Thinking through Tubes: Flowing H/air and Synaesthesia

The tube, as both object and concept, has cropped up from time to time in the ethnography of lowland South America, most notably in Rivière and Lévi-Strauss’s discussions of blowpipes, hair tubes and pottery and in Hill and Wright\u27s writings on Yuruparí flutes and trumpets. Using data from Northwest Amazonia, this paper first seeks to provide a more rigorous definition of the tube as a concept, exploring its various manifestations and relating these to the body as an image of totalization and detotalization. With reference to myths about creation and Yuruparí, the paper then argues that flows from tubes provide an abstract, generic model of human reproduction, growth and creativity and explores parallels between Amerindian and pre-Enlightenment European ideas of the human body and its fluids. Involving both the visual and acoustic registers, creativity as flow also implies synaesthesia, an issue that figures prominently in Tukanoan myths about yagé where the blood of birth gives rise to undifferentiated speech, music and ornament that are then differentiated as the baby’s body is dismembered. The paper concludes by suggesting that the peculiar emphasis on tubes and synaesthesia in Northwest Amazonian thought may have to do with conceptual issues related to patriliny and exogamy

Good Reasons or Bad Conscience? Or Why Some Indian Peoples of Amazonia Are Ambivalent about Eating Meat

Originally written for a conference on meat attended by farmers, anthropologists, people involved in cultural affairs, and other members of the public, and seeking to avoid emphasis on cultural difference, this paper explores common ground between Euro-American and Amerindian ambivalence about meat consumption. Meat-eating raises two shared concerns: an intuitive recognition of the resemblances between humans and animals and an uncomfortable awareness that human life often depends on the death and destruction of other living beings. I suggest that, behind some obvious cultural differences, Amazonian shamanic and ritual procedures aimed at the de-subjectification of meat share points in common with various Euro-American procedures that seek to disguise or render invisible the harsher realities of meat eating

The Origin of Night and the Dance of Time: Ritual and Material Culture in Northwest Amazonia

Based on a survey of published material complemented by original fieldwork, this paper shows that Northwest Amazonian Arawakan, Tukanoan and Makuan stories of the Origin of Night form parts of a single, more inclusive myth about the sequential creation of earth, trees, house-frames, roofing leaves, night, song and dance. Here a box of feather ornaments plays a central role as the container of both roofing leaves and night with leaves as feathers, the ornaments of the house-as-person. When placed on the house-frame as thatch, these ornament-leaves shut out the light causing night. The feather box, a container of bright yellow feathers that order time, appears in myth as a manifestation of the sun and is paired with the rattle lance, another object with solar and lunar connotations. The lance measures the phases of nocturnal ritual dances by mimicking crickets whose changing noises mark the passage of night. More abstractly, the paper concerns the understanding of time in terms of changes of color and sound in the natural world; how time is given material form in ritual objects; and how the wild time of natural sounds is domesticated and controlled through ritual dances involving feather ornaments and sequences of song and dance

Patrimony, Publishing, and Politics: Books as Ritual Objects in Northwest Amazonia

With particular reference to works by Tukano and Desana authors, this paper examines some of the cultural and historical factors that underlie the unique propensity of indigenous peoples of Northwest Amazonia to publish their narrative histories in books. Jointly written by a knowledgeable elder and a younger literate amanuensis, each book in Coleção Narradores Indígenas do Alto Rio Negro series contains the origin narratives, myths, and recent history of a particular group, told from the point of view of one of its clans. Writing down and thus rescuing oral traditions under threat from the pressures of education, urbanization and other factors makes good sense in the context of a contemporary Brazilian world favoring claims to autonomy and separate identity. However, the paper argues that these books are also transformations of ritual objects that amount to ancestral relics. The Tukanoans’ interest in books as objects also makes sense in relation to much older religious practices and political strategies with features of the Tukanoans\u27 patrilineal organisation implying a cultural predisposition to reify their culture that predates contact with outsiders. If there is an elective affinity between aspects of traditional Tukanoan culture and their liking for books, so too does the Kayapó\u27s emphasis on the aesthetic effects of their political rituals fit neatly with their enthusiasm for VCRs and camcorders

Good Reasons or Bad Conscience: A Postscript

Published in French in 1996, the original article for which this comprises a post-script set indigenous Amazonians’ attitudes to meat alongside those of Euro-Americans. With the accelerating deforestation of Amazonia linked with the cultivation of soya used to feed animals for meat, and with calls to reduce or abandon meat consumption as one way of averting catastrophic climate change, it is topical once again. In this postscript, I reply to two contrasting critiques of the article, the first wary of an excess of ontology, the second distrustful of a deficit of it. Does a focus on ritual and shamanism obscure the wanton mistreatment and wholesale slaughter of animals in everyday Amerindian hunting practices? Does an appeal to sentiment ( bad conscience ), as a common dimension in indigenous and Euro-American attitudes to animals, risk obscuring important differences between the ontologies of the peoples concerned? Responding to these critiques, I defend the approach taken in the article and clarify my original, incautious use of the phrase bad conscience

Lévi-Strauss, Poronominaré and the Cicadas. A footnote to The Jealous Potter

Lévi-Strauss’s book The Jealous Potter is devoted to an exploration of an Amerindian moral philosophy preoccupied with myths about the regulation of entry into and exit from the digestive tract. Sloths and howler monkeys are exemplars of continence and incontinence. Sloths have both a feeble whistle as a voice and fastidious excretory habits – on the rare occasions that they defecate, they come down from the trees to leave rock-hard droppings in one specific place. By contrast, howler monkeys..

Body Tubes and Synaesthesia

The flows through tubular forms in the body, material culture and the natural environment play a key role in the thought of the indigenous peoples of Northwest Amazonia. Using examples from daily life, mythology and ritual, this paper examines the tube as an abstract concept that unites physiology, psychology, and productive processes with wider sociological and cosmological issues. The material, visual, and acoustic manifestations of tubular flow (�hair�) also raise the issues of synaesthesia and fractal notions of totalization / detotalization. With tubes as tantamount to life itself, ritual attention is focused on regulating bodily and other apertures to ensure balanced, tempered flow. The paper concludes by suggesting that the cultural elaboration of tubes and synaesthesia in Northwest Amazonia may relate to the lineal, exogamic features of social structure characteristic of the region.Los flujos a través de formas tubulares en el cuerpo, en la cultura material y en el medio natura juegan un papel clave en el pensamiento de los pueblos indígenas del noroeste amazónico. Usando ejemplos de la vida cotidiana, la mitología y el ritual, este artículo examina el tubo como un concepto abstracto que une fisiología, sicología y procesos productivos con aspectos sociológicos y cosmológicos más amplios. Las manifestaciones materiales, visuales y acústicas del flujo tubular ("cabello") también plantean los asuntos de sinestesia y nociones fractales de totalización/destotalización. Siendo los tubos equivalentes a la vida misma, la atención ritual se enfoca en regular las aperturas corporales y de otros tipos para asegurar un flujo balanceado y bien temperado. El artículo concluye sugiriendo que la elaboración cultural de tubos y sinestesia en el noroeste amazónico puede estar relacionada con los rasgos lineales exogámicos de la estructura social característica de la región.Os fluxos através de formas tubulares no corpo, na cultura material e no meio natural ocupam um papel chave no pensamento dos povos indígenas do noroeste amazônico. Usando exemplos da vida cotidiana, a mitologia e o ritual, este artigo examina o tubo como um conceito abstrato que une fisiologia, psicologia e processos produtivos com aspectos sociológicos e cosmológicos mais amplos. As manifestações materiais, visuais e acústicas de fluxo tubular ("cabelo") também levantam questões de sinestesia e noções fractais de totalização/destotalização. Sendo os tubos equivalentes à própria vida, a atenção ritual se foca em regular as aberturas corporais e de outros tipos para assegurar um fluxo equilibrado e bem temperado. O artigo conclui sugerindo que a elaboração cultural dos tubos e sinestesia no noroeste amazônico pode estar relacionada com os traços lineares exogâmicos da estrutura social característica da região

A courtship but not much of a marriage. Lévi-Strauss and British Americanist anthropology

To begin with I should say how honoured I am to be able to render homage to Lévi-Strauss, who I personally consider to be not only the greatest living anthropologist, but also the greatest anthropologist, full stop. So it’s a great pleasure to be allowed to say some words about him. However, I’m afraid I’m the bringer of not particularly good news in that what I want to say to you is that my colleagues – my British colleagues – probably should have rendered rather more homage than they have d..

The spirit with no anus and the pots that fart: ceramics of life and death in Northwest Amazonia

This paper takes as its starting point the story of a spirit with no anus whose inability to fart leads to his death and transformation into clay. In particular, it examines the relationship between pottery trumpets associated with this spirit (played in exchange ceremonies) and bark Jurupary trumpets and suggests that the two instruments stand in a relationship of “flesh” and “bone”. Uncovering this parallelism provides an opportunity to revisit noise, putrefaction, and beer in Northwest Amazonian mortuary rituals, where other types of pottery trumpets are used in conjunction with Jurupary trumpets. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the relevance of these mythical and ritual materials to Amazonian archaeology and the interpretation of anthropomorphic burial urns.Cet article a pour point de départ l’histoire d’un esprit sans anus que son incapacité à péter conduit à la mort et à une transformation en argile. Il examine plus particulièrement les relations entre les trompes en poterie associées à cet esprit (jouées lors de cérémonies d’échange) et les trompes en écorce de Jurupary et il suggère que le rapport de ces deux instruments est homologue à celui entre « chair » et « os ». La mise à jour de ce parallélisme permet de revenir sur le bruit, la putréfaction et la bière dans les rituels funéraires du nord-ouest amazonien, où d’autres types de trompes en poterie sont utilisées conjointement avec les trompes de Jurupary. L’article se termine par une brève discussion sur la pertinence de ces matériaux mythiques et rituels pour l’archéologie amazonienne et l’interprétation des urnes funéraires anthropomorphes.Este artículo toma como punto de partida la historia de un espíritu sin ano cuya incapacidad para tirarse pedos le lleva a la muerte y a la transformación en arcilla. En particular, examina la relación entre las trompetas de cerámica asociadas a este espíritu (tocadas en las ceremonias de intercambio) y las trompetas de corteza juruparies y sugiere que existe una relación entre ambos instrumentos entre “carne” y “hueso”. El descubrimiento de este paralelismo nos permite revisitar el ruido, la putrefacción y la cerveza en los rituales mortuorios del noroeste amazónico, donde se utilizan otros tipos de trompetas de cerámica junto con las trompetas juruparies. El artículo concluye con una breve discusión sobre la relevancia de estos materiales míticos y rituales para la arqueología amazónica y, en particular, para la interpretación de las urnas funerarias antropomorfas