Time and Memory in Indigenous Amazonia

Time and Memory in Indigenous Amazonia
An rhropological Perspectives
Edited by Carlos Fausto and Michael Heckenberger
University Press of Florida
Gainesville Tallahassee Tampa Boca Raton Pensacola
Orlando Miami JacksonvjUe Fc. Myers Sarasota
8
Bones, Flures, and the Dead
Memory and Funerary Trearments in Amazonia
Jean-Pierre Chaumeil
Amazonian ethnology has displayed considerable interest in recent years in forms
of mourning among lowland South American societies. The region in face pres-
ents us with a puzzling contrast when we turn to this topic: the extreme complexiry of representations and discourses relating to death appears to be balanced bya
relacive simplicîry-nol: to say a real scarciry- in mormary practices. CornmentatOrs have frequendy evoked the absence of cuIts, cemereries, or even visible places
associated with the dead, as well as the shallow depth of genealogical memory
among these populations, the widespread forgetting of the dead, or the taboos
placed on rhei r names, in order to refure the idea of any predisposition roward the
dead in the Amazonian region . This apparent disinterest in the deceased and the
lack of visibility at the level of practice is (hus seen to be com pensated by a rare
complexiry in rhe meraphysica.l conStructions concerning death.
Withour conœsring (his very ceal wealth of symbolism. a close examinarion
of the empirical data nonetheless raises a number of questions concerning the
supposed pauciry of .A.mazonian mortuary pracrices. The works available [Q us
on this cheme actually reveal a more nuanced and varied panorama, a face 1 in-
rend tO highlight by focusing on the marerial aspects of the funerary rimaIs and
the mecbanisms for remember the dead. 1 shall therefore leave aside for now
indigenous discourses on death- the tapie of another $tudy- as weil as practices
reserved specifically for the remains of enemies or strangers, especially in the fcrm
of trop hies, despite the eviclent difficulty in disassociating the two phenomena in
any caregorical fashion. Certain societies indeed rend co treat rheir dead relatives
(or sorne of them) as strangers, and perform apparently similar funerary rites for
them borh. While in a general fashion relies are thought ro perpetuare rhe con-
244
Bones, Plutes, and the Dead: Memory and FunmJ.ry Treatments
Jean-Pierre Chaumeil
245
element in the definition of self in numerous lowland cultu res) . However, a dis-
,he kin of the deceased in a mode recalling the pracriees of dividing up the flesh
or ashes in exocannibaJism and endocannibalism. (Roth's work can be compared
with the more recenr srudy by Rostain in 1994 on the same region.) A few yeaIS
larer, Sigvald Linné (1929) foc used more specifically on endocannibalisric prac-
tinction observable throughout Amazonia seems co separare relies from trophies
tices in South America, a subject he maps out in detail. These pionee ring works
properly speaking. The latter, which are otten abandoned or even sold after use,
are rarely made the object of "double fune rals," whereas relies are generaJly stored
were larer complered by Alfred Métraux (1947) in a now classic essaywhere he un-
tinuiry of the group, trophies exuacred from enemies w ere often invested with
anaJogous propenies, tO the point of appearing equaJly essential
social repro-
to
duction (see the discussion below on "constitutive alterity" as an indispensable
at home or reburied. This may
help
CO
explain the relative ease with w hich ce r-
tain nineceenth-century travelers were able to acquire enem ies' remains through
simple rradi ng, while rhose of dead relarives were much mo re difficult to obtain.
derscores the widespread diffusion of secondary burial in urns in South .America.
Guided by his research on the Guarani, Métraux pays special attemion to the
treatmem of human bones. Adopting a more sociological approach, rhe larer
studies by Luis Boglar (1958a, 1958b, (959) and Otto Zerries (1960) examine in
This said, it makes sense to adopt sorne basic precautions when talking about
particular the relations between funerary rituaIs and other sociocultural pracrices.
funerary practices. lt is in fact rare ta encounter a uniform treatment of everyo ne
Thus Boglar associates endocann ibalism with the practice ofburning clearings for
swiddens-an "agriculcural" treatment of the body. However, many present-day
within a given culture. The dead are not all in the same boat: their destiny varies o-ready aecording co their age, sex social statuS place of death, and manner
of dying (at home/elsewhe re, slow/violent, and so on). As we know, disposing
of an encire body or one of irs parts modifies the performance of the funerary
rimal irself and the rype of relationship that will be established with the deceased.
Certain kinds of violent death accentuate the rupture of this relationship, while
j
j
swidden culrivato rs in the lowlands do not explicidy pracrice chis rype of funeral.
Zerries pushes the analogy even funher by linking endocannibalism with rhe
Yurupari rituaI familiar te Amazonianists. According te a version widespread in
the mytho logies of northwestern Amazonia, Yu rupari is the name of a cul ture
hero sacrificed by fire, then resuscirared From his ashes (calcined bones) in rhe
others tend co minim lze ie. "When the whole corpse cannot be recovered an en-
form of ((sacred" flutes. These in turn are likened ta Yurupari's "bones." Subject
deavor will be made to take home a part of it or- should this toO prove impossible-some kind of subsritute in order to carry our the "funeral." !t can rhus be
. seen how difl1cult it is in sorne cases for one form tO prevail over another.
ta a variecy of interdictions, these flutes are utilized during initiation ri tuaIs, food
j
exchanges, or funeraI ceremonies in many societies
of northwestern
'(bone-flure") incarnating a dead ancestor and the funerary practice
Relations between the Living and the Oead: The Question of Alterit)'
What do comparative srudies tell us in rhis respect' It makes merhodological
Amazonia
(Arhem 1980). Zerries's hypothesis thus suggests a link between an objecr (the
of recovering
the bones, whether through do uble funerals (whole bones) or rhrough endocannibaJism (pulverized and ingesred bones) . lndeed, some erhnologisrs including
Louis-Vincent Thomas (1980) have shown the close proximiry berween these fu-
sense CO distinguish from the outset (wo phases in the approach co funera! modes
in Amazonia. The firs! phase, from the 19205 ta the 19605, prirnarily strave to
neral forrns at the conceptuallevel. This is a copie to which we shaH return larer.
compile an inventory of funerary processes placin g an emphasis on the diversity
response to the question of mourning in the lowlands at a moment when ethnological discourse as a whole was still do minated by a ffiodel-developed in
j
of the pracrices and the possible links of cominuiry with rhe dead resulting from
certain sociocultural features of the groups concerned. The second from the 1970S
j
onward, involved a switch in perspective by posing an on to logical discontinuity
or ruptu re berween the living and the dead as the predominant monuary forrn in
che South American lowlands. Ler us examine these rwo sequences more closely.
The first study available to us, by WaJrer Roth (1924), was dedicared to the
G uianas and provided a survey of the wide range of funeral modes in this region: endocannibalism, direct burial or burial in urns (primary or secondary),
cremation, certain forms of mummification, and preservation ofbones-whether
stored inside fu nerary baskets, deposited in rock shelrers, or distribured among
Alrhough srimularing, these contributions did noc really provided an adequate
particular by Africanists- of society closed in on itself, possessing an intrinsic
idemiry, and turned to irs ancestors. Erhnology had to awair the works of Hélène
Clastres and above all those of Manuela Carneiro da Cunha on the Jé in order to
break wirh rhis mode!, one of lirde applicabiliry in Amazonia, and pose the relationship to ,he dead in other rerms. Amazonian studies have in facr revealed the
determining weight of affiniry-in derriment tO genealogical ties-and the structuring function of alterity in rhe construction of Amerindian identit.ies and social
systems, a mechanism denominared by some as "constirutive alreriry" (Erikson
1996) or "familiarizing predation" (Fausto 2001). These expressions desi2:na,e the
Rones. Ffuw. and the Dead: Memory and Funaary Treatmnlts
process, typically Amazonian, of incorporation of the other- the affine, enemy,
. ;'
or stranger-as a necessary condition for the construction of the self This has
given cise to a problematic of funeral s in the lowlands that associates the dead
with this figure of the $tranger, a kind of "anti-ancestar" excluded from the sphere
of the living, as Hélène Clastres (1968) showed in her study of Guayaki funelal
rituals. W hether they eaI ,he Resh (rather ,han the bones) of dead relatives or bury
them, the Guayaki adopt a common atritude vis-à-vis the dead: they tteat them
as enemies. Based on her analysis of the Krah6 materials, Cunha (1977, 1978)
confirms this separation berween the living and the dead, and proposes its ovetall
dominance in the Amazonian world. In this conception, she wriLes (1977:292),
treatmem of the deceased appears secondary to their spiricual "macerialîzation"
transmit nothing concrete of a "substantial" !Und, but rather virtualities of exis"
tence. (S ee, however, the discussion in Fausto 2001:465- 466 on the transmission
'1
· '·1
·..·· .·
of the arutam among the Achuar as a possible recycling of life potentials and
il
to a "true principle of exofiliation.") According ta Perrin (1979:119), the Guaj iro
revealed absence, at leas r in canon ical farm , of ancestor cuIts in Amazonia would
1
th us find verification in the character of alterity acquired by the deceased. For
.'1
his pan, Pierre C lastres (x98o) return s to [he notion of ancestrahry in order to
·
"}
1
:
· ..
iclentities within the same kindreds; Descola 1993:r85 sees continuiry comparable
think that the dead whose remains are mixed with ancient bones in the collective
urns serving as cemeteries lose a11 individuality in returning În the form of rainfall
and sickness. Many other contemporaty exarnples would confirm the thesis of
the radical alterity assigned tO the dead (see among others Coffaci de Lima 2000,
Fausto 2001 , and Vilaça '992 on the Katukina, Parakanâ, and Wari' respectively).
Still, the figure of the deceased-enerny expelled from the mernoty of the living
as a gener.l paradigrn of mouming in the South American lowlands does not
really 6t with a range of practices still observable today. Indeed, although speaking of a predominant funerary model in AmazonÎa on the basis of an examina-
tion of contemporaty situations is fully justified and its use has proved highly
productive, this procedure also has a downside: it tends ra Ratten the diversiry
death: that of deaths at home, adorned moreover with attributes otherwise used
for enemies. Deach s elsewhere, "among che enemies of their enemies" in Casuo's
of the funerary pracriées, juSt as ir fails ta cake sufficiendy into accoune those of
expression, wcre veneraced as heroic sin ce they alone had achieved the "beautiful"
death-w ruch is ta say, in the stamach o f enemies. The interpreration of canni-
ners," slighrly unusual ones since they theotetically occupy the position taken by
enemies. Anne-Christine Taylor (1993) illustrates this idea in a study dedicated ra
Jivaro mourning as a mechanism for forgetting the recen t dead. Here the physical
in the form of arZltam, the vision of which, for the Achuar, is supposed ta reveal
the destiny Ot trajecro ty of an individual's life. The author argues chat the arutam
"chere exisrs no place for the ancesrors in the society of the living." The wide1y
explote the distance separating Andean thought Iinked ta the cult of rhe dead
and Amazonian thought seeking above ail ra abolish the dead-an analysis taken
up tecendy by Claude Gélinas (1996). A specialise in the Guarani, Clastres does,
however, make a cou ple of exceptions: rhe corpses of the ancient Tupi-Guarani
chiefs, which were subject to double funerals in ums, and above ail the bones of
great sharnans, apparently the objects of very daborate cults in the past. Eduardo
Viveiros de Castro (1992) likewise qualifies the equation of the dead with enemies
among the ancient Tupinambi by showing rhat it applied only ta a single c1ass of
247
-., ,
the pasr revealed by recent developments in Amazonian archaeology (see below).
For exarnple, the global interpretation given by Philippe Erikson (1986) of Pano
endocannibalism as a formula fo r retaining the deceased (only close kin ear the
balism as a central element o f the funerary system among the Tupi-Guarani is no
pulverized bones) seems tO co nrradicc the notion of the dead person's radical
lo nger in any doubt. But is it necessary ro establish a Iink, as Combès does (1992),
berween the cannibal act and the theme of "lighrening" the corpse-conserving
the skeletan unencumbered by rhe weight of the Resh-as a condition for the
voyage ta rhe Land-without-Evil? The sources do nOt allow us ta make such a
alteriry. See also Cecilia McCallum's interpretation (1996) of Cashinahua "can-
daim w ith any certain ty. though we do know the importance of [he [herne of re-
covering the bones as a potential form of resurrection in the cosmological thought
of these peoples (A1lard 200 0; Fausto 2 001) . Whatever the case, exploring the
parallels berween cannibal and funerary practices as alrerity en dev(nir can only
nibalism" as an act of compassio n and hornage toward the dead: according tO her,
the body's cons umption constituees kinship rather than involving a question of
alteriry and predation-an argument disputed by Aparecida Vilaça (1998, 2000).
Etikson moreover notes the far from negligible ideological function accorded
co the "ancescors" among certain Pano groups who do not necessarily assign a
dangerous character
tO
their dead. ln his contribution ta the present vo lume,
Erikson speaks of "mediated ancestrality" or "ancestars by alliance" in relation
stimulate analysis of these cultural phenomena in nonsubstantivist terms-that
is, in terms of relati ons or of the acquisition of positions rather than substances.
to the M atis mariwin spirits, an idea indicating that ancestraliry in Amazonia, if
Wirness rhe widely reporred desire of these peoples to forger or efface ail material
traces of the dead, ro avoid all direct contact with corpses conve rred inro "part-
question is-as Thomas (198 0) proposes- wherher endocannibalism should be
treated as a rire of destruction, effacing ail traces of the deceased, or as conserva-
it exists, does
50
only
by means of a detour via affinity. Nonetheless, the deeper
248
Jean -Pierre Chaumeil
Eanes, Nutes, and the iJead: Memary and runerary Freatments
tion of the rem ai ns, rhrough absorption of the deceased's att:ributes. Viveiros de
CastrO (1992) for rus part observes that although the Araweté, of Tupi origin. assimilate theic recent dead co the enemies, chey feel no desi re tO forget rnem, nor
even co efface lhe malerial traces---lhe graves and ske!econs-thal cou Id recall
lhem co lhe memory of the living. Their names are evoked, while their personal
be!ongings are nOI destroyed bUI inherired. In lhis case, we could suggesl lhal lhe
remembrance of the deceased, achieved via the permanence of the name and 10herired goods, lesse ns the rupture conferring the condition of stranger or enemy.
Kaj Àrhem (1980) observes, in tum. thal while lhe Makuna are supposed ta forget
lheir dead, lhe dead are in realiry remembered many years after lhe funerals. He
establishes a principle of spiritual continuiry between lhe living and the dead in
lhis sociery- and in a dassic fashion in the Tukano sysrems- for the recyding
of the souls of the dead, in the form of names, in the second-generation descendants. The Xavante, aJê people of central Brazil studied by Laura Graham (1995),
fully incorporale rhei r dead, called "immortals," in rhe sysrem of life-cyde age
classes. Xavante society mus integrares the living and the dead wirhin irs who le.
Furthermore. the dead are not feared, in apparent conrrast co the prevailing mood
among oeher Gê groups. In addi tion, the individual mernory of certain eminenr
"immortals," lhe grealleaders, encounters a form of perpelUalion in the Xavante
crealion raies. 1 have also shown the doub le movement of the dead taward mniry and ancestraliry among the Yagua of Peru depending on rhe kinds of death
and burial (C haumeil 1992). Ir seems ta me to provide evidenee of a process of
"ancestralizadon" reserved in this society for important figures, notably the great
warrio rs whose names are immortalized in a particular genre of epic tale still occasionally raid today. The notion of ancestraliry mUSt be raken here in a flexible
sense insofar as the permanence of these beings from the past does not necessarily
imply rhe recognition of precise genealogical links. In any event, lhe funerary
rrearments of th ese individuaJ.s contrast srrongly with th ose of common people,
who are subm itted tO a recycling of their vital elements and destined for a sort of
anonymi ry. Heckenberger (2005 and this volume) equally shows lhe importance
of anceserality in the riruals of homage paid (Q great leaders and in certain funerary ceremonies of lhe upper Xingu.
Taking all the above ineo accoune, the panorama appears more complex and
diversified rhan usually postulated, and does not really conform, ra pur ir mildly,
ra the single mode! of a radical discontinuiry between che living and the dead.
1 shall atrempt ra account for this in the remainder of the chapter by reexamining several types of funerary practice, past and present- each of which may be
potentially combined with one or more other types in the same society-in order
to teveal mote clearly the practiees left unexplained by this mode!. Abandonment
249
of the corpse as the main funerary mode has been amibuted to very few groups;
il applies more wide!y ra those individuals accused of sorcery. For example, as
France-Marie Renard-Casevirz tells me, the Matsiguenga of Peru often abandon
rheit deeeased on flimsy skiffi left ta Boal downriver, bU! lhey also pracriee direct inhumation. In any case, we can assume chat abandon ment of the corpse
expresses a radical break with the dead. Immersion of the body, practiced al the
end of complex funerals by the Bororo and the ancienr Saliva, otherwise seems co
be lirrle represented in rhe South American lowlands.
Inhumation
.
'
.1
"
A funerary procedure extremely widespread in the area that concerns us, inhumation may be single in kind (burial in earth or in urns) or double (a fifS( burial
followed afler a lapse of time by a second and definitive burial).
Direcr inhumalion in earth, wilh lhe body usually wrapped in a length of fabrie or the deceased 's hammock, is reported amo ng a number of Tupi and Carib
groups. Ir lakes place in the house (orren bur nOI always abandoned), on rhe
village plaza, or in the forest, where a mînîature hut sometimes marks the site of
the 10mb. The anciene Tupinambi combined rwo modes of buria!, one directly
in th e earrh, rhe orher in urns. In the first case. a funerary chamber was bullr to
prevent the earth weighing directly on the corpse, thereby evoking the principle
of um burial. When they abandoned their villages, rhe Tupinambâ had rhe habit,
acco rding ta Jean de Léry (['580] 1992), ofleavingpindo palm leaves on the tambs
so th at the site would be recog~izable and the memory of the dead conserved:
"les passants, par ce moyen, y reconnaissent forme de cimetière, ... aussi quand
les femmes s'y rencontrent, ... si ell~s se ressouviennent de leurs feus maris, ce
sera, faisant les regrets accoutumés, à hurler de teUe faço n qu'elles se font ouïr de
demi-lieue" (,86) [the passers-by can thus recognize the location of a cemetery,
and when rhe women meet there, ... if they remember their dead husbands,
they will break our into their customary lamentations, and howl ta be heard half
a league away]. Ir is equally possible to argue, as Fausto does of lhe Parakan'
practiee of remporarily abandoning lheit village sile when one of their own dies
(2001:4°7- 408), [hat this comprises a way of maintaining a distance from the
burial spor. a place rhought of as porentially dangero us. at least until the flesh has
completely decomposed.
The custom of direct burial in urns is common [Q the Guarani, a people often
said co lie at the origin of this funerary mode. This Custom is equally frequent in
rhe Chaco and arnong numerous groups of Amazonia (Nordenskiold '920; Boglar '958a). The Chiriguano of the Chaco bury their dead in this fashion inside
Eones, Fluus, and th~ Dead: Memory and Funerary Treatments
25I
dwellings that they continue to inhabit afterward. Ir may be rhought that peoples
who bury their dead inside inhabited houses cultivate a very different relationship
from those who destroy or definitively abandon their dwellings afrer inhumation.
We should note, rhough, thar residential permanence mer inhumation need not
indica œ links of continuicy w ith the dead: certain groups, 5uch as the Parakanâ,
There a dance is celebrated in its honor, with th e deceased's kin danci ng with
who do not share this conception, used [Q reoccupy their past dwellings an er rem-
The presence of cave necropolises in this part of northern 50mh America aroused
porary abandonment once the corpse was deemed "ino ffensive," chat is tO say, rid
the interest of the first European travelers-but
the mummified cotpse. The day aftet, a close kinsman suspends the mummy in
the roof of his dwelling, stoting it there for several weeks: it is then passed on to
ano ther member of the family, and so on. At the end of this familial "voyage," the
m ummy is deposited in a cave-cem etery w here hundreds of other mummies rest.
50 toO
that of grave robbers.
of its flesh (Fausto 2001). According to CUrt N imuendaju (1952), until the end of
the ninereenth century the Ticuna o f the Amazon used to pracrice primary buriaJ
in urns- sometimes decorated with necklaces of human reerh, [rophies tuen
Cemeteries
from enemies-which chey visited regularly. N umerous funerary urns have also
Contrary to popular opinion, the existence of indigeno us cemereries predating
likely rem ains of ancient cemeter-
the colonial period is less rare ,han supposed and will probably become even less
been discovered o n the Japurâ River. These are
ies (Métraux 1930) . The Cocama of the upper Amaron combined direct butial
so after numero us archaeological sites, particularly in the Guianas, have been
in urns w ith secondary funeraIs in sm aHer urns, containing the banes of cerrain
subjected tO systematic excavation (Ros tain ]994)· In addition (0 the Yuko case
mentioned above, ancient "necropolises" have been documented along the coasts
classes of dead people (Figueroa [1661] 1986; Maroni [1738] ' 988) . Othet peoples,
sucb as the Cubeo of northwescern Amaronia, have progressively abandoned urns
in favo r of coffins made from old pirogues. Although the nature of the comainer
has changed, the principle of protecting the corpse remains idencical.
Double Funerals
Double inhumation in urns is rypical especially of Arawakan groups-Antilles,
Orinoco, north and south of the Amawn, Jurua-Purus, Mojo-but is also found
wi th numerous variarions elsewhere (Métraux 1947). The bones, whole or reduced
ro ashes, are either reburied or deposited in urns or funerary baskets. In the latter
of the Guianas and Amapa, on the shores of the Maraca River (Guapindaia 2001),
on Marajo Island (Meggers and Evans 19 57; Roosevelt 1993: Schaan 2001), in the
region surrounding Manaus (see the Anthonay collection, ]897, Musée du quai
Branly, Paris), on the Japurâ and Atures rivers (Scaramelli and Tarble 2000), along
the middle Ucayali, among the Guajiro, among the Karaja of the AIaguaia River,
and finally, furthet south, amo ng the Caingang (Métraux 1946) , the Mbayâ, and
the Guaicuru of the C haco (Métraux 1947).
The use of caves as funerary sites was extremely common along the middle
Orinoco throughout the eighreenrh and nineteenth centuries, and probably at
much earlier dates (Scaramelli and Tarble 2000). In 1800, at the time of his fa-
munal cemeœries. Like many other ancestral practices, the domesric conservarion
mous exploration, Humboldt visited the Ataruipe cave rn near Atures, where he
counted numerous skeleto ns painred with annatto dye or coaœd in resin and
of the bones of che deceased has become increasingly rare, replaced by Christian
stored in baskets and urns. Jules Crevaux, followed by Chaffanjon (1889), Iarer
burial in individual graves. Funerary baskets have been repo rted among the Warao
examined other necropolises in the same region and ascribed them to the ancient
of the Orinoco delta and the ancient Carib (G umilla '758). Certain Arawakan
Atures. Not far fro m there, the Piaroa also until recently followed the custom of
and Cari ban groups of the G uianas preferred ro disrribme the bones among th e
deposiring thdr dead in caverns or rockshel ters d istant from their dwelli ng places
(Mansutti 2002). However, abandonment of the sites was compulsory-less , it
twO cases, they are generaUy kept in the house of the deceased or placed in com-
kin of the deceased in order for them to be kept separacely. The conservation of
booes in urns or in w rapped bundles was alsa very widespread, in particular the
long bones and the skull, w hich were ofœn painted w ith annatro dye, for instance
among the Guahibo of the Colombian savanna. The Yuko, Caribs of the Sierra de
Perija, have a complex funerary ritual detailed by Reichel-Dolmatoff (r945): the
seems, tO Bee from m em ories of the deceased than
to
elude the much more men-
acing reprisais of their aggressors, often idenrined with enemy sharnans.
ln addition ta the presence of cemereries discovered on Maraj6 Island and
corpse is firsdy mummified over a fire , then buried in the house, whîch is aban-
in the regions around Cunani and especially Maraca. (containing tubular urns
representing imposing human figures: see G uapindaia 2 00]), severa! Arawakan
doned. The body is exhumed sorne ~o years later, when the mummy is cleaned,
wrapped in new SHaw matS, and rransporred with great pomp into the village.
groups were acquainted with this mode of collective buria!. In the middle of the
nineteenth century, Paul Marcoy (1869) described the site of ancienr open tombs
252
Jean -Pierre Chaumeil
close ra the modern ciry of Manaus that had belonged tO the ancient Manao and
Baré. These same cemeteries were visited sorne years later by Keller-Leuzinger
(1874) , who counted several hundred ums buried in alignment at a shaUow deprh
and containing whole skelerans placed in a crouching position. Métraux (193 0 )
rhought that all these funerary remains of the middle Amazon were rhe work of
Arawak populations. (Conceming the Manao and the circuits of Arawak expansion on the Rio Negro at the start of the colonial period , see Vidal 2000.) The
chain of urns extends as far as the upper Amazon wüh rhe Omagua and Cocama,
Tupi peoples, while it is broken in the direction of the lower Amazon at the height
of Santarém where, despite Nimuendaju's excavations (Linné 1928), no presence
of ums has been found, suggesting thatthe Tapaja practiced endocannibalism as
their main funerary mode. Further ra the north, the Palikur of the Oyapock River
maintained clan cemeteries untiI reeent times. The ben es were prepared either by
boiling or smoking, or by putrefaction in a first buriaI, then depesited in a second
um after a period of srarage with the deceased's family (G renand and Grenand
1987) .
Like many of their neighbors from rhe Jê fumily, the Boro ro of central Brazil
practice double funerals but, as far as we can tell, following rwo di/ferent mod.lities, depending on the status of rhe deceased. The relies of important ligures,
especially bari shamans, are immersed ar the botram of a lagoon, while those of
common folk are buried in the ground (Viertler 199'). There is evidence that during an earlier period the funerary baskets eontaining riehly decorated bones were
stored in cave-cemeteries beneath cliffs, but their constant profanation by grave
robbers undoubtedly led ra their abandonment, forcing the Bororo ra modifY
their funerary practice (Albiselli and Venturelli '962). In 30y event, Bororo funerals are performed following a very elaborate rimai, one of whose specilic features
involves the practice of "substituting the deceased." Buried in the village's central
plau, the corpse is submitred ta rapid putrefaction by being soaked copiously in
water. The bones are then exhumed. cleaned, painred, decorared with feathers.
and placed in funerary baskets, first exposed and then immersed according ta
curtent practice. The end of rhe funeraty cycle is marked by incinerating all rhe
goods belonging tO the deceased-who, by contrast, does not disappear from the
world of the living since s/he is subjecr [Q a dtua! substirucion in rhe shape of
a formai companion or friend who, after the funeral and for life, represents the
deceased in this world. Belonging ta the moiery opposite ta the deceased's, he
must, among other tasks, hunt down a replacement animal, generally a jaguar,
ta serve as a metaphoric equivalent of the dead person, and prepare the funerary
basket (Crocker '977; Viertler 1991). According ta Renate Viertler, the replacement animals' hi de and teeth, strung in necklaces, represent a repayment sent by
Bones, Flutes, and the Dettd: Memory and Funerary Treatments
Fig. 8. 1. D eco rated Baroro banes (after Enciclopedia
BOTOTO,
vol.
1,
253
1962) .
the dead ta their kinsfolk for the heavy investments occasioned by their funerals.
H ere, rather than being feared, the dead appear as a sOurce of peace and harmony
for the living, the Bororo's greatest fear being precisely mat no "substitute" from
the other moiery will take care of their bones after death.
Still in Brazil, the Karaja of the Araguaia performed their entire funerary cycle
in cemeteries located, in precontact rimes, outside rheir villages (Ehrenreich 1948;
Pétesch 2000 ) . The funerals were carried Out in t'NO phases under the responsibiliry of the deceased's aflines-a procedure nowadays abandoned. According to
N athalie Pétesch, rhe relationship berween rhe living and the dead is not broken
here, since [he dead inaintain a consranr presence in the day-ra-day life of [he
Karaja, especially du ring hunting. In approach ing th is theme, Pétesch makes a
com par ison between Jê, Bororo, and Karaja funerals. Whereas sorne Jê peoples
reintroduce rhe bones of the dead buried outside the village back imo social space,
the Botoro in e/fect practice the inverse, with the bones circulating from the village plaza ta the rivers or rocky shelrers. As for the Karaja, they maintain a close
parallelism between the social space of the dead (the cemetery) and that of the
living (the village). In the IirS[ case, we could ptopose that the principle of rupture with the community of the dead is lessened by the "rerum" of the bones, in
254
Jean-Fierre Chaumeit
the second by the ritual representation of the deceased by a living member of the
other moiety, and in the third by communication with the spirits of the dead.
The Kaingang, a Jê people of southern Brazil, aiso interred thdr dead in kinds
of cemeteries made up of several tumuli in which funerary chambers were erected.
Such tumuli have been reported since the eighteenth century among the ancestors of the Kaingang. The extreme care with which they construcred these conical
tombs testifies to the importance accorded to the dead in their society (Métraux
1946 ; see Crépeau I999 on the complexiry and central character of the funerary
ritual among the Kaingang).
Incineration
Beyond the partial incineration associated with endocannibalism, simple cremation was practiced predominanrly to the norrh of the Amazon river, particularly
among the Carib of the Guianas. A funerary procedure that has nowadays become exceptional, it was once commonplace among the Wayana except for rheir
shamans, who were buried. Other societies proceeded in precisely the opposite
fashion. Among the Aparai, for example, cremation was the exclusive privilege of
shamans and chiefs (Linné 1929). Only the bodies of the most renowned shamans
were incinerated among the Cashinahua, the other dead being either consumed
or, if they were without close kin, simply buried (McCaUum 1996). The ashes
were most often inrerred, piled on the ground or placed in a small hut specially
built on the cremation site, or alternatively kept with the remains of the calcined
bones in pottery or baskets stored in the houses, enabling them ta be transported
when rhe people relocated. Ir may be seen that cremation, like endocannibalism,
is a procedure in perfect congruity with the theory of double funerals. It is above
all an antiputrefaction process, diametrically opposed ta the exposed or abandoned body. For Thomas (1980:179), burning is centered less on destruction than
on conservation, since the fire sim ply accelerates the dissolution of the bodys soft
parts so as ta be left with the "remains."
Mummification
A very important aspect of Andean cultures, mummification was a funerary
procedure likewise practiced in the lowlands, essentially on the Amazon and ta
the north as far as the Darien peninsula in preconquest times and duri.ng the
colonial period. Thereafter it became more infrequent. More than any other funerary mode, it involved a selective procedure applied primarily ta eminent figures-chiefs, great warriors, shamans. Mummification could be achieved through
Bones, Flutes, and the Dead: Memory and Funerary Treatments
255
drying in the sun or by fire, or through embalming using plant resins. Ir was
often combined with urn burial or raised exposure. The desiccation of corpses
by means of smoking is practiced or was observable until a relatively recent date
among several indigenous societies both of Venezuela (see the Yuko above) and
of Brazil, including the Maué, the Apiaka, the Mundurucu, the Puri-Coroado,
and the ancient Tapaj6. Concerning the latter, Nimuendaju (I949) turns ta the
missionaries Joao Felipe Betendorf and Joao Daniel for reports made during the
second half of the seventeenth century-we may presume that Father Daniel,
whose mission was larer in the second half of the seventeenth century, refers ta
these same events-about a supposed "cult of dried corpses." According ta the
missionaries who set fire ta this "tribal sanctuary" in 1682, some of the mummies
had been venerated for many years and were honored by dances and offerings.
These practices of mummification reserved for important persons may have been
coupled with funetary endocannibalism, a hypothesis put forward by Erland
Nordenski61d (1930) in part to explain the absence of any evidence of tombs in
the region. On the other hand Denise Gomes (2001), noting the visual aspect
of the mummified bodies, establishes an archaeological paraUel with the Maraca
funerary urns. These were not buried, but were deposited on the ground at sites
relatively close ta the places of habitation, thus destined ta be seen and visited,
probably indicating the closeness of the ties uniting the living and the dead in
these cultures (Guapindaia 2001).
According to Debret (1834~39), the ancient "Puri-Coroado" of Brazil stored
the mummified remains of their chiefs in impressive urns buried at the foot of
certain large trees. Decorared with the most beautiful ornaments, of which charming specimens were still to be found at the start of the nineteenrh century, these
mummies present a striking likeness ta those of the ancient Peruvians-though
this is undoubtedly due ta Debret's artistic talent.
Dtying corpses by fire was also practiced by the Maué of the Amazon until
quite recenrly (Pereira 1954). The Mundurucu in the same manner conserved the
mummified heads of enemies and those of their kin killed in banle-or, lacking
the head, an arm or leg-which they kept for a petiod of five or four yeats respectively; in contrast, those dying at home were given an urn funeral (Tocantins
1877; Ihering 1907; Menget 1993). Nevertheless, once the years had gone by, the
heads taken from the enemy were abandoned, while the others were buried at
home. The analogy between the treatment of kin kiUed among enemies and the
enemies themselves is therefore not absolute. The final inhumation reintroduces
the former within the sphere ofkin, while abandonment places the latter outside
kinship. The direction taken by the dead is inverse. While the figure of the dead
person as an enemy cannot be applied in full ta the Mundurucu case, we can still
256
Jean-Pierre Chaumeil
Bones, Flutes, and the Dead: Memory and Funerary Treatments
257
Raised Exposure
Fig. 8.2. Mummy conserved in an urn (after Debret 1834-39).
observe a correspondence between the active phase of the recovered remains and
that of enemy trophies. The reader will have been reminded of certain funerary
mechanisms of the ancienc Tupinambi, with the difference chat here it is chose
dying in warfare, and not those dying at home, who are endowed with attributes
reserved for enemies.
The exposure of corpses on raised platforms is a practice closely akin to natural
mummification. Generally combined with other funerary modes, aerial tombs
have been reported among numerous peoples, including the Warao, the Yukpa,
the Siriono, several groups from the Chaco (the Mataco, for example), and the
Jivato. Among these last, the raised exposure of a corpse is achieved with the aid
of a platform, or in a hollow trunk suspended from the roof of a house, or beneach
a shelter at sorne distance ftom the place of habitation. Today the dead are mote
usually buried in the dwelling, which is abandoned only after the death of its
owner. The use of urns 1S confined to the corpses of chiidren, although it is not
implausible that this funerary mode was more widespread in the past, especially
if we take into account the hollow trunk-urn association. The great warriors
received a specifie funerary treatment closely akin to natural mummification:
dressed in his most beautiful aclornments and his weapons, the warrior was left
on his own stool, his back supported by the center pole of the dwelling, ptotected
from predators by two palisades. If these facts are accurate, the Jivaro were familiar with at least MO funerary modes: single burial, either in earth or in urns, and
raised exposure, the latter sometimes accompanied by double buriaI, according
to Stirling (1938) and Eichenberger (1961) on the Aguaruna. Hamer (1977) on the
other hand notes the possibiliry for a great Jivaro warrior ta communicate ta his
sons his wish ta transmit to each of them one of the arutam souls forming at his
death. (See Fausto 2001 on the transmission of arutam among the Achuar as a
kind of internal recycling of life principles.) A host of elements that do nOt really
lend credence ta the idea of a radical rupture with the dead and contrasting with
rhe recent works of Taylor (1993, 1998).
If raised exposure was the main funerary mode of the Jivaro before the impact
of missionaries, it was doubtless not the most efficient means of lessening the
physical presence of the dead. The treatment of the deceased among the neighboring Candoshi, belonging to the Jivaro-Candoa complex, would seem ta confirm this impression (Surrallés 2000). Their mortuary platforms are buile in the
immediate vicinity of the dwelling houses. Over the first weeks, the body drips
with the liquids exuded by putrefaction of the flesh. This fails, though, to prevenr
kin from taking care of the deceased, visiting daily in a display of affection and
speaking with the corpse to provide assurance that he or she is weIl there. The
second funeral takes place after one or several years with the burial of the bones in
a pit under the floor of the house. Surrallés notes that the force of a great warrior
can be recuperated by his descendants at the moment of his demise so that they
themselves may flourish, a mechanism recalling that describecl by Hamer apropos
of the arutam among the Jivaro. The attitude shown to individua!s struck clown
Bones, Flutes, and th~ Dead' Memory and Funerary Treatmmts
by a male-mort, or violem death, is very differem: such people are avoided and
feared as purveyors of sickness, thereby consriruting a category apart.
Funerary Cannibalism (Flesh and Bone)
The funerary mode of endocannibalism, involving the consumption of aH or
pact of the bodies of the deceased-sometimes coupled with exocannibalism or
"warfare cannibalism," the ingestion of the Resh of killed enemies-has been the
abject of several comparative studies attesring ra its antiquity and its great dif-
fusion in South America (see Zerries r960; Conklin 200r). It has been reporred
from the Atlantic coast and the Caribbean islands in the norrh as far south as
Paraguay and, in che rwentieth ceorury, particularly in western Amazonia along
the border be(Ween Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia among Panoan and Chapakuran
groups (Conklin 2oor:xxiv). We should note, though, that the c1assical distinc-
by eth no logisrs between exocannibalism and endocannibalism Jases ies
pertinence here if we accepr the general rhesis of the dead persan as an eoemy. In
tion made
this sense, funerary cannibalism dosely resembles a kind of warFare cannibalism
(Vilaça 2?oo)-which does not mean, however, chat the actions implied in either
of the (wo cases would be equivalent from the point of view of the interested partles-as Beth Conklin aptly remarks (200!:xxiii).
Generally speaking; funerary cannibalism may cake rwo forms in Amazonia:
consumption of the Ilesh or of the calcined bones (osteophagy), distinct proce-
259
als (McCallum I996), and among the Wari', who until recendy combined all three
form s of cannibalism. In the case of the Wari', the cooked Resh of the deceased
was panially consumed in small morsels, while the calcined bones were mixed
with honey co be ingested by the deceased's entourages, generally composed of
their affines.
This being said, Amazonian studies have supplied (wo different inrerpretations
for funerary cannibalism , construing ie ci mer as a mechanism for absorbing cer-
tain atrribures of the dead or, conversely, as a procedure for eradicating them. The
first position has been moS! notably defended by McCallum (r996), for whom
Cashinahua endocannibal.ism is primarily an act of compassion toward the dead,
aiming te rerain them in sorne forrn within the bodies of the living-effectively a
way of conserving or memorizing the dead by consuming mem. Adherents of the
second interpretation, notably Vilaça (r998, 2000) based on her analysis of the
Wari' mat:erials, concend mat concepeions of death in the lowlands are primarily
a question of predation, underscood here as a relationsh ip between predator and
prey in which eating is an ace of depersonalization/dehumanization and transfor-
mation of the deceased into a preylike condition.
The recent study by Conklio (200r) on the same Wari' qualifies this position
by assigning to funerary cannibalism a double function, bath destructive and generative, necessary ta the perpetuatio n of the group. The aurhor cakes the no tion of
cannibalism as an act of respect and compassion for the dead and their fumilies.
dures that may however be combined in cerrain societies such as the Cashinahua
Making corpses disappear by eating them is indeed a way of eliminating them
from the living's mernory, with the aim oflessening the latter's suffering. Yet it is
or the Wari'.
also a way of reproducing a cycle
Of the t\Vo practices, osteophagy is incontestably the more widespread in the
South American lowlands. Its area of distribution covers the norrh of Brazil, the
upper Orinoco, and the northwest and upper Amazon. The rite consisr$ of reducing co powder the calcined bones of the deceased-and sometimes the hair
implying in (his case phanerocannibalism (see Erikson, this volume)-so (ha;
they may be absorbed subsequemly in. the form of a drink by more or less close
kin. The bones are generally obtained by partial cremation, though they may also
be garnered rhrou gh decomposition of the Resh on a platform, or by single butial
iffollowing the princip le of double funerals. Ingestion of the ashes may take place
immediately or may be delayed for several years, in which case the bone powder
Îs kept in baskets or funerary gourds, as is done among the Yanomami of Braûl
and Venezuela.
The second rype, Resh cannibalism, is Jess Frequent in South Americ~. Ir can be
found primarily arnong the Guayaki of Paraguay (see above) , arnong sorne Pana
groups in Peru, such as the Cashinahua, who practice it ooly for certain individu
of transformation and exchange between the liv-
ing and the dead via the spirits of animaIs: the Wari' ho Id, in fact, that their dead
join the domain of the animal spitits, where they " ansform inta white-lipped
peccaries. These in (Urn will become the game of hunters. In Conklin's view, the
members of this gro up thereby enact a double endocannibalism in consuming the
Resh of their dead, firstlyas a human body (funerals), secondly as game (huming). The Kulina, an Arawa people studied by Donald Pollock (r993), possess an
analogous system of reciprocal predation between the living and the dead: here
the Resh of peccary-ancesrors forms the souls of the oewborn. Endocannibalism
in (his case is perceived te be less an incorporation of the qualities of the deceased {han a transfotmation of bodies and souls between the living and the dead
within the parameters of a wider sociocosmological dynamic. At the same rime,
it amounts tO a process of forgetting aimed at the dissolution of the dead person's
social idenrity. This would imply chat it is attachment ta the dead, not rejection,
that forces the Wari' to eradicaœ them from memory by cons uming them. Either
way, death is not seen here juS( as a discontinuiry: it is also a transformarion essen-
2(JO
jean-Fierre Chaumeil
Banes, f<lu!(s, and. the Ueaa: JVlemory ana rum:ra r.! J.n:aum:ll ....
tial forthe continuation of social life (Conklin 2001). Furthermore, this process of
. rep resent the dead (Srahle 1971-72; Pétesch 1983, 2000) . Among rhe eastern Timbita, the logs are acrually called "lags of the deceased." According ro Vera-Dagny
forgettJng the dead and inserring them wirhin broader cosmological conceptÎons
has numerous parallels in Amazonia (Oakdale 2001).
Stahle, the lo g races had an initial funetion of piacing the living in regular contact
The Yano mami, who practice osteophagy exclusive1y, also suive co efface all
wirh rhe dead. Finally, we can evoke rhe k"amp funerary complex of the upper
)(jngu, celebrared in honor of dead chiefs. The term kuarup-ofTupi origin, wirh
material trace of the dead (Clastres and Lizot 1978; Albert 1985). Nevertheless, the
memory of the dead seems to survive the disappearanee of their bodies, especially
If the dead person was highly skilled or a courageous warrior killed in combat.
The pulverized bones are kepr in funerary gourds and gradually absorbed by the
person's relatives, induding affines, over periods that, Bruce Albert tells me,
a Carib equîvalent in egilSi~may designare a tree or, as here a section of trunk
J
or pOSt, decorared and plan red in the graund. that is supposed ta represent the
spirit of dead chiefs (Carneiro 1993; Heckenberger 1999)· According ra Michael
Heckenberger (1999 and this volume), rhe Kuikuro conceive rhe kuarup nunk as
a representation of (he past, which links (he living not only with recendy deceased
some~
times exceed ten or fifteen yeatS, depending on the duration of revenge prepaThus, far from being a tOtal effacement, the rite attemprs to achieve a
dl/1icul< balance between rememb<;hng and forgetting (Clastres and Lizot 1978).
r~tlons.
Funerary Substitution
Occasionally we find that the dead are represented by parts of the body (tufts of
harr, teeth, nails) , by objects (figurines, posts, trunks of wood), or even by living
person~, as 19 r~e Borora case where a formaI friend belonging to the other moiety
serves Irfelong In the condition of rituaJ substitu te of the deceased (Vierrler 199 r).
Theexistence of statues that had ta be "fed" or anthropomorphic figurines conrammg mortuary remains was apparenrly cornmon among (he Arawak of the is-
leaders whose power has passed to current ones but, through them , with ancestral
l
1
,
lands and Coast ar the rime of conquest (Rouse 1992). Such objects have also been
reported at differenr periods in severaJ lowland regions-unforrunateJy without
artracting much attention from the researchers involved. Today there are few
possibilities of observing these forms of funerary subsdtution. Ir seems the Uni) a
Cashi bo people of Peru, still fabricate wooden starues represenring the dead dur-
ce~emony for lifting mournin& celebrared when the nostalgia experienced
by certam persons for the dead proves too intense (Frank 1994) . Bundles of hai r
mg a
1
l
,
chiefly lines extending meraphorically back ta rhe "divine" ancestors, sinee the
wood flom which the divine mother was originally carved was the kuarup nee.
A number of Kalapala myths also tell how the illusuious dead represenred by
the POSts rransform in the course of the ritual in to "living persons" whom the
shamans must contain rhrough abundanr fumigations of robacco (Basso 1973)·
The difficulty here lies in comprehending the indigenous concepr of representation. Carlos FauSto tells me thar the Kuikuro term for designating the trunk is
hutoto, "image," preceded by the name of the commemorated person. This terrn
is applied to certain types of pÎcrures or ta photos. and can indicare a relation
of figurarive resemblance between an image and its referent. A more generic and
"musical" form of representing the dead by rimal objects may perhaps be found
in the complex of scared liures, which we shall examine larer on.
Bones and the Memory of the Dead
1
l
"1
The present exercise has brought (Q lighr rwo series of funerary trea(ments. While
sorne groups make efforts ta erase all traces and memory of the dead, others seek
belonging to rhe dead, usually kepr in pendanrs around rhe necks of kinfolk, are
to conserve their mernory and mainrain a contin uiry between the living and the
draped at th is point on the statue, which is carried in procession ta the village and
dead, notably rhrough the use of bones. Little examined by Amazonian ethnology, (his second series commands OUf attention here. Ir may be noted, however,
then desuoyed. The "rerurn" of the dead person or dead people (depending On rhe
number ofbundles arrached) can rherefore be inrerprered as a form of double funeral: once rhe funerary subsritutes are destroyed, the memory of rhe dead is felt
ta diminish in inrensi ty. The Guahi bo also resorred ta rhis kind of funerary subStltutlon. Nalls and clumps ofhair were carefully kepr-not this rime by kin but
by the shaman, who regularly consulred the relie bundJes ra discover the origin of
the deeeased, an indispensable prelude ra rhe performance of second funerals in
urns the following year (Chaffanjon 1889). Ir has been hypothesized rhar the nee
trunks used in rhe famous log races connected to funerals in certain Jê societies
that th e (wo series are by no means exclusive an d may perfecdy well coexist wi(hin
rhe same group, as Olivier Allard (2000) endeavors ta show in the case of rhe
Guarani.
The cusrom af preserving the bones of the dead for more ar less lengrhy periods is in face connrmed in many Amazonian soeieties fro m the Guianas and the
Chaco. Among these groups~ the Guarani displayed a very specifie inceresr in the
relies that they occasionall y rransported, assembled in bundles, on their seasonal
migrations (Vignati 1941-46). Dabrizhoffer ([1783J 1822) c1aimed ro have seen
Bon~s,
Flum, and the D~ad: Memory and Funerary
Tr~atmerJtS
26]
see any manifestation of a radical ruptu re with the dead in mis practice. Father
non-Chrisrianized Guarani carrying o n (heir rreks small boxes eontaining (he
to
bones of their shamans, in which they placed many of their hopes. The M byâ also
Fauque ([1736J 1843) in the middle of the sevenreenth century left an imporrant
resrimony on the modalities of recovering remains among the Palikur of Guy-
preserved the bones of thdr dead-no( just their shamans-over periods lasting
many years. These remains were kept in wooden contain ers placed in the center of
·1
rhe rirual house and were not disposed of until a message from the gods declared
they wo uld not come back to life (Cadogan 1950; H. Clastres 1975:570). Various
1
aurhors have mentioned the cheme of potential resurrection via bones among
ana. We find an identical usage at the oth er end of the subconrinent, among the
J
;
rhe Tupi-Guarani. These different rituals recall another that Ruiz de Montoya
observed in th e sevenreenth cen tury among the Guarani of Paraguay. In deep
1
forest the missionary discovered kinds of "te\1lples" housing the dried bones of
1
.)
1
great shamans, which were consulted as oraclis, Sometimes extrernely ancienr and
tichly adorned, the relies would reply, and complete trust was accorded to their
prophecies: they were rhoughr ro assure good plan ring and a ferrile and prosperous ycar ahead. As Métraux rcmarks (1928b:93), "These illusrrious dead would
resuscirare and live in flesh and blood on cerrain occasions." Combès (1992) 10cates mis cuIr within the Tupi-Guarani tradition of resurrecting the flesh from the
bones. The antiquity of th is rire can be questioned, of course, sinee it oecurred at
a üme when the rivalry berween shamans and missionaries was rife, and we know
all toO weil the imporrance of rhe theme of bodily resurrection in Christianity and
the power of attraction ffiissionary sanctuaries were able (0 exercise on incligenous
leaders in order ta eliminare completely the latrer's influence (Menget r999b).
Nothi ng proves, though, that these conceptions did nOt preexisc in the indigenous cultures and that there hacl not been rather a convergence beeween two sets
of beti efs and practices (Fausto 20 0 2 and this volume). Concerning this \'war
of relies" beeween missionaries and Indians. we may also recall [he case of the
Jesuit Franciso Pinto described by Casteinau-I:Estaile (2000). Father Pinto's
bones, carefully preserved by the Tupi ofIbiapaba, broughr rain or sunshi ne on
demand. \Vhen the Port uguese sent an expedition co rerrieve them. the lndians
eategorically refused ra relinquish the remains o f this "m as ter of the rain /' as
1
1
.]
·1
\
J
;j
1
:j,
Abipones of Paraguay, who carried the bones of the dead by horseback over great
distances in order to deposit them in family combs. The Mundurucu likewise
used tO pay funera! homage to warriors killed among enemîes by retrîeving at least
the head or the humerus when unable to recover the whole body. Responsibiliry
for this operation feU ra a compatriot belonging to the opposite moiety: he would
take great care of his charge, sleeping with it "as if it were a child" (Murphy 195 8).
Subjecred to natural mummification , the remains became (he fecus of ceremonies
honoring the dead over th e next four years, During these manifestations, where
sacred Bures were played, ,he widow or mother or sister of the deceased displayed
the remains around he r neck. These were linally buried in the house of the deceased , differentiating them from the war trophies generally abandoned after a
period of live years. Thus the relies of warriors were kept by the opposire moiery
and then buried at home, while the war trophies were kept at home and then exteriorized. The first case involved reconsanguinizing a temporarily "affinized" dead
kinsman, while the second case involved expelling a previously "consanguinized"
dead enemy.
The Ipu rina of the Purus River used to perform an e1aborare ceremony durin g which a kin sman recalled the warrior exploits of the deceased while bran-
dishing one of his bones. The case of the Siriono of eastern Bolivia provides
an even better illustration of this relation of quasi~ intimacy between the living
and the dead through the interposition of human bones. According ra Alicia
Fernandez Discel (1984-85), the Siriono have employed tliree successive funerary modes: (1) transportation of rhe skeleton du ri ng their seasonal nomadism
(rhe most ancient procedure), (2) double burials in earrh, and (3) di rect burial
(a recenr introduction). In the first case-of primary interest tO us here- the
they had baptized him; exhuming and hidin g rhe missionary's skeleron, rhey
body was exposed ta a low fi ,e on a funeraty plarform, follbwing a number of
obliged the Porruguese ro return empry-handed. Among sorne other societies.
modalities that varied according
such as the J uruna and the Apiaka or certain Arawakan groups of rhe Purus,
was deserred but the platform regularly visired so as ra rend the 6re. Afterward the
dried skeleron was placed in a large basket. Thenceforth the bones shared, so to
speak, the life of the members of the group, who spoke ra them and transporred
them during their seasonal treks. The bones of the dead brought good iuck in hunting, while the skulls-especially those of important people, inherired by the oidest
son-healed the mo re serious illnesses. Pur sim ply, the dead ensured protection for
the living, while the living repaid the dead wi th marks of respect and trust. With
rhe introduction of the practice of double earth burials, only the skull was kept for
the practice of conserving th e bones applied, it seems. to the majoriry of the
deceased.
Far from being reserved for shamans and leaders. the use of bones equally ap-
plied ta anorher c1ass of the dead: warriors kiUed in batde, even those who had
died far from home. A very widespread procedure in the lowlands, the rec~very
of a part of the deceased's body underlines the importance accorded to rhe natal
rerritoryas a place of return for those dying in foreign lands. Ir is quite diflîcult
to
the StatuS of the deceased. The eneampment
2()4
) t!an- FterTt!
Bones. Fluw. and lht! Dead: ManOT] and Funrrary TreatmenlS
ChaumeiL
265
(mythic or clanic) or nonhuman entities (bird spirits, for exampIe), and in carnate
their voice and bones, or sometimes a part of their body. Among most of the Tukano and Arawak groups of no rrhwest Arnazon ia) the Hutes represent the bones
of eponymous ancestors of the dans, who are rreated on these occasions as though
they were living beings. In other cases, as among the Yagua and Mundurucu,
they shelter or symbolize the voice and bones of certain categories of anceStral
spirits associared with garne. Although not amounting ta a generai rule as such,
the frequency of such associadons allows us to posrulate, 1 thînk, the existence '
of a relationship between these Hutes and bones. Furthermore, the instrumental
ensemble they form is subject
[0
a heavy visual interdiction of women and the
noninitiared under penalty of death, rape, or serious illness. The prohibition may
be [Otal or partial depending on rhe case; for example, certain details of the fab rication of Aures may be banned to view. D efined in this way, the sacred flures can
be compared with another very ancient instrument in Amazonia, the bul1roarers.
Allard
Fig. 8.~. Sirio no relies u aJ1spo rted during seasonal m igrations (mer Femândez. D istel 1984-85).
its therapeutic virrues. The other remains were burned and interred. If che data are
accurate, the Siriono had perfected an original system of relations wim the dead,
based on reciprocal protection and noc on the idea of ruprure.
(2000)
has suggested that these aerop hones, present especially in the east of
Brazil and in che sub-Andean region ofPeru, occupy an "inverse" position co the
Bures that many societies make fro m the bones of enemies: while the first type of
Bute involves the ancesto rs «giving vo ice," the second type involves dead enem ies
being "made tO sing."
Today the area of distribution of this musical complex is concentrated in west-
ern Amazonia, the middle O rinoco, and centtal Btazi!, notably the upper Xi ngu
region. In rhe pasr it exrended along the length of the Amazon, [0 the Colombian
llanos an d the vast region running from the Purus ta the Mojos savannas (see
The "Sacred" Flutes Complex
At the start of this chapter, if the reader recalls, 1 raised the possibility of a CQnnection between che trearment ofbones and the Amazonian complex of «sacred"
map, figure 8-4).
Amon a Arawakan aroups -to whom the origin of this complex is generally at-
"
"
tributed-these
însuuments may be found among the Curripaco (associated with
male initiation and food gathering rites) ) the Yukuna (male initiation), and th e
Butes whose blowing, musical sound or even visual appearance aione sometimes
has, Iike Siriono skulls, che power CO attract game or co cure serious afflictions.
Achagua of Colombia (funerary ceremonies) . Over in Venezuelan and Brazilian
POrtO (1996) provides several hisro tical tefetences co these rituals, notably the
Yurimagua cult of Guaricaya where we find the key elements of the rituals coday
known by the name of Yurupari. (See also Gomes 2DOl for tteatment of this
theme and the association of flutes with certain topoynms.) In this part 1 shall
rhe Baré of the upper Rio Negro, where they are associated with initiation and
food exchange rimais. In the upper Xi ngu region, the Mehinaku, the Waura, and
the Yawalapiti keep these sacred flutes with the bullroaters in rhe men's house. Ac-
therefore seek to explain the link beeween possession of these instruments , the
conservation of bones, and the memory of the dead.
The Amazonian lireta wre uses the rerrn racredflutes-called Yurupa~i in norrhwestern Amazonia-to designate a variety of musical instruments played exclusively in a ritual contcxt: male initiation, seasonal rituals of food exchange, therapeudc or funerary ceremonies. These flutes may represent eimer ancestral entities
territories, they are present among the Warekena, the Wakuénai, the Baniwa, and
cording ta much older documents, the "Mojo," Bauré, Manasi, and Paressi-all
o nce powerful and hierarchical Arawak societies-used ra keep their sacred instruments in ''temples.''
The sacred Autes complex also occupies a cenual place in the religion of the Tukano of the Va~pès-D esana, Barasana, Makuna, Cubeo, and so on- altho ugh it
is absent among the western T ukano. Here the pairs of instruments are placed in
Cottespondence with the different levels of clan-type social segmentation (Hugh-
Bones, Flutes, and the Dead: Memory and Funerary Treatments
~
267
a.ure
MOJo
Fig. 8.5. Saliva funerals (afœr Gumilla I758).
Fig. 8.4. Area of the "sacred" Hures.
Jones '979; Arhem I980). The Maku may have lent the Tukano their flures along
with their system of social segmentation. Such Butes were also signaled among
the Yurimagua and Omagua, ancient Tupi of central Amazonia, by the first
chroniclers, and they are still in use among the Mundurucu of the Tapajôs, who
employ them during hunting to seduce the spirits of game, somewhat in the
manner of head trophies. The Piaroa of Venezuela, in the Saliva linguistic family, possess one of the most complete panoplies of sacred instruments, played at
the performance of the great sari or warime rimals, an instrumental ensemble
Bones, Flutes, and the Dead· Memory and Fuyurary Treatmmts
i
i
·1
l
"
i
1
l
1
j,
!
Fig. 8.6. Sacred instruments of the Saliva usd in funerary ceremonies (aftel:" G umilla -1758).
269
recaUing ,hat of the ancient Saliva described by Farher G umilla in the m iddle of
,he eighteemh century,
O n ,he Amazon, the Ticuna and the Vagua also manufacture these kinds of
instruments În connection with initiations and large collective hunts. Construction of the large communal houses among the Witoto, Bora, and O caina, may
also give rise to the celebration of a ritual of ,he same ki nd. Among the Carib,
in contrast, the complex of sacred Butes seems tO be litde developed except by
rhe Carijona, who were exposed to the double inHuence of the Tukano and Witoto, and by the Kalapalo and Kuikuro, who belong to the upper Xingu cultural
nexus.
At an organological level, this musical assembly comprises several classes of
wind instruments (trumpets, pipes, and Hures) generally played in pairs following different formulas (older/younger, male/female, long/short) and sometimes
placed in hierarchical relationshi p (rrumpecs superior ta Butes, or vice versa)
dependîng on the importance of the endd es being represenred. Their fabrication is the responsibiliry of initiated men according to their clan affiliation, although they may also be the work of specialists, as among the Mehinaku (Gregor
1979:255), In such cases the Hutes fetch a high priee, and theit acquisition requires
the supply of high-val ue exchange goods. The instruments are then kept in the
"Rute house" or placed in the care of a guardian. Elsewhere, the instruments are
descroyed or abandoned once the rimaIs have been held, except for one part, usuaUy the imperishable wooden tip of the trumpets or rhe body of rhe flures, which
is carefully kept from one ritual to the next, wrap ped in bark and concealed in·
deep forest or at the source of srreams, a li ede bit as though Ît were a relie. The
guardian, "he who rakes care of the Hures" in the expression of the Desana ofBrazil as 1am told by Dominique Buchiller, will then periodically rem ove rhe "body"
of the instrument from the water or earch ra ensure ies perfee! conservation undl
rhe day whe n it will be used again to make new Hures for the approaching rituals. This pracrice evokes the principle of successive double funerals-and recalls
the proposed relationship berween the Butes and the bones of rhe ancient dead,
The fairly widespread cusrom of "feeding" rhe Hures with dri nks or tobacco can
be inrerprered in rhis conrexr as a way of giving back flesh to the "bones" of the
ancestors; in other words, it is a means of bringing them tO life, as though th is
periodic "resurrection" is roeant ta mark a link berween the living and the dead, a
condnuiry across the generations. As it happens, many of the societies possessing
the sacred Hute complex perform, or used co perform, double funerals in urns
(whole bones) or endocannibalism (pulve rized bones)-rwo funerary modes in
perfee! harmony, 1 believe, with the theory of conserving remains. The myths
from western Amazonia on the origin of Rures moreover echo these rwo funerary
270
jean-l'.eTTe Chaumeil
forms. According to the most common version, it was the calcined bones of the
mythic hero that gave birth to the paxiuba palm (Iriartea sp.) used ta make the
Hutes, his relics in this world (Hugh-Jones 1979). This episode ofhis resurrection
via ashes is found in more or less transmuted form in numerous flute origin myths
and suggests an association with the practice of osteophagy. In other versions,
though, such as those of the Yagua, the episode with the ashes is missing; instead,
the hero reaches the sky by extracting a liana vine from his navel and immediately
sends his bones ta earth for people to make the Hutes. Additionally, the Yagua say
that in the past the instruments were made from bones and not wood as today.
In the mythology, the first Hutes acquired by the twlns came from the bones of
their dead kin, in particular their father. Such instruments were distinct from
trophy Butes, which the Yagua once fabricated from the humeri of enemies
killed in combat and which served exclusively as weapons of war (Chaumeil
2001). In fact, as far as we know, the Yagua did not practice endocannibalism
but favored double funerais in urns, at Ieast for important figures. We could
thus risk the hypothesis of a double correspondence between (a) the "bone"
versionof the myth and double funerals, and (b) the "ash" version and endocannibalism.
As a link between generations, the sacred Hutes also bind the living and the
dead, a relationship strengrhened by the materiai entering into their fabrication.
Several species of palm with very hard wood (Iriartea sp., Bactris sp.) are used for
both the body of the flutes and the tip of trumpets. These same species also serve
in the manufacture of arms among a large number of Amazonian peoples. Bactris
in particular-which has been domesticated by indigenous peoples and is the result of crossing tvifO wild species-grows very slowly and reproduces on the same
site over many generations. In order to harvest the fruits or exploit the wood, the
socîeties cultivating it must therefore return periodically ta the old clearings close
to the places occupied by the dead. Moreover, certain groups such as the Yagua or
the Mayoruna explicitly associate the Bactris palm wirh the "ancestors." Erikson
(199 6 and this volume) has underlined the almost consubstantiallink that unites
this palm with the ancestral spirits of the Matis, guardians of the fallow grounds
where the Bactri, grows. This observation provides the basis for his hypothesis
that the groups culrivating the Bactris palm or proximate species have "a relation
of ancestraliry very different from that of the majority of groups in Amazonia,
for whom death alienates, provoking an abrupt shift into alterity" (1996:188-189).
Laura Rival (1993) develops a parallel argument about the Huaorani of Ecuador:
for this indigenous group, the colonies of Bactris express slow growth, generational continuiry, and the memory of the dead. Far from being a gift of the forest,
the palms racemes are in fact seen by the people as the product of the work of
Bones, Flutes, and the Dead: Memory and Funerary Treatments
1
271
past generations. When they cross zones populated by Bactris palm, the Huaorani
remember particular people who have died, related ta the members of the group
who exploited these partieular palm stands. Ir seems, then, that the sacred Hutes
make up part of a broad western Amazonian cultural complex, linking together
these palm trees, ancient groves, and the "ancesrors."
Moreover, we can note that most of the groups of western Amazonia possessing sacred flutes aiso have a system of lineage-type social segmentation,
clanic or similar, with an emphasis on patrilineal filiation, in contrast with
the cognatic kinship prevalent elsewhere in Amazonia. With the exception of
Reichel-Dolmatoff (1989), the authors focusing on this question have unanimously associated the Hures with a "male cult," sorne of them going as far as
to speak of an "ancestor cult." There is no reason te conclude, though, that the
Yurupari rituals are performed only in connection with filiation: they also produce full-scale alliance through ceremonial exchanges. In this sense, the sacred
Butes undoubtedly achieve the articulation of the principles of filiation and alliance in equal 'measure, although the filiation side is more explicitly pronounced
(Àrhem '981). With this in mind, Hugh-Jones (1993) proposes the introduction
of the notion "house society" te characterize (his type of social organization,
much closer in his view to indigenous practices and conceptions than reference
te the notion of unifiliation alone. True, but what then to make of the Piaroa
or the upper Xingu societies that possess the flutes but not, as far as we can tell,
any form of social segmentation of this kind? An intriguing point in the Piaroa
case concerns the existence of morruary clans, a therne developed by Overing
(1993): Although operating littIe in daily life, they are still used today in dassieal
fashion in the actions involving territorial claims. Furrher back in the past, it
seems, these funerary clans, each reuniting dead members of the same "filiation group" in the next world, were linked to precise local geographic referents
that could indicate porential rights over using space. In a recent thesis, Alex
Mansutti (2002) has shown the crucial role of taponymy in the construction
and appropriation of space among the Piaroa and how this code of concrete
reference points can serve as a suppOrt for producing hisrory in this society.
The possible association of the flutes and the dead is even more enticing here
since the ancient Saliva associated the sacred instruments with their funerary
ceremonies. In the case of the upper Xingu, the institution common to the
area of "men's houses"-where the Hutes were and still are stored-may also
provide an interesting lead for further exploration. Egon Schaden (1959) had
already emphasized the potential inrerest of studying the "Yurupari religion"
in conjunction wirh the institution of men's houses in South America. Future
research will say whether these remarks are pertinent. For now, rhe indications
272
Jean-Pierre Chaumeil
are that there is indeed a strong link between the possession of instruments, the
conservation of bones, the memory of the dead, and a "unilinear" conception
of society.
Memory and Cumulative Historical Knowledge
The expression of a continuity, of a permanence beyond the succeeding generations, through mortuary remains and sacred flutes (with their successive «double
fùnerals" after each ritual) prompts us to consider the production of a form of
memory in th~se societÎes elearly somewhat different fro~ that present in those
other Amazoman groups more concerned with erasing all reference to the dead.
Perhaps these contrasting forms of relationship to the dead allow us to discern
a shift from a cyelie temporality to a more cumulative conception of time-not
truly historical in the sense we commonly understand, but one where the elements layer on top of each other. An indigenous kind of "chronology," in other
words. In fact, it has often been elaimed that Amazonian societies show Htde
concern in establishing a chronology of past Events, Even relative, that would lead
from a point of departure to the present, whether through oral rradition-which
more often utilizes the forms of mythic narration-or the mostly rare transmission of abjects and attributes (Menget '999a). Symbolic abjects as important as
the trophies were seldom kept, but were rather abandoned because their value was
held to decrease over time. Yet among the Yagua exacdy the opposite took place:
the trophies of human teeth were almost the only items the warriors passed down
before their death to their male descendants. This was done in the hope of assuring them prosperity, srrength, and longevity; at the same time they comprised
a kind of living memory of killed enemies, as such necklaces were sometimes
kept within families for three or four generations. Apparently similar procedures
were reported on the Amazon in the middle of the eighteenth century by the
missionary Joâo Daniel (Chaumeil 2002). It 1S aIso known that many societies
of the Guianas, the middle Amazon, and the Rio Negra used or still use various
mnemonic systems, especially in the shape of knotted cords, which sorne authors
have likened ta rudimentary quipus. These were used not only to transmit messages, as Vidal (2000) indicates of the Warekena, but as marks or "calendars"
for determining the daces for celebrating partieular rituals or fixing the chronology of certain events (Chaumeil 2002). Much research remains ta be conducted
on these different indigenous systems of computation and memorizarjon, which
seem ta imply a particular idea of chronology. Other societies have sought to
preserve their historical memory by inscribing it in the landscape by way of myths
and rituals (Santos-Granera 1998; Mansutti 2002; Wright '993; Vidal 2000). AlI
Eones, Flutes, and the Dead: Memory and Funerary Treatments
273
these authors have in fact stressed the importance in various groups including the
Piaroa, Wakuénai, Warekena, Yanesha, and Paez of toponymy and particularly
specifie places-the famous "sacred spaces" or "ropograms" in Santos-Granero's
expression-in fixing and transmitting historicaI memory. Writing more specifically about the Yanesha, Samos-Granera has shawn that the epic "voyage" of the
solar divinity Yompor Ror retraces in close detail what we know roday of the
historical migration and setrlemem: ofYanesha populations; equivalents may be
found in the mythic "journeys" ofWajari among the Piaraa or Kuwai among the
Baniwa. Such "topographic writing" shared by several Amerindian societies may
be seen, then, as an important means of preserving historical memory in these
oral cultures-in sum, a specifically indigenous mode of manipulating the past.
Santos-Granero, however, detects an Andean influence in this process. This makes
perfect sense in rerms of the Yanesha, living at the base of the Andean mountains,
but is less clear for me groups of me Rio Negra. These examples in any case tend
ta show that me idea of a chranology applied to certain facts of the past is not
perhaps as absent in Amazonian as was thought.
Returning to the "sacred" musical instruments of more direct interest to us
here, Robin Wright (1993; see also Vidal 2000 on me Warekena and Baré, and
Hill '993 on the Wakuénai) has explored a very similar idea in relation to the
Baniwa of the Rio Negro in an article describing the mythic journeys of the
cultural hero Kuwai in search of lIutes (which incarnate his own body) stolen
by women. In his quest, the hero geographically describes an immense territory
based around a place of emergence common to numerous Arawakan groups in
the region: the Isana River. Wright argues that these "journeys," punctuated by
the Butes, retrace the ancient migrations and networks of intertribal exchange
typical of the Arawak of northwesrAmazonia at the time of contact; the Manoa,
for example, were inserted in exchanges connecting the upper Rio Negro and the
upper Amazon, an inrermediate position that the Achagua similarly occupied
between the Colombian llanos and the Antilles. The sites of the flutes may in this
sense indicare territorial marks or legitimacy, serving as a topographieal memory
of ancient circuits. At a wider level, the journeys of Kuwai (or Wajari) perhaps
express a form of cumulative historical knowledge, registering past experiences
while remaining open ta Events. This explains why the Baniwa consider the old
Brazilian capital of Rio de Janeiro a site of the hero Kuwai, since the chimneys
of nuclear power stations they saw close to the ciry were for them a representation of Kuwai's Bures! (Wright I993:24). Resumption of the sacred Butes ritual
after a partial abandonment-a phenomenon observable among several groups of
northwestern Amazonia as an emblem of ethnocultural revivaI-doubrless arises
from this logic of reilYing ancestrallines by legitimizing a presence or a rerrirory.
DontS, rm.f!S, ana
This is also the case with rhe Asurini (Müller 1992). Confronring the construction of a hyd roelectIic planr on the Xingu that threatened ta Rood parr of their
rerritory, (hey inrucaœd the presence in th e acea of a number of "cemeteries," the
ancient graves of warriors, evoking for them the memory of the dead. Among the
Mapoyo of Venezuela, a Carib group once thought ra be on the brink of extinction, ir has likewise been shawn (Scaramelli and Tarble 2000) thar the change
in funerary modes-reoccupation of the ancient cave-cemeteries---corresponds
ta theic return in force on the Venezuelan policical scene at the moment of the
discovery and exploration of a deposit of bauxire on (heir territory. The use of
the past
[0
defend or jusrjfy cultural or terricocial rights is, as we know, a general
phenomenon in Amazonia (and elsewhere) and probably exiS\ed well before the
present (Vidal 2000). With this in mind, it would certainly be intriguing ra srudy
the n umerous messianic rnovements that have convulsed the Arawak cultures of
the Amazon and Rio Negro From rhe middle of rhe eighteenth century onward,
invariably interpreted as a farm of resistance againsr colonial domination. These
complex questions and rhe different processes rhey imply would obviously demand a study in itseiE For now 1 sim ply wish ra underline the idea that relations
ra time and history among societies that conserve their dead or reembody them
in ritual abjectS are different from those relations among societies (hat suive to
make the dead vanish as quickly as possible. In place of an exocentric definition
of society, where alrerity acts as a strong encompassing value, we find anorher
definition, centered much more on the self, on generational continuity, and on
telations berween rhe living and rhe dead, where rhe cult of sacred Rutes occupies
a cenrral role. (See rhe centrifugallcenrriperal distinction proposed by Fausro 2001
as a way of characterizing rhese two sociocosmological regimes, as w eU as the
logical and historical possibilities of shifting From one ro the orher.) If the above
lS correCt, this instrumenta! ensemble wo uld not only have an ultimace function
of incarnating rhe dead but also perhaps the primary function of perperuating
memory over the generations. More than a ritual object of substitution. the flute
complex would comprise a cognitive operamr allowing society co be imagined in
eontinuiry with its own dead.
Conclusion
Our rapid examination of chese tapies does not, therefore, provide total confirmation of the thesis that the archerypical form of mourning in the Sourn. American
lowlands rests essentÎaHy on a relation of exclusion vis-à-vis the dead, transforming the larrer within paradigms of altetiry whereby no one would dream of con-
/nt
uet1a:
I Vl.tmOry
ana runrrary lrt atmmts
275
secrating a specific place to rhem or of fixing them in rheir memories. Although
a large amount of empirical dara can be cired to suppOrt rhis rhesis, an equally
large amount conrradicrs it-a fact borne OUt by the rwa series of funerary treatments highlighted in (his text. Rather than the socius being collectively defin ed in
relation co the exrerior by treating its own dead as scrangers, the aim is to avoid
losses by conserving the dead "ae home." However, far from exduding each other,
the ewo scenarios may perfecdy weIl eoexist within the same culture. The majority
of Amazonian groups possess several funeeary modes, depending, among othec
factors, on the rype of death involved or the status of the person who died. The
present text has particularly sought (Q emphasize the importance of the conservation ofbones in various different forms (as relies, substitutes, Buees, and so on) the
question of osteophagy remaining open) as part of rhe process of conrinuiry and
remembrance of the dead---or ae least sorne of them, generally che mûst eminent
persons: the chiefs, shamans, great warriors, or combatams felled in foreign lands.
In su ml ie is more a question of ereating an adequace distance from or relation
to the dead (han of systematically oblirerating mem via a collective amnesia. At
the same rime, analysis of these marerials forces us ra reBeer on the production of
different forms ofhisrarical memory in these societies.
Questioning the degree of complexiry of funerals in rhe lowlands is one thing;
inquiring inro the type of memorization put into action in these contexts is another. Everything depends on whether rhe mortuary memory concerns the individuality of the deceased, set tO become an "ancestor," or the anonymous collecrive represenred by rhe communiry of the dead, wirh no prospect for individual
survival. In this case roo, the rwo scenarios coexist, but with the detail that, as a
who le, explicit genealogieal references are maintained only for important dead
figures, whose names and exploits are often immonalized in partÎCular genres of
biographie or epk tales, as reporred among the Xavante, the Yagua, or certain
groups of the upper Xingu. Moreover, ir perhaps makes more sense to qualify
these figures as "immortals" (han as "ancestors." In any event, (he "sacred" Butes
chat have retained much of our attention in chis work may perhaps oceupy an
intermediary position bervveen these two poles, berween the "ancestors" and the
anonymous collective representing the communicy of the dead,
One thing in any case seems certain. The differential or selective treatments
reserved to the dead in numeraus Amazonian societies imply the existence of
forms of internaI social differenriation much more pronounced than previously
rhoughr-a facr corroborared by recent archaeological research. They also reveal
funerary practices (hat are infinitely more varied and elaborare than those more
generally presented to characœ rize Lowlands societies.
Bones. Flutes. and the Dead' Memory and Funerary Trearments
Acknowledgmenrs
277
Steinerz: Um siculo de arztropologia no Xingu, ediced by Vera Pemeado Coelho, 4°5-429.
This article is a modified and updated version of "Les os, les flûtes, les morts:
Mémoire et traitement fun éraire en Amazonie," published in Journal de la Société
des Américanistes 83 (1997). 1 warmly thank Carlos Fausto for his comments and
valuable suggestions.
Sao Paulo, EdUSP.
Castd nau-I..:Estoile, C harlotte. 2000. "Un maitre de la parole indienne: Francisco Pinto (I552-1608), missionnaire jésuite au Brésil." Arquivos do Centro Cultural Calouste
Gulbenkian 39:45- 60.
Castro, Eduardo Viveiros de. 1992. From the Enemy's Point ofView: Humanity and Divinity
in an Amazonian Society. Translated by Catherine V Howard. Chicago: University of
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