"A eficácia simbólica" revisitada: cantos de cura ayoreo

Authors

  • John Renshaw

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/S0034-77012006000100012

Keywords:

Ayoreo, Gran Chaco, shamanism, indigenous medicine

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to consider a specific field of Amerindian knowledge, namely the sarode or curing songs of the Ayoreo of the Gran Chaco, and to try to elucidate some of the taken-for-granted metaphysical assumptions that underlie Ayoreo epistemology. Following the approach taken in Joanna Overing's introduction to Reason and Morality (1985), I will suggest that even these apparently simple, repetitive curing songs have to be understood as part of a broader corpus of "mythical" knowledge and acquire their effectiveness or power, not through suggestion or metaphor but rather by harnessing the power of the "mythical" world of the jnani bajade, the "original beings" that were and still are both Ayoreo and the Ancestors or Masters of the present-day animals, plants and minerals.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Published

2006-01-01

Issue

Vol. 49 No. 1 (2006)

Section

Dossiê

License

Authors who intend to publish in this journal must agree with the following terms:

 

  1. a) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication. The work is simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows the work to be shared as long as the author and the initial publication in this journal are appropriately credited.
  2. b) Authors are authorized to sign additional contracts for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (e.g., to publish it as a book chapter), as long as the author and the initial publication in this journal are appropriately credited.
  3. c) Authors are allowed and encouraged to publish and distribute their work online (e.g. on their personal webpage) after the editorial process, for this can generate productive changes as well as increase the impact and citation of the work. See The Effect of Open Access Publications.

How to Cite

Renshaw, J. (2006). "A eficácia simbólica" revisitada: cantos de cura ayoreo . Revista De Antropologia, 49(1), 393-427. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0034-77012006000100012