The Fruit of Knowledge and the Bodies of the Gods
Religious Meanings of Plants among the Baniwa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v3i1.126Keywords:
cosmology, shamanism, indigenous religions, ethnobotany, agricultural mythologyAbstract
This article focuses on the sacrificial acts of divinities and other primal beings whose bodies became cultivated and wild plants; and plants as forms of gifts and other types of exchange from the deities to humanity among the Baniwa peoples of the Northwest Amazon. I seek to extend Viveiros de Castro’s ideas on Amerindian ‘perspectivism’ (1996, 2002) to evaluate their ‘fit’ to Baniwa spiritual ethnobotany. Initially, I see a major difference between the perspectivism and agentivity of animal and fish-people, which is very common amongst all Arawak and Tukanoan-speaking peoples, and the plants which derive more often from a divinity that has been sacrificed, dismembered, transformed, and divided up into many distinct plants. The predator-prey relation between animals and humans is secondary when compared to sacrifice and gifting relations between plants and humans, which seem to have more to do with the development of chiefly and priestly societies.
References
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———. 1993. Keepers of the Sacred Chants: The Poetics of Ritual Power in an Amazonian Society (Tucson: University of Arizona Press).
Hugh-Jones, Stephen. 1979. The Palm and the Pleiades (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Jensen, A.D.E. 1948. Weltbild einer frühen Kultur (Wiesbaden).
Journet, Nicolas. 1995. La paix des jardins. Structures sociales des Indiens Curripaco du Haut Rio Negro (Colombie) (Paris: Institut d’ Ethnologie, Musée de l’Homme).
Kapfhammer, Wolfgang. 1996. Grosse schlange und fliegender jaguar. Zur mythologischen grundlage des rituellen konsums halluzinogener schnupfdrogen in Südamerika (Völkerkundliche Arbeiten, 6; Bonn: Holos-Verlag).
———. 2009. ‘Divine Child and Trademark. Economy, Morality, and Cultural Sustainability of a Guaraná Project among the Sateré-Mawé, Brazil’, in R.M. Wright and A. Vilaça, Native Christians (Aldershot: Ashgate): 211-28.
Koch-Grünberg, Theodor. 1967 [1909]. Zwei jahre unter den indianern: reisen in Nordwest Brasilien, 1903–05 (Stuttgart: Strecher & Shroder).
Overing, J. 1990. ‘Shaman as a Maker of Worlds: Nelson Goodman in the Amazon’, Man N.S. 25: 601-19.
Overing, J., and Alan Passes (eds.). 2002. The Anthropology of Love and Anger (London: Routledge).
Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo. 1968. Amazonian Cosmos: Sexual and Religious Symbolism among the Tukano Indians (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
———. 1975. The Shaman and the Jaguar (Philadelphia: Temple University Press).
Saake, Wilhelm. 1958a. ‘Die Juruparilegende bei den Baniwa des rio Issana’, in Proceedings of the 32nd International Congress of Americanists (Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard).
———. 1958b. ‘Aus der überlieferungen der Baniwa’, Staden-Jahrbuch 6: 83-91.
———. 1958c. ‘Mythen über Inapirikuli, des Kulturheros der Baniwa’, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 93: 260-73.
———. 1959–60a. ‘Kari, der Kulturheros, feiert mit den Baniwa-Indianern das erste Dabukurifest’, Staden-Jahrbuch 7-8: 193-201.
———. 1959–60b. ‘Iniciação de um pajé entre os Baniwa e a cura de Marecaimbara’, Sociologia 6: 424-42.
Streck, Bernhard. 1997. Fröhliche Wissenschaft Ethnologie (Munich: Hammer).
Sullivan, L.E. 1988. Icanchu’s Drum (New York: MacMillan).
Turner, Terence. 1988. ‘Ethno-Ethnohistory: Myth and History in Native South American Representations of Contact with Western Society’, in J.D. Hill (ed.), Rethinking History and Myth: Indigenous South American Perspectives on the Past (Urbana: University of Illinois Press): 235-81.
Viveiros de Castro, E. 1998. ‘Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 4.3: 469-88. doi:10.2307/3034157.
———. 2002. A inconstância da alma selvagem (e outros ensaios de antropologia) (São Paulo: Cosac & Naify).
Whitehead, Neil, and R.M. Wright. 2004. In Darkness and Secrecy: The Anthropology of Assault Sorcery in Amazonia (Durham, NC: Duke University Press).
Wilbert, Johannes. 1993. Tobacco and Shamanism in South America (New Haven: Yale University Press).
Wright, Robin M. 1981. ‘The History and Religion of the Baniwa peoples of the Upper Rio Negro Valley’ (PhD diss.; StanfordUniversity).
———. 1993-94. ‘Pursuing the Spirit: Semantic Construction in Hohodene Kalidzamai Chants for Initiation’, Amerindia 18: 1-40.
———. 1996. ‘Aos que vão nascer. Uma etnografia religiosa dos índios Baniwa’ (Tese de Livre Docência apresentada ao Departamento de Antropologia, IFCH, UNICAMP).
———. 1998. Cosmos, Self and History in Baniwa Religion: For Those Unborn (Austin: University of Texas Press).
———. 2002. ‘Prophetic Traditions among the Baniwa’, in J.D. Hill and F. Santos-Granero (eds.), Comparative Arawakan Histories: Rethinking Language Family and Culture Area in Amazonia (Champaign: University of Illinois Press): 269-94.
———. 2005. Historia Indigena e do Indigenismo no Alto Rio Negro (Campinas: Mercado de Letras).
Arhem, K. 2001. ‘La red cósmica de la alimentacion’, in Philippe Descola and Gisli Pálsson (eds.), Naturaleza y sociedad: perspectivas antropologicas (Mexico: Siglo Veintiuno): 214-36.
Carneiro da Cunha, M. 1999. Xamanismo e Tradução (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras).
Garnelo, L. 2007. ‘Cosmology, Environment, and Health: Baniwa Food Myths and Rituals’, História, Ciências, Saúde—Manguinhos 14 (supplement): 191-212. doi:10.1590/S0104-59702007000500009.
Garnelo, L., and R.M. Wright. 2001. ‘Doenças, práticas e serviços de saúde: representações, práticas e demandas Baniwa’, Cadernos de Saúde Pública 17.2: 273-84. doi:10.1590/S0102-311X2001000200003.
Hill, Jonathan. 1984. ‘Social Equality and Ritual Hierarchy: The Arawakan Wakuenai of Venezuela’, American Ethnologist 11: 528-44. doi:10.1525/ae.1984.11.3.02a00070.
———. 1993. Keepers of the Sacred Chants: The Poetics of Ritual Power in an Amazonian Society (Tucson: University of Arizona Press).
Hugh-Jones, Stephen. 1979. The Palm and the Pleiades (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Jensen, A.D.E. 1948. Weltbild einer frühen Kultur (Wiesbaden).
Journet, Nicolas. 1995. La paix des jardins. Structures sociales des Indiens Curripaco du Haut Rio Negro (Colombie) (Paris: Institut d’ Ethnologie, Musée de l’Homme).
Kapfhammer, Wolfgang. 1996. Grosse schlange und fliegender jaguar. Zur mythologischen grundlage des rituellen konsums halluzinogener schnupfdrogen in Südamerika (Völkerkundliche Arbeiten, 6; Bonn: Holos-Verlag).
———. 2009. ‘Divine Child and Trademark. Economy, Morality, and Cultural Sustainability of a Guaraná Project among the Sateré-Mawé, Brazil’, in R.M. Wright and A. Vilaça, Native Christians (Aldershot: Ashgate): 211-28.
Koch-Grünberg, Theodor. 1967 [1909]. Zwei jahre unter den indianern: reisen in Nordwest Brasilien, 1903–05 (Stuttgart: Strecher & Shroder).
Overing, J. 1990. ‘Shaman as a Maker of Worlds: Nelson Goodman in the Amazon’, Man N.S. 25: 601-19.
Overing, J., and Alan Passes (eds.). 2002. The Anthropology of Love and Anger (London: Routledge).
Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo. 1968. Amazonian Cosmos: Sexual and Religious Symbolism among the Tukano Indians (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
———. 1975. The Shaman and the Jaguar (Philadelphia: Temple University Press).
Saake, Wilhelm. 1958a. ‘Die Juruparilegende bei den Baniwa des rio Issana’, in Proceedings of the 32nd International Congress of Americanists (Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard).
———. 1958b. ‘Aus der überlieferungen der Baniwa’, Staden-Jahrbuch 6: 83-91.
———. 1958c. ‘Mythen über Inapirikuli, des Kulturheros der Baniwa’, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 93: 260-73.
———. 1959–60a. ‘Kari, der Kulturheros, feiert mit den Baniwa-Indianern das erste Dabukurifest’, Staden-Jahrbuch 7-8: 193-201.
———. 1959–60b. ‘Iniciação de um pajé entre os Baniwa e a cura de Marecaimbara’, Sociologia 6: 424-42.
Streck, Bernhard. 1997. Fröhliche Wissenschaft Ethnologie (Munich: Hammer).
Sullivan, L.E. 1988. Icanchu’s Drum (New York: MacMillan).
Turner, Terence. 1988. ‘Ethno-Ethnohistory: Myth and History in Native South American Representations of Contact with Western Society’, in J.D. Hill (ed.), Rethinking History and Myth: Indigenous South American Perspectives on the Past (Urbana: University of Illinois Press): 235-81.
Viveiros de Castro, E. 1998. ‘Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 4.3: 469-88. doi:10.2307/3034157.
———. 2002. A inconstância da alma selvagem (e outros ensaios de antropologia) (São Paulo: Cosac & Naify).
Whitehead, Neil, and R.M. Wright. 2004. In Darkness and Secrecy: The Anthropology of Assault Sorcery in Amazonia (Durham, NC: Duke University Press).
Wilbert, Johannes. 1993. Tobacco and Shamanism in South America (New Haven: Yale University Press).
Wright, Robin M. 1981. ‘The History and Religion of the Baniwa peoples of the Upper Rio Negro Valley’ (PhD diss.; StanfordUniversity).
———. 1993-94. ‘Pursuing the Spirit: Semantic Construction in Hohodene Kalidzamai Chants for Initiation’, Amerindia 18: 1-40.
———. 1996. ‘Aos que vão nascer. Uma etnografia religiosa dos índios Baniwa’ (Tese de Livre Docência apresentada ao Departamento de Antropologia, IFCH, UNICAMP).
———. 1998. Cosmos, Self and History in Baniwa Religion: For Those Unborn (Austin: University of Texas Press).
———. 2002. ‘Prophetic Traditions among the Baniwa’, in J.D. Hill and F. Santos-Granero (eds.), Comparative Arawakan Histories: Rethinking Language Family and Culture Area in Amazonia (Champaign: University of Illinois Press): 269-94.
———. 2005. Historia Indigena e do Indigenismo no Alto Rio Negro (Campinas: Mercado de Letras).
Additional Files
Published
2009-07-20
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Articles
How to Cite
Wright, R. M. (2009). The Fruit of Knowledge and the Bodies of the Gods: Religious Meanings of Plants among the Baniwa. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 3(1), 126-153. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v3i1.126
