as food 99
210, 215-16 symbolic significance of 121-2, 123
siblings 25, 31 termites, in myth 220, 221; see also M.6
sibs tobacco 28, 29, 111,136, 202
and He rituals 37 in myth see M.2.F, M.4.H, M.5.A
and longhouse community 26 in ritual 36, 47, 65
and marriage 27 symbolic significance of 13, 210-13, 22

330
Index

tobacco gourd and men 112, 132; see also male/female

in ritual 210 polarity
see also M.6.A obligations of 42, 87
tribe, definition of 22-3 and ritual 4, 5, 12, 17, 31, 38, 47,
see also Indian groups 55,56,60,72,73,79,84,92,94,
Tukano, as linguistic category 21, 140 116,128,153,155,225,251
see also Indian groups ritual obligation of 72, 77, 79, 85,
88,95,96
status of 38, 128, 148
Universe, Indian concept of 144, 151,
167,172, 216 , 248
yage 29, 36, 59,82,97,140,144,182,
216,217
Vaupes region 18ff, 175, 196, 148, 149, effects of 86,209,215,247
193 at He House 78, 80, 90, 216
initiation in 61, 69, 243 for initiates 63, 78, 200
Yurupary cult in 4, 241 in myth see M.2.F
Yurupary instruments in 137, 140 — 1 shamanism of 52, 65
visitors 28, 109 vines 209
at rituals 55, 57, 59 see also coca
vomiting, ritual 51,60, 67, 85, 95, 217 Yurupary cult 3ff, 12, 102
symbolic function of 82, 189, 200, extent of 7, 16
202,217,218 and He House 107, 129
mythical origin of 216 interpretation of 129, 144-50, 256
Yurupary instruments 4, 5, 7, 190
classes of 149
warfare 86, 209 definition of 6-7, 202-3
warrior 25, 116 description of 134 — 8, 139-40, 142
concept of 110, 209 and initiation 61
He instrument as 146, 149 in myth 6, 12, 100
wasps 164, 174 at rituals 61, 100, 128-9
water 13, 135, 150 and women 129—31
attitude towards 90 see also He instruments
and myth 179, 228 Yurupary masks 193-5, 198, 206, 233, 244
symbolic significance of 123 see also ornaments, ritual
see also male/female polarity Yurupary myths 6, 9, 15, 127, 128, 131,
weather 132, 152-3, 157, 161, 168, 169,
animals and 195, 197 179,193-4,198-203,206, 242
control of 178-9 see also myth, characters in
and He instruments 198 Yurupary rites see He rites
and myth 227; see also Pleiades
periodicity of 183, 185
and types of work 191
whipping, ritual 5,61,64, 80
function of 207, 208, 209
in myth 194
symbolic significance of 13, 183, 206
whips 206, 207
whites, effects of 21, 23, 26, 241
see also missionaries
women
attitudes towards 131, 185, 205, 212-13,
222,250
daily life of 30
and dancing 58
in myth 6, 12, 127-8, 131, see also myth,
characters in: Romi Kumu

331
INDEX OF NAMES

Amorim, A. B. de 61, 67, 69, 77, 243 McGovern, W. M. 136,137

Arhem, K. 83 Maybury-Lewis, D. 113
Bamberger, J. 127, 128 Murphy, R. and Murphy, Y. 130
Bidou, P. 122 Paes de Souza Brazil, T. 137
Biocca, E, 130,137, 196, 206, see M.8; Prada Ramirez, H. M. 202, 206,
cit. Schaden 116, 149 265
Bolens, J. 90, 160, 201, 202, 252 Radcliffe-Brown, A. 254
Bruzzi da Silva, A. 21, 22, 79,135, 140, Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. 22, 23, 137, 140,
145,148,159, 160,196,199, 148, 160, 182,27 7, 244,
207, 243 245,252
Butt, A. J. 32 Richards, A. I. 246
Clastres, P. 187 Riviere, P. G. 113, 125, 126, 204-5, 206
Coudreau, H. A. 61,69, 193, 194, 243 Rozo, J. M. 159
Fulop, M.22, 127,160,161,180, 183, Saake, W.161,180,194,201,206
199,265,266 Schaden, E. 107, 128
Galvao, E. 86,136, 141, 149, 175 Schultes, R. E. 63
Geertz, C. 248 Schultz, H. 79
GheerbranJ, A. 206 Schwartz, H. B. 164
Goldman/I. 7, 23, 33, 34, 63, 64, 87, Silverwood-Cope, P. L. 41
106,113-14, 149, 150,177,183, Sorensen, A. P. 21
190, 199, 207, 208, 209, 244, 247, Sperber, D. 254, 259
252 StradeUi, E. 13, 131, 168, 196, 217
Gourlay, K. A. 129 Tambiah, S. J. 255
Gumilla, P. Jose 138, 175, 207 Torres Laborde, A. 34
Hugh-Jones, C. 14, 27, 46, 231 Turner, T. 258
Humboldt, A. de 137, 208 Turner, V. 253
Ihering, R. von 301 Van Gennep,A. 256
Izikowitz, K. G. 134 Wallace, A. R. 4, 158, 203
Jackson, J. E. 22, 196 Ypiranga Monteiro, M. 86,130, 141,
Koch-Grunberg, T. 54, 99, 141, 145, 168, 175
169,193,194,196,209,211
Langdon, T. 70, 93
Leach, E. R. 162, 205,255
Levi-Strauss, C. 3, 4, 6, 13-14, 15-16,
104,110,122, 128,131, 144, 160-1,
166,168, 169, 170, 172, 173, 176-7,
178,181,182,182-3,195,197,
202,219,225, 229-30,233, 235,
236-8, 246, 251 2, 253, 254,
255,256
MacCreagh, G. 209

332