Sacharuna Library

2.1_The term He is polysemic...in its most restricted sense the term refers in particular 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 unusually 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 existance. Originally everything was He 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 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. pp 9-10

2.2_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 manipulate the He state at will; such people are seen as living on two planes of existance 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 during which the 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. pp10.

3.1_Among the Barasana, there is no absolute difference between those men recognized 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. By controlled breathing, accompanied by by mutered 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. pp32

3.2_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 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...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.pp 32

3.3_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 [children, initiates, men, elders, women, etc.] subject to danger from specific categories of food which must be treated by the shaman prior 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...pp32-33

3.4_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 resoects: first, they know more myths, and secondly, they know and understand the esoteric meaning behind them. In the hands of 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. pp33

4.1_As the main expression of a secret men’s cult, focusssed on the He instruments that women are forbidden to see on pain of death, it establishes 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 patrilienally 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 aldo 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. pp38

4.2_ 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 worl is attuned to the 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.pp38.

5.1_Most of the chants are based around the journeys of the first ancestors, the 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, specially those used in ritual. Barasana myths, like many of their Australian aborigine counterparts, are precisely located in topographical space...each incident is tied to a precise, named location, and each time a character passes from one place to another, all places through which he travels are listed in detail. This geographical framework forms the major articulation between myths and chants.pp59

5.2_During the chants, the specialist chanter, under the influence of yagé, is able to make his soul leave his body so that it repeats the mythical journeys of the first ancestors...The time sequence of this journey corresponds, in part, to the sequence of the ritual so that, by the end, the chanter will have ‘arraived’ back in the pirá-paraná region, and, at different times during the rites, informants will say,’now he has to go to such and such a place’.pp59

6.1_Immediately following He house, all participants ans specially the initieates spend a period during which they are subject to rigid restrictions on their diet an other activities. For the initiates the end of the 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.., 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...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 would enter the woman’s body and she would get stabbing sickness and die. The men are harmful and poisonous ‘like menstruating women’ and they too are harmed by contact with women. Sexual intercourse is absolutely forbidden as it would cause abroken back and the men fear possible contact with poisonous menstrual blood.pp84-85

6.2_The diet of the men consists essentially of cassava bread made entirely of manioc starch, toasted manioc starch, sauba ants, ground termites, forest fruit, especially umari-cultivated roots and bananas. The food eaten by the initiates must be specially pure and free from all traces of pepper, meat juices, etc...they must also eat in ways that displays great control. They eat only very small mouthfuls at a time and must cover their mouths with their hands as they eat. pp85

6.3_Each day the initiates are expected to get up before dawn and bathe at the port. They must wash their faces with leaves that produce suds so that the facial skin is changed and becomes white. 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 from the body; this dirt would otherwise cause listlessness and lack of strength. The bathing and vomiting is also said to maka the initiates frow faster. pp85.86.

6.4_People who have seen He and are under restrictons are believd to be inherently weak, lazy and soft...There is in fact a real sense in which the men are lazy for after the He house they are forbidden to carry out the normal masculine tasks of hunting and fishing and must do no streneous work.. pp87

6.5_...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. The initiates burn 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 die. But above all, they must be industrious and make lots of basketry and feather ornaments... PP87, 88.

6.6_From the time that the He are first seen at the beginning of the rite until the time when pepper is blown, all contact with heat in any form whatsoever must be stringently avoided...the initiates must not see, smell or have any contact with fire...[they] must not smoke any tobacco except the ritual cigars that have been treated by the shamans (the elders do smoke however)...initiates must not expose themselves to the heat of the sun and must therefore not go beyond the eaves of the house, even to uriate...the sun would,,,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.pp88

6.7_Another set of prohibitions relates to being raised above the ground. During the rite, only shamans 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. pp89

6.8_Eating food that has not previously been rendered safe by blowing causes sickness and death. Each category of food, each eadible animal and plant, has its own associated set of symptoms (sores on diffrent 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 and from being filled with frease or fat. 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 eatig large amounts of earth. pp 92.

7.1_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 explusively at He House. These sacred objects each have their own myth of origin, while their man-made counterparts have none. pp100

8.1_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’. pp 104.

9.1_Very few shamans have the necessary power and knowledge to officiate at this rite...officiating at He House is considered to be an onerous and dangerous task. he successful outcome depends on the shamns’ abilities and if they fail the results are disastrous, causing the deaths of many people, in particular the initiates. 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 rites andsubsequent events. their task is to bring about a change in state in the initiates, called changing the soul or spirit, and also to protect them and the other participants from illness and other danger that might 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. pp120

9.2_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, an informant explained: ‘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, 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), so they come up again This is the blowing and spell against disease, everything, the blowing of food, the blowing of coca. This is the real shaman’s path. pp120, 121.

9.3_Shamans are associated with both fire and water [also with Tapirs (water) and callicebus monkeys (fire)]. 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. Today, this snuff plays a crucial role at he house. One method of curing serious illness, known only to the most powerful shamans, involves throwing water over the patient...According to a Yurupary myth from the Baniwa, the two brothers of Amaru, Yurupary’s mother, were called Dzuri, ‘blow’, and Mariri, ‘suck’. Both were shamans and their names are a neat summary of shamanic activity. pp 123.

9.4_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’ 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, ‘jaguar’ has the wider connotation of ‘predator’. Thus from the point of view of termites, termite-eating birds are their ‘jaguars’. 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 the land and fish in rivers, jaguars swim and climb trees, and anacondas come out of the water onto land.. According to the Barasana, if an anaconda wants to eat birds, it sheds its skin and becomes and eagle. These animals, as predators, control the passage from life to death amongs the other animals in their domains. In myths, as the ancestors of humanity, they are also given creative powers...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 ature and culture. Theses are also the artibutes 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 between the worlds of humans and spirit ancestors in ritual. pp125

9.5_

10.1_...there is a sense in which shamans are also conceived of as sexually ambiguous. First there is an ideal that they should remain elibate 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 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. pp 125.

10.2_The Barasana see shamanism and the ability to menstruate as being mutually exclusive but also closely linked. In myth, Romi Kumo 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. According to Barasana shamans, the Hair of woman is the equivalent of the He instruments. When woman see their hair falling in front of theirfaces they menstruate; when men see the He instruments they undergo a period of restrictions seen as equivalent to menstrual confinement; by controling the He istruments, shamans thus control menstruation. pp125

10.3_According to the trio [Tirió?] Indians of Surinam, shamans are like menstruating woman; the Barasana would well understand this statement. At the onset of puberty, a girl becomes ‘opened up’ and from the on she is ‘opened up’ during each menstrual period. Shamans are also ‘opened up’ in that the positive aspects of their activities are associated with oral and anal incontinence...shamns are also...confined in special enclosures during He House just as women are so confined during menstruation. pp126

10.4_Riviére (1969a:268) argues that shamans and menstrusting 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. pp 126

10.5_...the possession of He (instruments) and the ability to menstruate are seen as being complementary but mutually exclusive: whe 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 women still have the He and it is this that cases 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. They regained only one kind of He (instruments) wich implies political dominance but they lost another (women’s hair) which implies menstruation and the power to create children. pp132.

10.6_...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 open up and made to menstruate. pp 132

11.1_The word He is 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; ...He people are either the first ancestors of humanity, represented by the He instruments, or the poeple who take part in He House... pp139

11.2_He pertains to the world of myths. This world is timeless and changeless and persists as another aspect of everyday existance. 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. 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 tha Australian aborigine concept of 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 Brasana concept of HE. PP139

11.3_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 leaves on the forest floor, human beings are in danger of losing touch with the beginning and source of life, the world of myth. Accordingto one informant, the object of He house is literally to squash the pile so that the initiates, described as people of another layer 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 continuance 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 yagé. One informant summarized 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. PP 140

11.4_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 fat describe a fradual process of diffrentiation...The He world is thus, in one sense, the world of forest and animals, nature. I say ‘in ne sense’ because whilst the Barasana see human souls ans spirit people as being like animals, they emphasize that they are not identical. PP 141

11.5_The lifecycle of each person repeats this process of diffrentiation 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 try to suck the child into their anus-a reversal of birth- as they are jealous of the loss of one of their number. birth is thus like a passage from the animal world (nature, He) to the Human world (culture). pp 141.

11.6_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...the men are constantly entering into contact with the he world..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 eneter the house bearing gifts of fruit from the forest. This fruit, called He fruit, is the food of animals and birds. The He are thus mediators between nature and culture, between animals and men and between the forest and the house. They are therefore exactly like tamed animals . pp142

11.7_In addition to being ifentified 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. pp142.

11.8_According to the Barasana, the large communal houses in which they live represent the universe: the roof is 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 haose are the edges of the world. Shamans see the house like this, as do other men when under the effcets of yagé. At He house, all the animals in the world come to dance; they are the He People, the He instruments and the other items of ritual equipment. pp 144.

12.1_Breath is the manifestation of the soul 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 snoff is blown into the He by the shamans to feed their souls and 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 toa 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. pp 151.

12.2_The He instruments are the bones, specially the paired long bones of the legs and arms of manioc-stick anaconda...The other items of ritual equipment are also parts of [it’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 ...are his testicles; the elbow ornaments are his elbows...When these items are assembled together at He house, then Monioc-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. pp154.

13.1_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 vreate and destroy life. Thee complementary but opposed attributes are shared by the He instruments: they were created through fire but are now kept cool in water. As Anaconda ancestors they have the power to create life, but in their fierce aspect as jaguars they are associated with the life-destroying qualities of warriors and killers. The Barasana call the paxiuba palm [pona?] the He palm and also besuu palm: the word besuu means spear or lance and more generally any lehtal weapon. Unlike most other palms with large fruit, the fruit of the paxiuba palm is poisonous and the sap from its roots causes violent irritation of the skin... 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. pp159

14.1_[as Manioc-Stick Anaconda must die burned to ashes in order for the He instruments and the manioc gradens to come alive, so]..the participants at He house must die. They are killed by having large amounts of snuff(=destructive fire) blown up their noses prior to the rites pp161

14.2_The death of Macaw and Manioc Stick Anaconda is a deth 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 the other ritual equipment, their bodies too are brought to life. Their immortality is echoued in the constant reiteration of the words ‘you won’t disappear, you won’t die’. This is, in effect, 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. Although the passage of time is conceived 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 immortality. pp162