Shipibo Laughing Songs and the Transformative Faculty: Performing or Becoming the Other

Abstract

Shipibo indigenous people perform a sophisticated array of vocal musical genres, including short 'laughing songs' called osanti. These song-jokes make fun of certain non-humans, mostly animals. They are by definition sung from within the nonhumans' perspective. Osanti are only performed by trained specialists in indigenous medicine and sorcery (médicos), because it is crucial that the performer owns the faculty of transforming into the animal in question, although in osanti the singers do not transform. Songs involving actual transformation are not meant for laughing: these are magical songs including interaction with and transformation into animals or spirits that possess a more ample radius of perception and action than 'Real Human' beings.Osanti songs, with their position between secular and magical songs, allow for an analysis of humour and laughing in the construction of the indigenous ontology, thereby questioning some generalisations made in theories of animism and perspectivism.

Uma antropologia da práxis: homenagem a Jean Langdon

“…Para o caso shipibo, por outro lado, vale notar que, já naquela época, nos anos 1980, muitas mulheres Shipibo tomavam cipó e se tornavam xamãs (COLPRON, 2004), além de serem também mestres em desenho. A teoria mais elaborada da hipótese sinestésica, que causaria tanto entusiasmo entre aqueles que procuravam nos sistemas gráficos os rudimentos de uma escrita musical, e muita polêmica entre os próprios Shipibo e seus especialistas, foi formulada por uma mulher Shipibo, famosa desenhista e xamã, Herlinda Agustín (BELAUNDE, 2009;BRABEC, 2009;BRABEC DE MORI, 2012). Foi de Herlinda a narrativa colhida por Gebhart-Sayer de que duas mulheres, sentadas em lados opostos e pintando simultaneamente um grande vaso, poderiam controlar o traçado de seus desenhos pelos cantos entoados durante a execução, fazendo com que as linhas das duas desenhistas se encontrassem ao completar o desenho.…”

The Shaman’s Drum: Eurocentric Interpretations of Non-European Sonic Worlds

“…The main interaction of the ritual specialist with non-human entities is achieved by singing elaborate lyrics, and sometimes by whistling or humming melodies. 26 Contemporary anthropological fieldwork in Central Asia and elsewhere confirms the complexity of such interactions, 27 and that these sounds are almost always directed towards the non-humans, while direct sonic or trance effects on the human specialist or audience are not considered central.…”

Ethnobiology through Song

“…Music is also used in connection to spiritual practices and cosmologies where communication between humans and non-humans is paramount (Hoppál 2002;Joy 2014Joy , 2015Porath 2015;Salmón 2012;Walker 2003). Many Indigenous groups perform music and chanting in shamanic ceremonies as a means to communicate with the spiritual world (e.g., Brabec de Mori 2013Mori , 2015Crate 2006;de Camargo Piedade 2013;Hill 2013). For example, in many Amazonian communities, the shamans chant to implore the spirits to facilitate the hunt or show gratitude towards them after a successful hunting trip (Huanca 2008; Reyes-García and the land and each other through song (Roseman 1998).…”

“…Many Amazonian ritual songs illustrate the powerful bonds of kinship and reciprocity that Indigenous Peoples have traditionally maintained with the spiritual world and help to cultivate a philosophy of wildlife stewardship. Such songs teach that maintaining harmonious relations with forest deities is critical to ensuring the availability of game (Brabec de Mori 2013;Fernández-Llamazares et al 2017;Seeger 2004). Similar findings have been reported amongst the Yaqui and Seri people of the Sonora Desert, whose songs are seen as conversations with the non-human world (Salmón 2012).…”