tion of the bones of hunted game, can be traced to the belief
that residual elements of the soul remain in the bones after
death. The conceptualization of a “bone soul” has led to the
ritual consumption of bone ash from dead family members.
This form of endocannibalism is practiced at the present
time by different groups of the Yanoama and appears to have
been relatively widespread in western South America.
Among the Yanoama, we find a perception of a soul that re-
sides outside the body of a living individual, a concept sel-
dom documented in South America. Such a soul most often
dwells in an animal, but sometimes also in plants. This type
of soul may reside, for example, in a harpy eagle if the soul
is that of a man, or in an otter if it belongs to a woman. The
predominant element of such a concept is that of an identical
life pattern: when the respective animal dies, its human
counterpart will also die, and vice versa. An animal soul, usu-
ally referred to as a “bush soul,” represents the alter ego of
a specific individual.
Some of the fundamental beliefs in an alter ego preva-
lent in South America stem from within the shamanic do-
main. The Araucanian female shaman (machi) possesses an
alter ego in the form of an evergreen canelo tree (Drimys win-
teri) that she tends in the forest and whose fate is intimately
linked to her own. If someone discovers this tree and destroys
it, the machi invariably dies.
Honoring the dead was an essential component within
the religions of old Peru, as exemplified by the care that
mummies of the ancestors were given by priests (Métraux,
1949) and by the sacrificial victims brought to them. Mum-
mies were also taken on procession at certain festivals.
One of the few cases of a developed cult of the dead in
the tropical woodlands is exemplified by the ghost dance of
the Shipaya of the lower Xingu, which is the most significant
religious celebration of this Tupi tribe. The souls of the dead,
which are well disposed toward mankind, express a desire to
the shaman—through the words of the tribal chief—that the
celebration known as the Feast for the Souls of the Dead
should be held. It is believed that the souls of those long dead
will take possession of the shaman, who is covered with a
white cotton mantle; in this form, the soul can participate
in the dancing and drinking enjoyed by the living in the cen-
ter of the village. When souls have borrowed the body of the
shaman, his own soul lies idle in his hut. The ceremony con-
tinues for eight or more nights, during which other men who
have also become the embodiment of dead souls appear in
similar dance mantles.
An ancestor cult is also the focal point in the religion
of the Cubeo who live in the northwest Amazon region. The
soul of a dead person proceeds to the abode of the benevolent
ancestors, which is located near the dwelling place of his sib,
where all its dead are reunited. The ancestors are represented
by large trumpets that are used not only at funeral rites but
also at the initiation ceremonies for the boys of the tribe, who
are whipped as these trumpets are played. The ancestors, rep-
resented by the trumpets once again, are also guardian spirits
at sib gatherings. The sound they emit is believed to be a
source of male strength when played during a men’s bath in
the river.
Among the Mundurucú in central Brazil, the large wind
instruments are the embodiment of the sib ancestors when
played at a particular men’s feast. Like the trumpets of the
Cubeo, they are not allowed to be seen by the women. At
the end of the Mundurucú ceremony, a special drink made
from manioc is poured into the instruments and is collected
in a calabash bowl as it comes out the other end; it is then
drunk by the participants. This ritual, which is looked upon
as a form of spiritual communion with the ancestors, is in-
tended as an act of reconciliation that will win their favor and
help their descendants.
The combination of a memorial service for the recently
dead and a commemorative ceremony for the legendary trib-
al ancestors can be seen in the Kwarup ritual of the Ca-
mayura, a Tupi group of the upper Xingu. The Kwarup
(from kuat, “sun” and yerup, “my ancestor”) centers around
a number of posts, each about three feet high, outfitted and
ornamented as human beings and carved from the sacred
camiriva wood from which the creator, Mavutsine, allegedly
fabricated the first Camayura. The chant given as people
dance around these posts is the same one that Mavutsine
sang as he created mankind. In the Kwarup ritual the ances-
tors return symbolically for the purpose of welcoming those
who have recently died.
Death cults and ancestor worship also play an important
role in the eastern Brazilian cultural area, particularly among
the Boróro. This tribe makes a sharp distinction between na-
ture spirits and spirits of the dead. The Boróro believe that
the souls of their ancestors (aroe) hold a close relationship to
mankind that influences and maintains its daily life. On cer-
tain social occasions, the spirits of the dead are ceremonially
invoked by special shamans to whom the spirits appear and
whom they enlighten in dreams. As a result of this important
attachment to the spirits, the funeral rites of the Boróro are
highly developed and complex. After a ceremonial hunt, the
successful hunter becomes the representative of the dead man
at the funeral proper, which consists of a series of established
rites. Among these is a dance in which the most interesting
elements are large disk-shaped bundles of wood that repre-
sent the dead person. At the same time that the dance is
being performed, the deceased person’s bones, which have
been buried for two weeks, are exhumed and painted red
with urucú. Feathers associated with clan colors are glued to
the bones. The specially decorated skull is then displayed to
the mourners. After a period of safekeeping in the house of
the deceased, the basket in which the bones have been placed
is sunk in a deep section of the nearby river.
Among the Ge-speaking Canella (eastern Timbira), it
is the medicine men who usually establish contact with the
spirits of the dead, since they are omniscient. But even those
members of the tribe who do not possess particular spiritual
abilities seek advice from their ancestors in emergencies. In8584 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIAN RELIGIONS: AN OVERVIEW