Nr.62 G. Reichel-Dolmatoff ntext Universitatsbibliothek Wien FB Bildungs-, ,Lit-, Sprachwiss 19121 " 1111111111 I II hrIimau 1989 G. Reichel-Dolmatoff Desana Texts and Contexts Wien-Fohrenau 1989 ACTA ETHNOLOGICA ET LINGUISTICA Editor Nr.62 Engelbert Stiglmayr 1989 Series Americana 12 Cueditor (Series A l11ericdn<J) Johannes Wilbert Los Angeles Wien·Fohrenau 1989 © 1989 by Elisabeth Stiglmayr \lcdi.eninhaber. Ycrlcger und Hersteller: Elisabeth Stigllllayr. Herausgeber lind Redaktion: Dr. Engelbert Stiglmayr; beide Wienerstr.af~e 141. A-2822 f7bhrenau. Contcnts 5 CONTENTS Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. .. .. ... . . . . . . 7 The Texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~O The Informants . . . ... . . . .. . . 26 Acknowledgements .... . . ... . ........ ... ....... . ... '28 The Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 1 Creation Myth (Torame) . ... ........ . ... . . 35 2 In the Beginning (Mirf) ... . ... . ... . .. . .. . ...... . 67 3 On Origins (T oraJlle) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 4 On Origins (Begeyeri) . . . . . . . . . .. . ........ I 19 5 Tile Origin of Life (Torame) ... .... . .. . . .. .. . . . . .. 150 6 Yajr Woman (Torame) ......... . ............ . ... 155 7 Narcotic Snuff and First Origins (13egeyeri) ........ .. .. 159 8 The Origin of Yaje (Begeyeri) ... .. ..... . .......... 166 9 First Contacts (13egeyeri) .. . . . ... . . ... . . . .. . ..... 173 10 First Origins (Torame) ..... . .. . ... . ........ .... . 178 11 First Beginnings (Begeyeri) . . . . . . .. . . . .... . .. ... 181 12 The Adultery of Bone Person's Wife (Miri) .. .......... 182 13 The Adultery of Sun's Wife (Payat' eg" e) 13 The Adultery of Sun's Wife (Payatege) . . . . ..... 199 14 The Death of the Son of the Sun ·· a (Payatege) ... ..... . 203 15 The Death of the Son of the Sun - b (Payatege). .. .215 16 The Sun 's Adulterous Wife (Payatege) .... .. ......... 223 17 The First Death (loraJlle) ... . ....... . .... . .. .225 18 Sun Recovers his EJr PcndJnt s (Torallle) . . . , . . . . . . .231 19 On Desana-Maku Contacts (Begeyeri) ... ........ . .... 232 20 On Desana Sibs (Begeyeri) .. . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 234 21 On Desana Sibs (Mir!) .. .. . . . . . . . . ... . ... . . .. . .. 240 The Flood (ivliri) ........... . ........ . ..... . .. 246 II 23 The Flood and Conflagration (Torame) . . ..... . .... ... 248 24 The Moon and the Stars IPayatege) .. . ... . . . .... . ... 252 .25 Blood People and the Jaguars (Tonillli') . .. .. . . . ...... 254 26 Marriage to a Tapir Woman (Torallle) ........ .. . 271 27 Marriage to a Fish Woman (Mir!) . . . . . ... . .... . . 279 28 Marriage to a Fish Woman /Tonime} . . .. . ... .. ...... . 294 29 . The Dolphin People (Mid) .......... . . .... ....... 303 30 The Man Who Fell Apart (Torame) . . ...... . .. . ... . . 308 31 Thunder and His People (Payategc:) .... . .......... . . 329 6 Cuntents 32 Marriage to a Vulture Woman (Mirf) .. . . . . . . ... . .. . .. 333 33 The Wanderings of l'eeri Woman (Miri) ............... 346 34 The Tree People (Miri) J . . . . . ......... . .. . ... . .. 361 35 Day People Rape Women (Tonime) .......... . . ..... 374 36 The Wanderings of Bush Dog (Begeyeri) .......... . ... 380 37 Starch Person introduces Horticulture (Mirf) ........ . .. 453 38 Tinamou and OppOSSUIll (Tonl.me) .. . . . ... . . . .. 46 1 39 The Eagle People (M iri) . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . 469 40 A Maku's Visit to the Piranha People (Tonime) . . . ...... 473 41 First Alliances (M iri) .. .... . . .. '" . .. . ... .. . .... 481 42 Night Women (Begeyeri) ... . . . .. ...... . .. . . . . . .. 487 43 How Night came into Existence (Tonime) ..... . .. . . . . . 493 44 The Faithlessness of Vine Woman (Miri) ..... . ... .. ... 497 45 Ant Gatherer and Spirit Toad (Miri) . ....... .. ...... . 506 46 The Disguised Husband (Payatege) . . ....... .. ...... . 510 47 On Maku Servants (Payatege) . ............ . .. . .. .. 5 11 48 The Boy with Sores (Mirf) . .... . .. . .. . . . .. . . . . ... 513 49 The Boy with Sores (T orame) ... ... . .. .. . . .. . . . ... 515 50 Bisiu (Tonime) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524 Summary . .... ....... . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . 527 Index .. .. . .. .. . ... . .. . .. .. . .. .. ... .. . .. . ..... 535 Introductiull 7 Introduction The present volume contains fifty texts of the Desana Indians. re­ felTing to the mythical and historical origins of this rain forest tribe of the Colombian Northwest Amazon. The text were recorded by me in the field , between 1966 and 1969, froll1 four [)esana shamans. The materiul presented in this volume is part of u much lurger corpus of texts which I wus ;]ble to record, and which I shall present in the fu ture. These, as yet unpublished m<lteriuls. consist of Desana spell s. songs, and other rituul texts: my ths ancita les of tile Pira-Tapuya, Uan;]no, l3arJ. Tutuyo. ;]nl! Tukano proper: and;] large nUll1ber of shamanic texts from the l3ura sa na . I must briefly I'ekr to the origin ami purpose of this project of textual analysis which has occupiel!me for th;]t muny years. In 195~ I had tile opportunity to make u brief visit to the Vaupcs territory und to survey the area of MitLI . the district c;]pital. and some spo ts ne~lr tile confluence of tile "ira-parana ;]nd the Apapo ris rivers. During previous yeurs my cthnogruphical interests had been mainly con­ cerned with tile Kogi Inliiuns. a Cllibcllan-speaking tribe of the Sierra Nevada de Sunta M'Ht;]. in northern ColOIllbia, a very complex culture. compurable only to the advanced societies 01' Mesoamerica. In the course of this work. which had begun in the early forti es. I h,ld often felt the need to become ,Icquainted with a simple tropic;]1 rain forest people, in order to bring my Kogi material into a proper perspective. Now my brief glimpse of the Vaupes Indians had opened a new perspective. and I was eager to learn more ;]bout these forest peoples. But circumst;] l1ces m;]de this impossible ,II that time. It W~IS only in 1966 that a ch,1I1ce meeting with a Vaupes Indian named Antonio Guzman Jed to my rene wed interest in this region ;]nd. eventually, made me formulate a longterm research project. Cuzman. a lI1ission·educ;]ted [)esana. had come to the Universid;]d de los And es, in Hogo[,i, where, a few yea rs earlier, I had founded tllC Department of AntlHopology, and h,ld become an uuxiliary research as­ sistant, Llpon my recon1il1enci~ltion. I have described th ese early beginnings of my Vaupes studies, in another publication (Reici1el·DoI11<Jtuff, 19(8). III [ruefu(' [iun In th<.lt saille ye<.lr. 1966, 1 tr<.lvclled with C;ulmil)) tll thc Vaupc s, in ordcr tll Illilkc <.I survcy of field cond itiolls <.Illll rc seil rch possibilities. Th e results of tll ese <.Ippreci<.ltions were publi~hed by Ill e ill a report ill which [ callcd ,,(telltioll to <.I IllIJnber 01' urgellt resc<.lrch Ilceds. together witll " ple,1 for proillpt <.Ictioll. At tll<.lt tillle, seve ral aspect s of the Vaupcs situ,llioll had become l'lear to IllC. [n the first place, the traditional ntitLIIl'S of the Tukano,II1' 'peakillg tribes were I·apidl y disappearing ulld er mi ssion ary prl'ssurC. and tlte l<.Ibm conditions imposed by the local represelltativcs of the national cultllrt:. In thc seco nd place. TukanoHn culture, from wh<.l t I 11<Ill observed so far. contailled thoug ht patterns. psychological insights, and ad<.lptive !llechanisills which clearly constitut ed Ill<ljor intellectual efforts a I\now· ledge Ill· which might great ly enrich ollr own civilis<.ltioll. Thirdly, ill order \cl S<.IVl' this cu ltural Ileritagc ami. at tile S<.Illle tilllC', to call the ,lltclltioll of a wide re;ltiership to the soc ial allll ethical problcills posed by the declinc of this abor iginal culturc. I thought th,lt 1I1ltilropoiogy would be dble to t,lke a Icadill g part ill redressing 1I balance which Ilad becilupsct by it!'lOr­ ;lllce. bigotry , and greed. and the res tordtioll of which W<.lS nece~s;w. k,,· the dillinllt. but lIecessary. tr;IIlsitioll from tribalism to nlltional idellti· ficat iOIl. Thc first to real·t to Illy report Oil ITse<lrch needs in Ille V<lUPl;SWL'rC I·rench <llld British '1Ilthropologists. Patrice Bidou. rmm P'·(li'cS'or l.evi­ Strauss's Ldbmato ire d',"ltIHopologie sociale, ,Iild Stephen alld Christine Hugh-Jolles, frolll Proressor Sir Ldillund Leach's Cambridge scmin;.!r. promptly arrived tll work ,1I1long tile Tatuyo and I~arasana respect ive ly and , eventually, mCiIlY others arrived and undcrt ook regional surveys ur lucal studies 01' other Tllkalloall grollpS. 13y the late sixties a Ilumber of re sl',lrc h rroject s wL're under way, and III a ny of the newcomers sl'cilled to Ilave I·orgottcn abollt IIOW this era of Vaupcs studies Iud hegun. [ myself h<ld hecome int erested in shaJllanism and the shaJllanic world view, and ill y wor k Oil th ese topics h,IS continued over the years. My previous Kogi experience had taught 11IC that tl~xtual Jllatl'lials were of the essellce d· olle wished to approach the pmblcJlls or symbolic systcms, and so. aftcr an initial phase of genc,·al reconnaissance, I began to m"kc J systelllatic reL"lHd ()I' sham<lnic texts, sllch <I S myths and talcs, spells ,1I1ei songs, gCllea logics. ,Ind descript ions or ritual. So far. hardly any native tex ts or thc [)CS,lIla wt're kllown in prillt, except foj· two short collections or my th s and spells (Rcichel·Dolmatoff. 1975, p-p. 205 -224: 1976), and the allalysis or a shalllJnic initiatioJl (Reichel·[)olillatoff, 1981). ;\)1 other eX'lIllples or Desana oral literJtllre had beell published in III fro(/lic fiO/1 9 SpJnish or Portuguese, ;J fact which seriously diminished their analytic value (Amorim, 1928, pp, 427 430; Reichel-Dolinatoff. 1968, pp, 17­ 25; Umusin, 1980) Shamans arc the intcliectu,Jis of their societics and, in the Vaupcs territory, were much In;Jligned by missionaries Jnd Bible trJnslJtors, They lived in relative isolation or incognit(), but oncc I had established contact with them I was well received and they readily offered, not only to dictate tcxtual matcrials into my tape recorder, but also to COlllment freely on them and discuss with me whatever te.\tual episode I might wish to clarify for myself. It was this last point that intel'es ted me most. Obviously, it was not sulTicient to record a text, transl;Jte it, and then attempt to analyse it back home, without having the possibility to ask questions, I\s I con­ ceived my task, whJt was most needed was J detailed discussion of e;Jch text, ill the field and within the context of a functioning society; what I hoped t:l Jcilieve was J discussion of etymological and senwntic points, of mctaphors, analogies. and mental images; or men, animals and plants tllat were thc protagonists and props of thcse myths and tales. And in these discussions had to takc pal'l other knowledgeable people , other ciders, and men of intellect , and not only the narrator. It was with thcse objectives in mind that I began my work of recording, translating, and co mmenting, During the last dceades the study of aboriginal myths has entered a new and. intellectually, highly challenging phase. Claude Levi-Strauss and a growing group of scholars innuenced by him have greatly advanced anthropological thinking by their acute analyses of native mythologies and their symbolic structures, and it may well be said that this develop­ ment, oriented by this brilliant mind, has come to constitute the climax of twentieth-century ethnology. Levi-Strauss and his followers in structur­ alism have opcned new avcnues in intcrpretation, avenues which, although marked by only few clearly legible guide-posts, can carry the reader into such a wondrous and wcll-ordered landscape that he cannot but continuously cxpress his admiration before so ingenious an al'lifice. And sometimes it becomes difficult to decide which to admire more; the vision of this great and seductive master, or thc complexity of the inner world of thc Indians, that provides the screen on which scene after scene ex­ presses man's struggle for adaptation to his environmcnt. and to his own biological and psychological self. Much of Levi-Strauss's mythological materials had been collecJed among the Inciians of the South American tropics and wilcn, in the sixties, I turned my attention to the equatorial rain forest tribes of the Vaupes 10 lntroduc tion territory, I was able to obtain a number of myths or , at least. of myth motifs, that were very similar to those analysed by Levi-Strauss. In going over these parallels I was struck b.y certain differences of interpretation. In my work on the Vaupes tribes I was approaching the field of myth in a much more limited manner than the wide sweep of structuralism would have recommended. I had always been more interested in ethnographic minutiae and in myth content rather than in form, and ill this manner my research. had taken me in a very different direction from that of the structuralists. Levi-Strauss's work was not concerned so much with empirical reality than with dimensions of thought that seemed to lie quite outside of the sensorial experience, but wllich I believecJ to underlie myth and ritual. In my approach I was not conce.rned with structure and comparisons, not even with coincidences of content but , quite simply, with the Incpans' formulation of a world view, and with their particular way of adaptation and survival. In other words, in my Desana studies I went back to things. I worked not only with people, but I concerned my­ self with their natural environment; by this I cJo not only mean that I tried to study their 'ecological adaptation , but t[wt I attempted to under­ stand the native point of view of what man's relationships were to nature, in terms of mental altitudes. In order to grasp the content of myths and tales, I have tried to combine several aspects. First of all, I decided to work through the native language; second, I have only used texts which I personally have recorded and which carryall the authority of the n~tive speaker's diction and con­ viction; and, third, [ elicited from Illy info/mants an analysis as detailed as possible, together with a full discussion of the ethnographic details in which each text was imbedded. I am fully aware of the dangers inherent in native exegesis, but I believe that it does contribute a perspective whicll is very valuable, and which is missing in most publications on South American Indians. Mytlls and tales Ilad to be studied witllin their full context, and had to be interpreted with the active assistance of the Indians. I was less interested in wllat the myths expressed in structuralist terms, than in what they meant to the narrator and his audience. The range of ideas expressed in Desana origin myths and tales shows several divisions which, although not always clearly delilll ited , can serve as a general outline to this Introduction. A first division refers to the Creation of Man. It is understood that this act of creation was ac­ complished by the Sun Father, a divine being whose representative, called panlllri rnahsi!', the Progenitor, visited this eurth and travelled on its rivers in search of a spot where to establish mankind. Nowhere the creation of