Amerindian Amazons: Women, Exchange, and the

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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
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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
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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
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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
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...
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
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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
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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
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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).
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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.
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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
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582
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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
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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
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583
584
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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).
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(2001); S. Hugh-Jones
14, 572-589
2008
(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
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586 Astrid
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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. Furthermore,
the myths are not only about the relations
represent complementarity
between men and women, but transcend them. This is clear in Stephen Hugh-Jones's
(1979) analysis of the
As noted
Barasana myths
and rituals.
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Les Amazones
: femmes,
am?rindiennes
?changes
et origines
de
la soci?t?
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
asteverlynck@comcast.net
Journal
Institute
(N.S.) 14, 572-589
Institute 2008

Amerindian Amazons: Women, Exchange, and the

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