Edward Abseexcerpt from a recording I made of a shaman’s celebratory alabanzas,
or “praise” chants and songs:
This “book” (xon) somehow encases or embodies knowledge of spe-
cial ritual languages and healing techniques. These teachings are made
manifest to and are assimilated by the shaman only “little by little”
(the oft repeated expression in Mazatec is “tjobi, tjobi” or, in Span-
ish, “poco a poco”), as they gradually are made available in the form
of divinely revealed solutions realized in the attempt to cure specific
cases of illness. Knowledge is something one actively accumulates with
experience over time, even though in some sense all of it is always al-
ready there in the Book of Knowledge pertaining to each shaman.
Many ritual practitioners are wont to insist that each shaman’s book
is entirely different from those of others. Yet the claim that such knowl-
edge belongs in any exclusive sense to the individual shaman is belied
or at least attenuated by the fact that there are many similarities and
even equivalences between the various shamans’ specific practices. In
each case, these are for the most part apparently a selection from a
common extensive repertoire of ritual forms that even have the same
names. Indeed, experienced patients who consult with different sha-
mans are prone to misrecognize as evidence of sorcery whatever mi-
nor idiosyncratic elaborations they might discern in a given shaman’s
practice. All this suggests that the transmission of shamanic knowl-
edge moves along channels other than or in addition to the visionary.
For example, most shamans I interviewed referred to members of their
extended family who were also chjota chjine—a grandparent, an aunt,
or maybe an uncle. There were almost always small children present
bumbling about during otherwise solemn ritual occasions. And, of
course, adults and children witness and participate in healing cere-
monies as patients, including those who will later become shamans in
Xon tsje
Xon naská
Xon nizjin
Xon xoño
Xon fate
Xon énPure [clean] Book
Beautiful Book
Book of the Day
Book of the Morning Dew
Shining Book
Book of Language