to be covered in darkness and overrun by witches); to retrieve
lost souls and make sick persons well—all are phrases that
appear in shamanic discourses about journeys to the other
world. In all phases of this journey, the beauty, goodness,
unity, order, and truth—in a word, the “light”—of the other
world (with the exception of the places of Kuwai) stand in
contrast with this world of multiple pain and evil. In one
sense, then, the shaman’s quest would seem to be one of
“beautifying” this world by seeking to create order and pre-
venting the darkness of chaos.
In the 1950s, the majority of the Baniwa converted to
evangelical Protestantism, introduced by missionaries of the
New Tribes Mission. Their mass conversion was historically
continuous with their participation in prophetic movements
ever since the mid-nineteenth century; however, evangelical-
ism provoked a radical break from their shamanic traditions,
as well as serious divisions and conflicts with Catholic Bani-
wa and those who sought to maintain their ritual traditions.
Today, after half a century, evangelicalism is now the pre-
dominant form of religion in over half the Baniwa communi-
ties, although there is a growing movement among non-
evangelicals to revitalize the initiation rituals and mythic tra-
ditions.
Maku. The universe of the nomadic Maku Indians of
the interfluvial region in the Northwest Amazon takes the
form of an upright egg, with three levels or “worlds”: (1) the
subterranean “world of shadows,” from where all the mon-
sters come, such as scorpions, jaguars, venomous snakes, the
river Indians, and whites; (2) “our world”; that is, the forest,
and (3) the “world of the light” above the sky, where the an-
cestors and the creator, the Son of the Bone, live. Light and
shadow are the two basic substances from which all beings
are composed in varying proportions. Light is a source of life.
Shadow is a source of death. In “our world,” leaves and fruit
are the beings with the highest concentration of light, while
carnivores have the highest concentration of shadow. For this
reason, it is better to avoid eating carnivores and restrict one’s
diet to herbivores. In the world of light after death, people
nourish themselves with delicious fruit juices and become
eternal adolescents.
The main mythological cycle of the Maku relates the
epic tale of the Son of the Bone, whose name varies with the
subgroup. The myth describes the survivor of a fire that put
an end to the previous creation. His attempts to recreate the
world resulted in a series of blunders: conflicts, sickness, and
death, all resulting from the mess left behind. After his wife
is abducted by his youngest brother, the Son of the Bone
leaves this world behind forever, going to live in the world
of light, above the sky and the thunder, from where he some-
times emits an expression of revenge. Coincidence or not, in
real life, brothers often fight among themselves, in dispute
over the same women, or with their affines, in accordance
with the clan system.
Yanomami. The Yanomami comprise four linguistic
subgroups inhabiting the mountainous rainforests of north-
ern Brazil and southern Venezuela. Accounts of creation vary
considerably among the groups, although a common theme
holds that after the destruction of the primordial world by
a cosmic flood, humans originated from the blood of the
Moon. The souls of deceased Yanomami, whose bone ashes
are consumed during the rituals of reahu, are incorporated
into the blood-lakes of the Moon, where they are regenerated
and later reincarnated, through falling rain, to a new exis-
tence on earth.
The Yanomami word urihi designates the forest and its
floor. It also signifies territory or the region currently inhab-
ited. The phrase for “the forest of human beings,” the forest
that Omama, the creator, gave to the Yanomami to live in
generation after generation, is “Yanomami land” or “the
great forest-land.” A source of resources, for the Yanomami,
urihi is not a simple inert setting submitted to the will of
human beings. A living entity, it has an essential image and
breath, as well as an immaterial fertility principal. The ani-
mals it shelters are seen to be avatars of mythic human/
animal ancestors of the first humans, who ended up assum-
ing their animal condition due to their uncontrolled behav-
ior, an inversion of present-day social rules. Lurking in the
tangled depths of the urihi, in its hills and its rivers, are nu-
merous malefic beings, who injure or kill the Yanomami as
though they were game, provoking disease and death. On
top of the mountains live the images of the animal-ancestors
transformed into shamanic spirits, xapiripë. The xapiripë
were left behind by Omama to look after humans. The entire
extent of urihi is covered by their mirrors, where they play
and dance endlessly. Hidden in the depths of the waters is
the house of the monster Tëpërësiki, father-in-law of
Omama, where the yawarioma spirits also live; their sisters
seduce and enrage young Yanomami hunters, thereby en-
abling them to pursue a shamanic career.
The initiation of shamans is painful and ecstatic. Dur-
ing initiation, which involves inhaling the hallucinogenic
powder ya ̃ko ̃ana (the resin or inner bark fragments of the
Virola sp. tree, dried and pulverized) for many days under the
supervision of older shamans, they learn to “see” or “recog-
nize” the xapiripë spirits and to respond to their calls. The
xapiripë are seen in the form of humanoid miniatures deco-
rated with colorful and brilliant ceremonial ornaments.
Above all, these spirits are shamanic “images” of forest enti-
ties. Many are also images of cosmic entities and mythologi-
cal personae. Finally, there are the spirits of “whites” and
their domesticated animals.
Once initiated, the Yanomami shamans can summon
the xapiripë to themselves in order for these to act as auxiliary
spirits. This power of knowledge, vision, and communica-
tion with the world of “vital images” or “essences” makes the
shamans the pillars of Yanomami society. A shield against the
malefic powers deriving from humans and nonhumans that
threaten the lives of members of their communities, they are
also tireless negotiators and warriors of the invisible, dedicat-
ed to taming the entities and forces that move the cosmologi-SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS: INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST AMAZON 8625