Amerindian Amazons: Women, Exchange, and the
Transcription
Amerindian Amazons: Women, Exchange, and the
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Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Amerindian Amazons: and exchange, of society the Astrid women, origins Steverlynck Brandeis University in lowland South America, refer to the women, myths of Amazon-like widespread men and women: of particular ritual objects between ciba, greenstones, flutes, primordial exchange axes. This primordial the socially creative moment that led to the establishment represents exchange a general model or circulation The ritual exchange of society and provides for social relationships. of these objects turns ordinary exchanges into in other spheres involving male-male relationships The Amerindian in the myths. The myths the exchange described socially creative exchanges by ritually re-creating as the basis of society and to female-male shift the focus from male-male relationships relationships on the significance of exchange and social relationships in lowland South provide a commentary America. Early European travellers in South America reported on their encounters with warrior women and on the stories they heard about women who lived by themselves away from men, whom they swiftly identified asAmazons. Faced with the elusive existence of these women, later of explorers the region dismissed these stories as mere fantasies or borrowed tales (Steverlynck 2005). But centuries later the stories still persisted, now collected by ethnographers and anthropologists, revealing that they were clearly not the result of fervid imaginations but philosophical musings on the very nature of society and its contradictions, a metaphorical commentary on the world.1 I explore the significance of these stories and argue that the Amerindian myths of Amazon-like women refer to a general model of human social relationships based on the reproductive exchange between men and women.2 The myths relate that the women, who sometimes lived by themselves away from the men, possessed some cultural object essential for the establishment and continuity of society: In this article ciba stones and guanin ornaments among the Taino (Pan? 1999), greenstones in the lower Amazon, the Yurupari flutes among Tukanoan and Arawak groups (see note 24), Karok? trumpets among the Mundurucu (Y.Murphy & Murphy 1974: 88-9), ceremo nial axes among the G?-speaking Apinay? (Nimuendaj? 1939:177;Wilbert & Simoneau 1956: 335), and bullroarers and ritual masks among the Yamana and Selk'man of Tierra del Fuego (Bamberger 1974; Chapman 1982; Gusinde 1961 [1937]). The stories discuss Journal of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological Institute Institute (N.S.) 14, 572-589 2008 This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Astrid Steverlynck of proper social relationships between men and women through the exchange of these objects as a necessary condition for social life. The objects exchanged become fundamental valuables within different spheres of exchange spiritual, politi the establishment cal, and economic. Iwill start with the myth about theWomen of Matinino among the Taino, since this is the first recorded Amazon-like myth in the Americas. The Taino myths were collected very soon after Columbus reached the Caribbean by Fray Ram?n Pan?, who was sent by Columbus in 1494 to learn about 'the beliefs and idolatries of the Indians' (Pan? 1999: 3).3 The story related by Pan?, though short and incomplete, shares many fundamental elements with other accounts of Amazon-like women from lowland South America and reassures us in our understanding of them. Furthermore, it supports the existence of a native South American Amazon-like story predating the arrival of Europeans. I then pursue the analysis of other Amazon-like stories, in the lower Amazon and in the northwest Amazon regions. I base my analysis on the rich ethnographic material available and attempt a comparative study that leads to generalizations about the societies, focusing in significance of these myths in the wider context of Amazonian particular on what they reveal about the nature of social relations in the region. This article, then, constitutes an exercise in generalization of the kind proposed by Leach (1961) and following a trend in the region that started in the early 1980s (Overing Kaplan 1981;Rivi?re 1984) when the accumulated ethnographic information started to reveal fundamental principles underlying social and cosmological relations common to region, and continues today with Viveiros de Castro's (2001) attempt at a unified grand theory' of Amazonian sociality. Myths are polys?mie and acquire par at ticular meanings different levels of existence and within different contexts. Identi structure of the myths of Amazon-like women allows us to fying the fundamental understand their significance at all levels of existence as well as the variations in the the whole different contexts. The Women of Matinino The story of theWomen of Matinino is part of the cycle of myths about the origins of the Taino people. The myths tell that the Taino people emerged from the cave of Cacibajagua (in the region of Caonao in the Dominican Republic). The culture hero Guahayona convinced the women to leave the cave and took them to the island of in the sea called Matinino, where he left them. Then Guahayona met a woman stones him who ornaments called and ciba called guanin. Guabonito, gave gold alloy Pan? explains that in those lands the ciba are made of stones very much like marble, and they wear them tied to their their necks, and they wear guanines in their ears, in which they make holes when they are little, and they are made of a metal almost like a florin. (1999:10) arms and around Guabonito cured Guahayona of his skin sores and gave him new names. Guahayona, now called Hiaguali Guanin, went on to Guanin, csonamed because of what he carried away from itwhen he went there' (Pan? 1999: ch. 1-6).4 Ciba and the shaman Guabonito's shamanic powers are manifested in the cure She prepared a bath for him and placed him in seclusion, Journal of Guahayona's skin disease. after which he was cured of Institute of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions (N.S.) 14, 572-589 Institute 2008 573 574 Astrid Steverlynck his sores and he obtained new names. Similar curing techniques were used by the Taino behique or shaman (Pan? 1999: ch. 15-18). Ciba played an important part in curing rituals. During these sessions, the behique would suck the stones out of the body of the sick person. Pan? says: sometimes they believe it is true that those stones are good, and they help women give birth, and in cotton, and they put them into small baskets, and they feed they keep them very carefully, wrapped them some of what they eat, and they do the same thing with the zemis [cern?s] they have at home And (1999: 23).5 Ciba can also be related to the stones inside the shaman's rattle, which enhanced communication with the spiritual world. Among the Taino the most valued ones were the cohicibi, little stones made from the cobo shell (strombus giga, Pan? 1999: 9-10). Guabonito represents female fertility related to water, periodicity, and regeneration. According to Robiou Lamarche (1990:45), the appearance of Guabonito coincides with the appearance of the Pleiades, marking the beginning of the rains in June. Guabonito has also been related to the cern? Boinayael (Pan? 1999:17) associated with the moon, rain, periodicity, and the brown serpent. Stones or ciba were also related to fertility, associated in turn with and rain. According crops, women, to Las Casas, [T]hese stones were of three kinds ... they held each one to have its own power: one had the power to favor their sown lands; the second, so that women would have good fortune in childbirth; the power of the third was that they would have water and good rains when they had need of them (1967: ch. 120). The association Women passage. of ciba with wore ciba while pregnant women In the myth, the fertility amulets and reproduction as necklaces hanging is clearly reflected or tied around their in this arms, used ciba in the form of frog amulet pendants.6 power of ciba as shamanic object is associated with the creative powers of women: their ability to transform life and regenerate society. In lowland South America, the role of women in society is closely related to this creative potential that involves natural mixing, periodicity, and transformation. Women are associated with the periodic regeneration of plants and the seasons, they transform foods in pots as they transform life in their wombs, and they incorporate the Other through mar 1979; S. Hugh-Jones 1979). Many riage, transforming affines into kin (C. Hugh-Jones lowland South American myths tell how men lost this power accorded by menstruation and obtained shamanic powers instead, in the Taino case through the acquisition of ciba from Guabonito.7 Through the control and circulation of ciba, men as shamans essence. participated in the creative processes that involved the transformation of life in shamanism and, as we will see below, they were also Ciba were fundamental exchanged as part of marriage arrangements and political alliances. and the leader If ciba represented shamanic powers and the ability to control regeneration at the level, then guanin symbolized the power of the leader at the socio cosmological level, mainly concerned with the reproduction and continuity of social order political of social ties. Guanin were hammered objects and maintenance creation the through made of an alloy of gold, silver, and copper.8 Guanin was exchanged as part of mar riages, alliances, and as hospitality gifts among the elite. The Taino traded these objects Guanin Journal of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological Institute Institute (N.S.) 14,572-589 2008 This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Astrid Steverlynck the Island Carib, who in turn obtained them in the South American mainland. The value of guanin was partly based on its scarcity, as opposed to pure gold, which was found naturally on the islands, but, more importantly, guanin was valuable because it represented the fundamental role of the political leader in the establishment of social ties and in the continuity of Taino society. Guanin as an object of prestige legitimated with political power. Guahayona's mythical canoe journey is a fitting representation of the culture hero as leader and mediator in the process of regeneration of society. Guahayona's journey has a cyclical character related to the stars and the seasons that represents the periodical renewal of cultural order maintained through exchange with the other (Robiou Lama rche 1986). This periodical process of renewal and regeneration at times involved conjunction stressing complementarity with the Other and marked by a period of inter-island navigations. At other times it involved differentiation stressing opposition a period during which so that the boundaries of the social group could be maintained, the Taino stayed at home due to weather patterns (L?vi-Strauss 1978 [1968]: 153). The seasonal character of the canoe journeys among the Taino represents the periodic nature of regeneration through exchange, mediated by the leader, between Us and Other, in this case Taino and Island Carib. Through the acquisition of ciba and guanin from Guabonito, Guahayona becomes a shaman and a leader, two social roles that are essential in the establishment and regeneration of society. The reproductive exchange of ciba and guanin The philosophy underlying the regeneration of life described by Joanna Overing for lowland South America also underlies Taino ideas about regeneration: '[T]he universe exists, life exists, society exists, only insofar as there is contact and proper mixing things that are different from one another' (Overing Kaplan 1981: 161). The about theWomen of Matinino represent the role of the Other in the establish myths ment and regeneration of society. By taking away the women from the cave, Guahayona introduced a new order: men had to get 'new' women from outside the group in order among to reproduce their society. The myths tell that the quadruplets Caracaracol caught four eel-like creatures that came down from a tree. The woodpecker, Inriri Cahubabayael, turned the eel-like creatures into women by opening women's vaginas (Pan? 1999: ch. 7-8). The woodpecker is the shaman, a relationship that iswidespread in South American (L?vi-Strauss 1973 [1966]: 221-38). The Island Carib called their shamans mythology caracaracol, caracolis or coulloucoli (Taylor 1954: 153). The Caracaracol in the Taino myths can then be identified with Island Carib shamans. Thus, themyth tells us that the Taino obtained the first marriageable women, socially creative, with the help of Island Carib shamans, the archetype of the Other from the point of view of the Taino. In this way, the separation of men and women left in Matinino) is (the women assimilated to the distinction between Us and Other (the Island Carib in Guanin) that becomes creative through the reproductive exchange of ciba and guanin. Underlying this exchange in the political sphere is the primordial mythical exchange of ciba and guanin between men and women that constitutes creation and regeneration, which in social terms involves the incorporation of the Other. This is reflected in the exchange of ciba and guanin as part of marriage alliances. Las Casas relates that daughters from their fathers to take as their wives, sending in payment certain beads that they called cibas,... which means stones, because they called all stones cibas,... which they held as the lords bought Journal Institute of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions (N.S.) 14, 572-589 Institute 2008 575 576 Astrid Steverlynck ... precious and in great esteem They also gave in payment certain plates of guanin, that were a kind of poor gold that they smelled and held for precious jewels, to wear hanging from the ears ... (1967: ch. 99). The significance of ciba and guanin in this context is clearly represented in the myth. After leaving the women inMatinino and on his way to Guanin, Guahayona received ciba and guanin from Guabonito, marking the primordial exchange between men and women. With ciba and guanin Guahayona would then be able to participate in exchanges with other groups, and procure women, allies, political power, or prestige. Thus, it is not the circulation of women among men that is at the basis of exchange, as proposed by L?vi-Strauss (1969 [1949]: 116), but rather it is the exchange of creative powers between men and women (alternately the appropriation of female creativity by men), represented in this case by ciba and guanin. Furthermore, by taking the women toMatinino, Guahayona is first and foremost marking a separation between male and female creative rather potentials than the between separation sisters some and wives, thing that will happen later when affinity is introduced as part of the exchanges between Taino and Island Carib men in Guanin.9 The loss of female creativity, seen from the male perspective, is described inmany in lowland South America and marks the original separation or differen mythologies tiation of male and female creative principles (S. Hugh-Jones 1979). The story of the Women of Matinino tells how men lost female creative powers, which now remain inMatinino, and obtained ciba and guanin, valuables symbolizing creative that circulate in their place and that allow men, as shamans and leaders, to inalienable power achieve regeneration through exchange with Others. The primordial exchange of ciba and guanin that introduces creative difference constitutes the basis of society. Cecilia McCallum describes the construction of sociality as a process that involves two types of relationships that complement each other: ?[M]ale-male affinity allows men's engagement with male beings of the outside to transform them from supposed enemies into potential male affines. It implies the subsequent activation of male-female as men affinity, turn inwards again towards women. The until eventually kinship is produced' (2001:180). In the story of theWomen of Matinino the process separation them of male represented and by female ciba and creative guanin and potentials serves continues starts with the necessary as an that process underlying from here the cosmological exchange rationale, between or model, exchange, mediated by ciba and guanin, which is creative if it is again by male-female exchange in the domestic sphere (where women receive ciba for male-male mediated from men, male-male Male-Female Cosmological Ancestors their husbands as relations, ?> and fathers). cosmological Male-Male In this relations ?? sense, in male-female general relations encompass social encompass relations: Male-Female Inside/Social Outside/Social Affines Kin The control and exchange of ciba and guanin by men represents their control over the creative powers in the universe, not just female creativity but the conjunction of male, female, and ancestral creativity that leads to social regeneration. Through the proper exchange of these objects in the political sphere, men attempt to regenerate society as leaders and shamans, at the same time that they participate in the regenera tion of the universe at large. In this way, and following Santos Granero (1986), men as Journal of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological Institute Institute (N.S.) 14, 572-589 2008 This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Astrid Steverlynck 577 shamans and leaders control the mystical means of reproduction'.10 Seen in this light, we should not see women as being objectified when 'bought and sold' for ciba and guanin, but rather we should see ciba and guanin as sources of creative power that do not just represent but regeneration that are themselves of agents regeneration.11 The significance of material objects such as ciba and guanin in the wider social and eth cosmological world has been given little attention in contemporary Amazonian I will draw between the of role and and ciba the role of nography.12 parallels guanin other objects in lowland South America: greenstones, quartz stones, and sacred flutes.13 This will not only focus our attention on the social and cosmological significance of these cultural objects, but it will also illustrate some of the cultural continuities between the Caribbean islands and lowland South America.14 The Ikamiaba and greenstones A parallel can be drawn between the exchange of ciba and the exchange of greenstones, to other stories about Amazon-like women thus relating theWomen of Matinino in lowland South America. In general, greenstones refer to stone amulets of nephrite jade or serpentine shaped in the form of animals, especially frog, bird, lizard, and fish pendants, as well as cylindrical, square, and barrel-shaped beads.15 Sometimes similar amulets were worked in other kinds of stones of different colours: white quartz, for example. These stone objects were widespread inAmazonia but they seem to have been especially abundant in the lower Amazon area, where they were known as muyrakyt? and the frog motif was predominant.16 Drawing on historical and archaeological reports, Boomert shows that greenstones circulated as objects of ceremonial exchange between the elites, 'asmeans of death compensation, during transactions marriage and peace making and ceremonies, as forms of non-commercial payment to establish or maintain alliances between tribal or chiefdoms, just as other types of "primitive valuables" in other stateless segments societies elsewhere in the world' (1987: 37). This inter-tribal system extended through out the Amazon and Orinoco floodplains, reaching the hinterlands by their tributaries and along the Guiana participation in the coast as far as the Antilles. Greenstones system of inter-regional exchange and represented inter-tribal successful politics, and denoted political power and prestige. The exchange of greenstones led to the incorpo ration of the Other through alliances and, ultimately, to the construction of kinship and society through marriage. It represented, in the same way as ciba and guanin among the Taino, a form of social regeneration and continuity controlled by men in the political sphere. At the end of the nineteenth century, Barbosa Rodrigues (1899, II: 3) recorded three myths about the origin of greenstones or muyrakyt? in the lower Amazon, all variants of the same story:17 the Ikamiaba women of the Nhamunda river had abandoned the men of their tribe and established themselves at or Mountain of theMoon Yacy-Taper? on a sacred lake called Yacy-Uaru? (Lake of the Moon); every year the women fasted and held a feast in honour of the moon, who was the Mother of the muyrakyt? and dwelled at the bottom of the lake; the Ikamiaba dived in the water and received the in the shapes that they requested; the precious stones or muyrakyt? muyrakyt? remained soft while in the water but hardened outside when in contact with air; they came inmany shapes and colours. The Ikamiaba of the Nhamunda, like the Amazons of other parts of the world, had an arrangement with the men of their tribe: the men could visit the women only once a year, the male children born were returned to their Journal Institute of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions (N.S.) 14, 572-589 Institute 2008 578 Astrid Steverlynck fathers while the female children stayed with their mothers and their fathers were rewarded with gifts of muyrakyt?.18 The muyrakyt? or greenstones reflect the complementarity between male and female creativity and symbolize regeneration. When the stones were in the water, the primor dial feminine underworld, they were soft and malleable, like the rocks in the rapids of the Vaup?s river were soft and malleable in primordial times and bear the imprints of the ancestors. Once they emerged from the water, they became hard under the heat and energy of the sun.19Hence, they were handed over from the feminine to the masculine realm, involving a process of transformation that resulted from contact and exchange and men. The creative potential of greenstones between women that results from male-female creative contact underlies their circulation in the political sphere among men. Like the circulation of ciba, greenstones represent reproductive exchange and the circulation of life essence or creative potential at different levels of social existence between men and women, kin and affines, Us and Other, humans and ancestors. Peter Rivi?re says: of unlikes, of which inside and outside are stereo types of creativity depend on the mixing and this becomes clearest in essential moments of social reproduction the creation of forms, typical social beings in initiation and of social units in the house. However, I now think that there is a further rider to be added to this. What creativity requires is the transcending of the mundane like and unlike to achieve a cosmic (2001: 42). unity Certain He suggests that this transcendence is achieved through ritual because ritual time itself is transcendence, 'It is the temporary transcendency, during which the divisions of the ordinary world are suppressed, that is creative and not just the differences themselves' (2001: 42).20 In the myths, the exchange of greenstones, ciba, and guanin has this transcendent quality related to the spiritual world of the ancestors. These objects are permanent' character, Moroever, manifestations of that creativity thus making them creative.21 at the same time that they represent imbue social the ultimate phenomena with consubstantiation ritual - as far as it can be achieved - that underlies creativity and human existence, ciba, guanin and greenstones also reflect the ambiguity of this creative potential that is born of an insurmountable difference or tension between opposed but complementary principles. In this sense, these symbolic objects represent inmaterial form what myth represents at the level of ideas. Through the circulation of these objects humans negotiate the inherent tensions underlying existence in a creative way: male and female, Us and Other, kin and affine, human and spiritual. They are circulating myths, or a cosmology in circulation. stones in the northwest Quartz In the northwest Amazon region, greenstones. Quartz stone pendants flat ends and pierced with a hole Amazon region quartz stone pendants have an origin similar to arewhite opaque stones ground into cylinders with at the end through which a string is inserted. The chief's cylinder is larger and the piercing for the string is done lengthways so that the cylinder hangs transversely across the breast; it is the symbol of his authority (Ribeiro de Sampaio 1825: 114;Wallace 1870 [1853]: 279). The myths say that the culture hero - called it?-tix?ua (stone of the chief), according Yurupari obtained the stone pendant to Stradelli (Orjuela 1983), and nanacy, according to Barbosa Rodrigues (1899: II, 50) Journal of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological Institute Institute (N.S.) 14, 572-589 2008 This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Astrid 579 Steverlynck together with the feather ornaments necessary to celebrate the Yurupari rites. These versions relate the quartz pendants, it?-tix?ua or of the Moon nanacy, to the muyrakyt?, all originating from the Mountain (Yacy in Amazon northwest that the More the recorded say quartz Taper?). myths recently stone, feather headdresses, and other ritual paraphernalia were given to the ancestors by from the Mountain of the Moon, the primordial female shaman creator (Correa 1992; Fulop 1956; Panl?n Kumu & Kenhiri 1980).22 The ancestors gave these items to the culture hero so that he would be able to establish society. Thus, quartz stone pendants are related to ancestral creative powers. Quartz stones are especially significant in the context of shamanism. They are part of the shaman's paraphernalia, not only in the form of the cylinder pendant but also as magical stones that the shaman carries in a special pouch and are used in curing rituals, just like the ciba of the Taino. They are also found inside the maraca that enhances with the spiritual world (Goldman 1963: 164;Wilbert 1993;Wright 1998: 85-6). Reichel-Dolmatoff (1979) remarks that the quartz cylinder represents the communication or semen Sun's creative and energy that quartz allow crystals the to be shaman trans ported to the other world, where the real nature of things is revealed, allowing him to understand and influence the creative process.23 In the northwest Amazon allmen have access to shamanic power, thus all men used to wear the quartz cylinder. In the case of the leader, it enhanced his earthly authority by relating him to the ancestral source of vitality, order, and continuity. - or ancestral maloca Quartz crystals are at once a symbol of the primordial womb containing life essence and a symbol of the Sun's semen. They represent female creativity, yet the stones also represent the solar principle, hardness and masculinity, and are the of men's symbol control, as shamans and leaders, over the creative process. The sacred flutes In the northwest Amazon, the myths of Amazon-like women involve the flutes that women once kept hidden from the men. These instruments, known throughout the region as Yurupari flutes and associated with the culture hero Yurupari, represent the exchange between men and women that led to the establishment of society. Chaumeil proposes adds: that the complex is of Arawak of sacred flutes origin and interestingly We certain qualities of the Taino trigonolites, can't but be struck by the similarities between the to prevent stone' figures believed illness, make manioc grow, or facilitate 'three-pointed that the Taino shamans used childbirth, and certain attributes of the sacred flutes, knowing, moreover, famous trumpets with resonators during kilometres away (1997:106, n. 2). His comment mentioned their curing about the trigonolites sessions, the sound of which could be heard many seems to apply to ciba as described by Las Casas, above. The sacred flutes have a widespread presence in lowland South America, not only among the Tukanoan groups in the northwest Amazon but also among Arawak groups in the upper Orinoco Upper Xingu 102-3).24 I will and upper Rio Negro, among the Canela and theMehinaku in the of central Brazil (Chaumeil 1997: 97, region, and among the Mundurucu refer mainly to the northwest particular as described by Stephen Hugh-Jones Journal Amazon region, and to the Barasana in (1979). Institute of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions (N.S.) 14, 572-589 Institute 2008 Steverlynck 580 Astrid The Barasana myths tell that itwas the women who first discovered the sacred flutes or He instruments (S.Hugh-Jones 1979: 265-6). The creator had hidden the flutes in the led by the river, and before he could teach the men how to play them, the women, female ancestor Romi Kumu, stole them and ran away along the river-beds, thus abandoning the men. During this time the women played the flutes, performed the He House rituals (known more generally as Yurupari rituals), and became powerful. The men had to do the women's work and lived in fear of them. They were also worried about the future of humanity since the women refused to have sex. Finally, an ancestor helped the men get the flutes back through the use of shamanism. Some versions say that the shaman made new flutes and taught the men how to blow them, thus giving the them powers struation. of Other As shamanism. in the direction They blew versions say the rammed women made menstruate. them and causing men vaginas, debilitating the men that the men punishment, of women's instruments inside women's more generally as the culture hero Yurupari) who vaginas. Itwas He Anaconda (known men to the flutes and celebrate the He House rituals that how the play finally taught Barasana of foundations the constitute society. The He instruments or Yurupari flutes are the bones of the culture hero, and represent the ancestors, the He, who come alive during the rituals. The rituals are male initiation rituals but they also revitalize and re-create the whole society, the male descent groups. At the same time the natural world is regenerated since the flutes also represent animals that come to dance with the Barasana during He House. Similar rituals, called Fruit-House rituals among the Barasana and dabucuri more generally, celebrate the ripening of important fruits and plants. The ritual playing of the Yurupari flutes leads to the contact with the spiritual regeneration of the social and natural worlds through ritual world of the ancestors and the re-creation of the primordial world of creation, when human, natural, and worlds spiritual/ancestral were an undifferentiated, the spontaneously creative whole. Although women are not allowed to participate in the Yurupari rituals or see the sacred flutes, the flutes represent both male and female creative powers: for example, the flutes are played in pairs representing male and female complementarity. are fundamental in the rituals the beeswax gourd and menstruation Furthermore, men to shamanism. control that of female attempt through creativity symbols While women lost the flutes and shamanic powers to the men, they gained the power to menstruate, and shamanic and, powers vice versa, men cannot them allow that menstruate to control but the have they creative flutes the Yurupari The process. necessity to and complementarity in terms of establishing co-operation exchange, understood in that ismanifested differentiation men from this initial arises and between women, case where same was of the in the observed The Taino, male and female creativity. it is the shaman who causes Guahayona received shamanic powers from Guabonito and women to menstruate by opening up women's vaginas.25 The Barasana myths show shamanic control, female creativity would lead to an asocial world, the that without world of Amazon-like women, through the reverse voyage along the ancestral river beds from society back to primordial chaos, where there is always the threat of the animal or the spirit lover, the mixing of categories that should remain separate.26 At the same time, shamanic power alone, without contact with female creativity, is sterile (Erikson 2001; Rivi?re 1969). This is clear in the Yurupari rituals, where the shaman handles the beeswax gourd, a symbol of female menstruation and, according to creative power in of most fundamental the (1979), maybe symbol Stephen Hugh-Jones the rituals. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute ? Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 14, 572-589 2008 This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Astrid 581 Steverlynck and differences between male and female creativity are insurmountable to has be alive continuous achieved kept exchange co-operation through through reciprocity in production and reproduction in everyday life in order to achieve social regeneration. This is achieved through the establishment of proper social relationships that vary according to the social organization of each particular group (Steverlynck 2003). The proper celebration of the Yurupari rituals by men in the northwest Amazon the establishment of a particular social order - male descent groups, accompanies 1979; Jackson 1983) in virilocality, and language exogamy (?rhem 1981; S. Hugh-Jones which women are seen as uncontrollable and are associated with otherness while men The control regeneration quartz through ritual and shamanism (Jackson 1992), sacred flutes, and stones. Flutes and quartz stones are part of what Tukanoan myths call the Instruments of Life Transformation,27 a term that refers in particular to their power to transform life, in turn related to the power of women to create through transformation in pregnancy and birth as opposed to the creative powers of men related to aggression (killing animals to provide food and regenerate the animal world [?rhem 1996], burning trees to regenerate the world of plants), death (transmission of names/souls to newborn and control children), (ritual regeneration) (S.Hugh-Jones 1979). According to Stephen Hugh-Jones, although flutes are not normally exchanged, one might see flutes and feather ornaments (which were and still are exchanged) as one single complex with silent feathers as the visual, chromatic complement (must be seen; no noise) to noisy flutes (must be heard but not seen by women)' in press). Even if the (S.Hugh-Jones flutes are not actually exchanged, the playing of the flutes mediates all ritual exchanges between humans and spirits, humans and the natural world in He House and Fruit House rituals, or between Us and Other during Food House rituals (S. Hugh-Jones 1993; also Hill 1987). Hence, one could say that in a sense celebrating the rituals or playing the sacred flutes is similar to exchanging feather ornaments, greenstones, or ciba. Sometimes ritual blowing replaces the playing of the flutes, as in the exchange with the Master of Animals it is quartz stones that mediate (?rhem 1996); sometimes between between humans and the supernatural. What and complementary exchange of the flutes between men Barasana creative opposite is always represented potentials and women, which modelled constitutes is the exchange the mythical upon the foundation of society. Discussion The mythical exchange of ciba, guanin, greenstones, quartz stones, and the sacred flutes between men and women helps us to understand exchange and social relationships in general inAmazonia. In the myths, and following Overing's description of the philoso phy of life in Amazonia (Overing Kaplan 1981), the exchange of these objects is a creative process that leads to the establishment of society through the conjunction of male and human and ancestral/ female, opposed and complementary principles: spiritual. At the social level, creation and regeneration are achieved through the circu lation of greenstones, ciba, and guanin or through the ritual mediation of quartz stones and the Yurupari flutes that also circulate in the form of feathers. The myths of Amazon-like women provide a metaphysical commentary on the nature of social relationships in Amazonia that encompasses different views of social relationships developed in the region. Viveiros de Castro (1996), in a review article on Amazonian anthropology, recognizes three major analytical styles that produced Journal Institute of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions (N.S.) 14, 572-589 Institute 2008 582 Astrid Steverlynck diff?rent descriptions of social relationships: the political economy of control', the 'symbolic economy of alterity', and the 'moral economy of intimacy'. As he says, this classification 'highlights only theoretical emphases within a widely shared thematic field, and various ethnologists combine more than one' (Viveiros de Castro 1996:188). Thus, these approaches do not exclude one another as explanations of the social universe; rather they complement social relations. The each other by focusing on different dimensions of economy of control' approach of Turner (1979) and Rivi?re (1984) in the political sphere, mainly between men, that influence privileges relationships factors related to the distribution and control of people, such as marriage rules and in a particular residence, and shape the nature of social relationships post-marital political society. Viveiros de Castro also emphasizes the relationships that humans establish with the outside, again conceived mainly in terms of male-male relationships, but he points out that it is not just other people that humans have to deal with but many other types of Others. Thus, he gives priority to the cosmological sphere of relationships, rather than the political, and suggests that these relationships provide the model upon which other social relationships, at the political and domestic level, are modelled. He empha sizes the role of difference or alterity, often expressed in terms of pr?dation, as the structuring principle underlying social relationships in Amazonia, thus the 'symbolic economy of alterity' (Viveiros de Castro 1993; 1996). These two approaches are coun terbalanced by a shift in focus towards the domestic sphere and the construction of kinship inwhich the relationships between men and women are fundamental and are in terms of complementarity and reciprocity, rather than pr?da mainly understood tion. This iswhat Viveiros de Castro calls the 'moral economy of intimacy' proposed by McCallum (1989; 2001), Gow (1991), Santos Granero (1991), and Overing and Passes (2000). Nevertheless, although sociality or conviviality defined as a processual phe nomenon by Viveiros based on equality and reciprocity is far removed from pr?dation as proposed de Castro, it is also based on alterity or difference defined by gender and understood The as male Amerindian and myths female agency, in turn to related women of Amazon-like are creativity. concerned with social relation ships in all these spheres, the political, the cosmological, and the domestic, articulated through the idiom of exchange. Exchange in these spheres reproduces the primordial exchange between men and women that led to the establishment of society. Underlying exchange are the differences between male and female creativity that have to be medi ated in order for life and society to exist (Overing Kaplan 1981). The myths establish the in the acquisition of culture and of the feminine and the masculine complementarity the re-creation of society at the same time that they represent the tensions inherent in the relationships between men and women. There is always a potential for pr?dation, initiated in the Barasana case paradoxically not by the men but by the women, who keep the sacred flutes away from the men. This is expressed in other myths in the northwest Amazon, where women are described as unreliable partners in exchange: Be it that they take without giving in return (it is the image of the vagina that guards the white stone of Baribo in the Desana myth), be it that they do not want to receive (it is the image of the vagina that in the Curripaco myth) (Bidou 1996: 73). pushes out the sperm of Kaaritairi From the male This potential perspective, it is women who are voluntary or involuntary- predators. for pr?dation has to be overcome before society can be established. When Journal of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological Institute Institute (N.S.) 14, 572-589 2008 This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Astrid Steverlynck women openly refuse to co-operate with the men, it triggers a predatory response on the part of the men in order to re-establish the balance, as in the case of the Barasana and the Mundurucu. In such cases complementarity is achieved through pr?dation.28 Nevertheless, relationships are ultimately not about pr?dation but about establi Even if this is the more shing complementarity, reciprocity, and conjunction. unstable pole of relationships, it constitutes the ideal and the driving force in the system. The myths relate that on leaving the men, the women carried away with them some cultural object fundamental for the survival of society. The Apinay? Amazons took the ceremonial axes, the Tukanoan Amazons stole the Yurupari flutes, the Ikamiaba of the lower Amazon owned greenstones, while the Taino Amazons owned ciba. The under lying tension represented in themyths results from 'certain universal themes pertaining to gender differences and concerns about physical and spiritual reproduction (Jackson 1995: 91), or the Freudian problem of understanding how one can be born from two' (L?vi-Strauss 1963 [1958]: 217, original emphasis), and how to overcome this problem. The myths reflect not only this tension but also the way inwhich each society deals with it through social organization. Whether the women stole these objects that represent their creative power or they are the original owners of this power, and how the conflict is resolved, either through exchange or violent means, depend on the particular society in which the myth emerges. The mythical exchange between the women and the men varies, from peaceful co-operation involving reciprocity in the case of the Taino, the more to the and violent (predatory) forms of forced exchange Ikamiaba, Apinay?, the and the Tukanoan The variations in the way exchange is Mundurucu. among achieved in the different societies are related to their particular social organization, in turn the result of historical factors that will define the mechanisms of control and distribution of persons, the attitude towards outside others in general, and the culture of gender of a particular group.29 The myths shift the focus from the relations between men and other men, humans, and spirits to those between men and women. In this context, exchange is defined no longer by the relationships between men through women, as with L?vi-Strauss (1969a [1949]), but by the relationships between men and women through symbolic objects that then reproduce this creative moment at other levels of exchange involving different entities: kin and affines, Us and Other, humans and spirits, humans and animals. The exchange of these objects does not privilege one type of relationship over the other; rather it suggests a continuity between them. The significance of exchange reflected in the myths of Amazon-like women fits well with Weiner's discussion of gift exchange among the Kiriwina of the Trobriand Islands, in which she proposes that gift exchanges should be seen not just as the result of the principle of reciprocity enforced by some spiritual force inherent in the object - Mauss's - but as exchanged part of processes of reproduction obligation to return that involve whole societies (Weiner 1980). It is in this sense that the exchange of as such a ciba and constitutes total social fact, as described greenstones prestige objects Mauss in sense and it is also this that constitutes (1990 [1925]), by exchange society, as L?vi-Strauss I would include (1987 [1950]). ciba, guanin, greenstones, proposed by quartz stones, and sacred flutes as described in this article in the category of'total social objects' that Erikson (2001) uses to describe blowguns among the Matis, an expression that calls attention to the significance of these objects of material culture in the constitution of social life. The ritual/ceremonial exchange of these objects turns lournal Institute of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions (N.S.) 14,572-589 Institute 2008 583 584 Astrid Steverlynck and relationships into socially reproductive exchanges and rela the creative exchange between men and women ordinary exchanges tionships described by ritually re-creating in the myths. NOTES I also thank my I thank Dr Peter Rivi?re and Dr Stephen Hugh-Jones for comments and suggestions. Talks at the Department for feedback on this paper during the Colloquium colleagues at Brandeis University of Lowland South America Meetings of Anthropology, the attendees at the Society for the Anthropology 2007 reviewers of this article. in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the anonymous I See, e.g., Bamberger (1986); also Gregor (1985); McCallum (1994). (1974); Jackson (1992); Overing to differentiate in Amerindian them from their 21 speak of 'Amazon-like women representations I use the term 'reproductive exchange' following Weiner (1980). European counterparts. 3 to Columbus probably around 1498. The original manuscript has never been found Pan? gave his manuscript Account. I rely on Arrom's edition of Pane's account (Pan? 1999). and survived only as part of Columbus's 4 aman and his own sister, who, H?aguali is related to Hiali, the son of the incestuous relationship between in lowland is widespread into the moon. This myth when discovered, fled the tribe and was transformed South America and was recorded by Breton (1665) and Taylor (1952) among the Island Carib. Taylor translates as it appears among the Island Carib as 'He-who-has-become-brilliant' (1952: 269). Guanin was the a place associated with the or ornaments to hence of the the of guanin, gold alloy place origin given is called guan? (Pan? Island Carib. In some regions of Cuba and the Dominican Republic the hummingbird Hiali name 1999:11, m. 44). 5 Cern? were figures the spirit ancestors of the Taino. They were owned and worshipped by representing etc. (Arrom 1989 [1975]; particular caciques and were believed to have control of the weather, fertility, crops, Pan? 1999: ch. 19-24; also Las Casas 1967: ch. 20; Stevens-Arroyo 1988). 6 in lowland South America The association of frogs, rain, and fertility iswidespread 1973 (see L?vi-Strauss 19340; 1934fr). 1985: 94-5; Wass?n [1966]: 66-7, 75-7, 224-5; L?pez-Baralt 7 role in the reproductive process. The role of male semen is, of This does not by any means deny men's course, of the foetus are sometimes not clearly and the development Ideas about conception recognized. as the product of semen contributions, some groups see women just as containers and the foetus to the foetus's development. blood also contributes others recognize that the mother's Nevertheless, defined: while regardless substances and transformation of these the creative mixing and thus the natural, creative process of transformation as Stephen 1979; S. Hugh-Jones 1979). Conversely, (C. Hugh-Jones in their role of mediators, have an ambiguous quality, related both of the origin of the contributing can only occur inside the woman's substances, womb, represented as a feminine one (1979) has argued, shamans, because they seek At the social level, shamans are usually male in Amazonia and tomasculinity. to control natural and supernatural creative powers to render them socially beneficial, and control is a male there are female shamans in Amazonia (Santos Granero 2007: 7). quality. Nevertheless, 8 into thin trapezoid plates, and is also found in the shapes of half-moons, Guanin was usually hammered and Venezuela circular plates, and eagles. The Island Carib called it caracoli or karakoli; in northern Colombia is usually Hugh-Jones to femininity it was known as tumbaga (see Nagy 1982; Rivet 1923; Rivet & Arsandoux 1946; Siegel & Severin 1993; Vega 1979). 9 The of exogamy, thus the has been interpreted as the introduction of Matinino story of the Women and wives of sisters 1985; Sued-Badillo 1986). (see L?pez-Baralt separation 10 the role of the shaman from that of the leader in order better to In this section we have distinguished the significance of ciba and guanin in relation to these roles. Both ciba and guanin had political and religious significance (1986) argues that (Robiou Lamarche 1983:127; Vega 1979: 28,36). Santos Granero the roles of the shaman and the leader are intimately related. in lowland South America II (in press) says: Stephen Hugh-Jones understand to ciba and Inmythological terms, the Instruments of Life Transformation [ritual objects comparable at all but divine bodies existing as bone and crystal guanin, see below] are not human productions substances, whose qualities of hardness, durability, scarcity, whiteness, purity, brilliance and lumines nature ... [They are] items of wealth and objectified forms of cence all emphasize their otherworldly In Andrello's and controlled power... shamanic knowledge whose value condenses labour, know-how words, in the Tukanoan case 'objectification is the same as personification'. 12 should be noted: Chaumeil Some exceptions (2001); Erikson in the same volume; Reichel-Dolmatoff (1979); Rivi?re (1969). Journal of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological Institute Institute (N.S.) (2001); S. Hugh-Jones 14, 572-589 2008 This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions (in press) and others Astrid 13 One Steverlynck that symbols are always contextual and polys?mie, a fact clearly shown by (1979) detailed analysis of the symbolic significance of the sacred flutes among the at the cosmological level, these symbols share an essential quality that refers to their their power to transform. should bear in mind Stephen Hugh-Jones's Barasana. Nevertheless, creative potential, 14 The origins of the Taino have been traced through archaeology, to lowland linguistics, and ethnology South America (Rouse 1992;Wilson 1993). Many authors have remarked on the cultural parallels between the islands and the South American mainland 1989 [1975]; L?pez-Baralt 1985; (Alegr?a 1986 [1978]; Arrom 1988; Sued-Badillo 1978). Stevens-Arroyo 15 see Barata (1954); Barbosa On greenstones Rodrigues (1951);Wass?n (19340). Asseburg 16 Several names have been recorded for these stones, speaking Indians), (Lokono-Arawak takourave of the Guianas (1899); Boomert (1987); de Goeje (1932); Koehler among them buraquitas or muyrakyt? (Tupian tacao?a (Island Carib), calicot or macuaba (Kalina of Guiana), and the Lower Orinoco). I follow mainly Boomert's analysis of the archaeo or tacorao sources on greenstones (Boomert 1987). logical and ethno-historical 17 The same version appears in de Sousa (1873: 99) and Heriarte (1975 [1662]: 180). 18 This seems to be European elaboration. There are no other stories in lowland South America that mention as Stephen this sort of arrangement. Nevertheless, argues (1988: 148), new ideas are Hugh-Jones into mythical narratives in culturally specific ways that make sense in the context and incorporated mythical to the people in question (see also Gow 2001). 19 The relationship between and femininity, and hardness, the sun, and mas softness, underwater/water, inAmazonian 1979; S. Hugh-Jones (C. Hugh-Jones 1979; Reichel-Dolmatoff culinity is generalized cosmology 1971; Roe 1982). 20 - the For a similar role of music in achieving transcendency in ceremonial exchange playing of flutes see Hill (1987). among theWakuenai, 21 In the context of exchange, we might that represents the creative potential of identify this transcendence all exchange as something similar to mana. 22 Tukanoans call these ritual objects Instruments of Life Transformation in press). (ILT) (S. Hugh-Jones 23 Shamanic training among the Tuyuka of the northwest Amazon involved the insertion of quartz crystals called dupa into the body of the trainee (Koch-Gr?nberg 1995: II, 146-7). 24 Myths about the sacred flutes: for the northwest Amazon region see Biocca (1965: 269-81), Correa (1992); (1979); Jackson (1983: 188); Panl?n Kumu 8c Kenhiri Fulop (1956: 355-66); S. Hugh-Jones (1980: 51-125); Reichel-Dolmatoff see R.F. Murphy (1996: 3-14); for the Mundurucu (1958: 89); Y. Murphy & Murphy (1974: see Nimuendaju 88-9); Nadelson of (1981); for the Canela-Ramkokamekra (1946: 248-9); for the Mehinaku the Upper Xingu see Gregor (1977: 255; 1985). 25 In the Barasana myths, menstruation appears both as something positive received from Romi Kumu and as inflicted by men, reflecting the ambiguous character of female creativ something negative (punishment) so that it will lead to social regeneration. This tension or contradiction ity, which needs to be controlled two different and the fabric of myth; account for the same fact contradictory explanations (S. Hugh-Jones 1979). 26 The story of the caiman lover among the Apinay? is related to the myth of Amazon-like women the Barasana this tension is heightened 1939:177-9; Steverlynck 2003: ch. 6). Among (Nimuendaju by the fact that two women kept the original flutes hidden in their vaginas, which leaves the possibility open to women to regain their lost powers and abandon 1979). society once again (S. Hugh-Jones 27 These include: rattle lance, shield, stool, cigar/tobacco, tobacco smoke, forked cigar-holder, gourds, screen, maraca, Yurupari flutes, feather adze, split-palm gourd stand, coca, caimo and kana fruits/juice, ornaments in press). (S. Hugh-Jones 28 of kinship to acts of sociability, since Similarly Vila?a points out that 'we cannot reduce the production we must recognize that cannibalism and pr?dation are equally effective means for producing kin (2002:359). 29 The analysis of such variations and the myths of requires a detailed analysis of the social organization these particular groups, a task that would exceed the limited space available for this article. I have conducted constitutes such an analysis elsewhere for the Taino, the Tukanoan groups of the northwest Amazon, the Mundurucu, and the Apinay? (Steverlynck 2003). Also see Jara (1988) for an analysis of Kalina (Carib) and Xikrin (G?) cases. Langdon argues that gender ideology is part of a larger ideological system that is and even contradictory, with respect to the multifaceted, images of male that are selected to invest sexual relations with are influenced meaning bring the sexes together in various ways ... [Differences Journal and female ... [T]he aspects that by the social institutions in community structure, kinship, marriage Institute of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions (N.S.) 14, 572-589 Institute 2008 585 586 Astrid Steverlynck and sexual patterns, affect what segregation a group selects and uses as part of its culture of gender (1984: 22). at the outset, myths are and embrace multiple, and sometimes contested polys?mie ambiguous, even same within on the ritual or social context, the the social Thus, group. meanings depending myths can or opposition or both. 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R?sum? du Sud, les mythes am?rindiens ?voquant des femmes r?pandus dans les plaines d'Am?rique aux ? entre font Amazones r?f?rence rituels primordial comparables l'?change d'objets particuliers et femmes : ciba, pierres vertes, fl?tes, haches... le hommes Ces ?changes primordiaux repr?sentent moment socialement cr?atif qui a d?bouch? sur l'?tablissement de la soci?t?, et donnent un mod?le g?n?ral Largement sociales. L'?change ou la circulation rituels de ces objets dans d'autres sph?res impliquant une ? homme transforme ces transactions ordinaires en processus socialement cr?atifs en aux Il d?place l'accent des relations femmes-hommes recr?ant rituellement l'?change d?crit par lesmythes. des relations relation d'homme relations hommes-hommes comme ?changes et des relations sociales dans base de la soci?t?, les plaines et apporte un ?clairage du Sud. at the University Steverlynck obtained her D.Phil in Social Anthropology at the Universidad she teaches Anthropology de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Astrid F. Bardi 1256, Vicente Lopez 1638, Argentina, sur la signification des d'Am?rique of Oxford in 2003. Currently [email protected] Journal Institute of the Royal Anthropological ? Royal Anthropological This content downloaded from 137.238.123.180 on Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:27:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions (N.S.) 14, 572-589 Institute 2008