Fish, constellations and Jurupari: the Stradelli’s short encyclopedia of the Amazon

Abstract

Besides being a valuable testimony to the importance of Nheengatu in the history of Brazilian culture, Ermano Stradelli’s Vocabulário Português Nheengatu - Nheengatu Português may be read and consulted as an encyclopedia of Amazonian culture, that is, as a still current source of information about the complexity of life in the great forest. This complexity is evident in the wealth of entries dedicated to fishing and hunting, for example, in Stradelli’s commentaries (which can be sometimes a little personal) on indigenous cultures, and above all in the fuller descriptions of certain phenomena, as is the case with “jurupari”. The account of Jurupari given in the Vocaulário may be usefully compared, in terms of its social and astronomical significance, with brief “legends” included in an appendix, and with the Lenda do Jurupari that Stradelli had published three decades previously.