aguaruna jivaro magic

5/27/2018 Aguaruna Jivaro Magic

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Aguaruna JivaroGardening Magic in theAlto Rio Mayo Peru1

M i c h a e l F. B r o w n a n d M a r g a r e t L. Van B o l tUnive rsity of Michigan

O n e of the major cont ras ts be tween A nde an and Am azonian cul-tures is the d egre e t o which t he latter secularize horticultural activi-t ies. In the ethnographic l i terature of Amazon basin societies i t isdiff icult to f ind cases of elaborate ho rticultural r i tes, and w h er e suchrituals d o exist they are ofte n associated with maize cultivation, no twith manioc and other tuberous ~ r o p s . ~hi le hor t icul ture is of tenconsidered unworthy of r i tual a t tent ion, hunt ing is f requent ly theobject of intensive r i tual activity and regulated by complex taboos.T h e Desana (Reiche l -Dolmatoff 1g71) , the A mahuaca (C arne i ro197 4) , the Y agua (C haum ie l and Chaum ie l 197 7) , and th e B aramaCaribs (Gil l in 1936) are among the many groups that use r i tualmeans to induce hunt ing success while having no repor ted r i tualsassociated with horticultural production. In his discussion of thisphenomenon among the Amahuaca , Ca rne i ro (1974 : 129 ) suggeststhat the supernatural ism surroun ding hun t ing confirms th e funct ion-alist assertion that r i tual te nd s to b e associated with activit ies that arein some way unpredictable, diff icult , or dangerous. Available evi-den ce cer ta inly supp or ts th e view that in Am azonia hun t ing successis un predictable (Ross 19 78 ) , while the shif ting agr iculture charac-teristic of th e region is a particularly reliable and p rod uctiv e ( if nutr i-t ionally d eficient) sou rce of fo od , especially w he n th e main cultigensare manioc o r plantains (Carn eiro 19 63; Sm ole 197 6) .The elaborate svstem of beliefs and r i tuals associated with horti-c ultu re a m o n g t h e ~ ~ u a r u n a is a n ota ble e xc ep tio n t the pre-i v a r odom inant ly secular quali ty of Am azonian h or t icul ture . T h e Aguar-una have developed a reliable, eff icient system of horticultural pro-du ct ion , yet they p erceive i t as being as f raught with uncer tainty ashun ting. T o encourage the growth of their cul tivated plants they singmagical gardening so ngs, perfo rm a set of ri tual acts wh en planting a


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new garden, and observe certain taboos connected with gardenwork. Moreover, in attempting to manipulate garden productivity bymagical means, the Aguaruna involve themselves with potentiallydangerous spiritual forces, sometimes with fatal results. That is, thebeliefs and practices surrounding horticulture among the Aguarunacreate a feeling of danger and stress where, from a non-Aguarunapoint of view, none would be expected to exist.We present he re a description and analysis of Aguaruna gardeningmagic in the Alto Rio Mayo, Peru. In this discussion we primarilyaddress ourselves to two questions: I ) Why d o the Aguaruna per-ceive horticultural production as being uncertain and therefore wor-thy of ritual manipulation? and ( 2 ) How d o the concepts of magicalcausality expressed in gardening magic articulate with more generalprinciples of Aguaruna cosmology and world view?

AGUARUNAUBSISTENCEThe Aguaruna Jivaro, whose current population has been esti-mated at 5,000 (Uriarte I 976:39), live in relatively dispersed com-munities along the rivers Maraiion, Nieva, Cenepa, Santiago, andMayo, and their tributaries in the tropical forest region of northernPeru. Although the Aguaruna are skilled hunters and fishermen, hor-ticultural activities-particularly the cultivation of sweet manioc and

plantains-provide the bulk of their caloric intake (Berlin and Berlin1977:16). Sweet manioc, boiled or roasted, is served by itself or withmeat and fish at most meals. Manioc is also converted into maniocbeer, the social lubricant of Aguaruna culture and the supreme sym-bol of hospitality. So close is the symbolic connection between ma-nioc and food in general in Aguaruna thought that a visitor is fre-quently asked, M ~ t m a ~ b literally, Have you eaten ma-u a n z k ~ m ? ~nioc? but conveying the meaning, Have you eaten anything yet?Manioc is cultivated in swidden gardens, the care of which is themajor subsistence activity of women. A woman's husband, sons, orsons-in-law may clear the forest to make the garden, and they mayplant maize in its center or plantains in its perimeter, but the gardenis mos t closely identified with the woman who cultivates it. After theforest vegetation in the garden site has been cut, dried, and burned, awoman begins to plant it with numerous varieties of manioc and, to alesser extent, with yams, taro, cocoyams, sweet potatoes, peanuts,and a number of other ~ u l t i g e n s . ~early every day she spends sever-al hours in her swidden removing weeds, harvesting manioc tubers,and replanting manioc stems.The preliminary findings of ethnobiological research conducted byBerlin and other fieldworkers from the University of California,Berkeley, among the Aguaruna of the Rio Cenepa reveal that Aguar-una women have an extraordinary knowledge of the varieties andgrowth requirements of manioc, and that they put this knowledge towork in their gardens. Berlin and Berlin (1977: 13) conclude that


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Aguaruna women produce-or have the potential to produce-much more [manioc] than they actually need. During our own field-work in the Alto Rio Mayo, we never heard of a catastrophic failureof a manioc garden, nor did any household suffer from a substantialshortage of manioc unless serious illness o r relocation t o a new vil-lage prevented a woman from pursuing her horticultural tasks.While the Aguaruna communities of the Alto Mayo are still able tosatisfy their protein needs by hunting and fishing, both of these activ-ities have a strong element of unpredictability not associated withhorticulture. This is particularly true in the game-poor communitiesnear non-Indian settlements. However, even in more remote areaswhere fish and game abound, it is not unusual for the members of ahousehold to go without meat for several days a week.

The swidden garden has great symbolic and spiritual significancefor the Aguaruna. It is on e of the few places where a woman can goalone without attracting curiosity and suspicion. It offers privacyfrom prying eyes and ears and is therefore the site of a certainamount of intra- and extra-marital sexual activity. Two women maygo to a garden t o exchange intimate information about each other'slives, and it is there that one woman can teach magical songs to an-other without interruption. In mythological times the garden was theplace where women entered into romantic liaisons with animals inhuman form (e.g., see Akuts Nugkai et al 1977, Vol. 11: 143), andwhere they were taught how to give birth by katip the commonmouse Uordana Laguna 974: 7 10 .Another important characteristic of the garden is that it is thepoint of contact between women and certain kinds of spirits notcommonly found elsewhere. The most important of these is Nagkai .a supernatural being who has been variously identified as the earthmother (Harner 1972:70) and the feminine under-soil master ofgarden soil and pottery clay (Whitten 1978:843). The Aguaruna saythat in ancient times their ancestors had no cultivated plants, andsubsisted on an unappetizing mixture of mashed balsa wood and afew fruits and tubers, most of which are now regarded as inedible. Awoman came upon Nagkui (who in most Aguaruna accounts is de-scribed as an ordinary looking woman) washing manioc in a river.Th e Aguaruna woman tried to convince Nagkai to come with her sothat her family would have food. Nagkai refused to come but senther young daughter instead. The daughter of Nugkui could summonmagically all the plants of the garden, and even meat and fish, so thatthe ancestors of the Aguaruna suddenly found themselves with a su-perabundance of food. Th e little girl also produced miraculously var-ious kinds of clay pots in which the food could be served. AfterNugkai's daughter was mistreated by the mischievous children of thehousehold, she tried to return to her mother's home. She hid in a


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segment of a bamboo stem and was converted into an infant whoentered the anus of one of the members of the household. The infantthen transformed herself into flatus, which has plagued humanbeings ever since. The plants that Nugkui had given became de-formed and unproductive, leaving the ancestors again without asource of food. Eventually, Nugkui took pity on their plight and,appearing in a woman's dream, directed her to a cache of plants thatthe woman subsequently propagated and shared with other people.Now, however, the plants required human toil in order t o grow.5The Nugkui of the myth still lives in the present, inhabiting thetopsoil and helping the cultivated plants to grow quickly. Th e Aguar-una do not make a sharp distinction between Nugkui and ordinaryhuman beings-both can be described as aents peopleM-but Nag-kui is attributed wonderful powers that give her control over theplants of the garden as well as over certain game animals. In his dis-cussion of Nugkui beliefs among the Jivaro proper of Ecuador, Har-ner (1972:70) notes that in some contexts the Jivaro think ofNugkuias a group or family of beings rather than as a single individual, aconcept that is shared by the Aguaruna. Following Harner's example,however, we will continue to refer t o Nugkui in the singular.After Nugkui, the most important spirits with whom a woman hascontact in her garden are those of the plants themselves, especiallythe spirits or souls of manioc. The story of how the Aguarunalearned that manioc plants have souls was told to us as follows:Long ag o people did no t mak e gardens as we do today. Instead of wait ing unti l th een tir e garde n was cleared of brush and large trees, wo men began to plant manioc asso on as a small pa rt of th e gard en was cleared. [Pres um ably, this was becau se forestclearance was much slower before the introduction of steel tools. ] Th us th e maniocwas sometimes mature in some par ts of the garden before the ent ire garden hadbeen cleared.O n e day a man w ho was clearing a gard en said to his wife, If I cut dow n this bigtree , it might fall on th e manio c that is already growing. Shall I leave i t s tanding o rcu t i t down ? He decided to cu t it dow n and instructed his wife to mak e manioc bee rso that h e could invite his kinsm en t o help him.A few days later the me n cam e, and af ter dr inking manioc bee r they began to ch opdown the large tree. Suddenly the souls of the manioc plants arose; they werepeo ple, lots of people. T he m anioc people said, W e will help cut the t ree so that itwon' t fal l in our direct ion. W he n the manioc peo ple arose, al l of the me n fel lasleep.So m e of the manioc peo ple began to pull a vine growing on th e t ree, while otherscut th e t re e with axes. They pu lled the t re e so that i t would fal l away from them . Asthey pulled, the old manioc peo ple sang, Sons, pul l hard so that the t ree won ' tcrush ou r chi ldren. W hen we're d on e we shal l eat the head of a spider monkey . .W hen the t ree had been fe l led, the manioc people disappeared. Amon g the s leep-ing men, the man wh o had called t he work par ty could h ear th e songs of the maniocpe op le in his sleep. . . Bec ause of this, we know that m anioc has a soul, that it haspeople .

Though Karsten ( I 93 5: 3) reports that the Jivaro proper of Ec-uador regard the soul of manioc as being a woman, the Alto Mayo


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Aguaruna reason that since manioc plants are people, there mustbe both male and female plants, as well as adults and children. Thelargest adult plants tend t o congregate in the perimeter of the gar-den where they protect the smaller child plants in the center.When a woman is harvesting manioc, she should leave a few of thevery largest plants unharvested so that they will call new plants toreplace the ones just removed. O f the plants that she does harvest,not even the tiniest tuber should be left behind lest this baby beginto cry because it has been abandoned. As o ne woman told us:T h e othe r plants come and take the baby tuber saying: Why did our mo ther leaveyou b ehin d? If she does this , how will the manioc grow so that she can ma ke maniocbeer fo r our father? T o avoid this , one must always col lect every tuber w hen dig-

ging up manioc.Baby manioc plants that cry a great deal are consoled by the birdsukuyu (unidentified), which is a messenger of Nugkui Womensometimes sing songs asking the bird sukuya to devote special careand attention to their plants.The souls of manioc plants are extremely dangerous during thefirst few months after planting. The Aguaruna say that the youngplants become thirsty, and if their thirst is not quenched by ritualmeans they may drink the blood of someone who is passing through

th e garden. The drinking of blood is also referred to as eating one' ssoul, and as far as we could determine the two expressions are usedinterchangeably. A person whose blood has been drunk graduallybecomes pale and weak, and easily falls victim to fatal illness. T oprevent children from becoming victims of the thirsty manioc plants,Aguaruna women discourage them from playing in gardens (H arne r1972:7 5) .It is in this spiritually-charged atmosphere that a woman performsher daily horticultural tasks. T o perform effectively as a gardener,she must acquire th e knowledge necessary to meet the metaphysicalas well as the physical needs of the cultivated plants, and at the sametime protect herself from their potentially harmful powers. Apartfrom strictly botanical knowledge of the properties of manioc andother cultivated plants, women's gardening lore can be divided intothree broad categories: ( I ) gardening songs, 2 ) the use of magicalgardening stones (nuntug), and (3) miscellaneous techniques and pre-cautions associated with cultivation.

Aguaruna tradition is rich in magical songs (anen), which are usedfor hunting, warfare, and courtship, as well as horticulture. Magicalsongs are distinct from common social songs (nampi't) in form, con-tent, and manner of acquisition. Social songs are often made up onthe spur of the moment at parties and are regarded as public displaysof wit and verbal prowess. Magical songs, in contrast, are thought of


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as ancient and powerful, and are acquired secretly. They employ un-usual items of vocabulary, including obscure animal synonyms andwords borrowed from other Jivaroan languages. Furthermore, thewords must be sung exactly as learned, without improvisation or er-ror. T o be taught a magical song, the one who wishes to learn thesong must first become slightly intoxicated by drinking tobacco juicemixed with the saliva of the teacher of the song. Then the words andmelody are memorized as the person teaching the song sings it overand over again. Subsequent to learning a magical song, one mustmaintain a period of sexual abstinence and observe various food ta-boos to prevent the song from escaping from the body.T h e magical songs associated with horticulture are used to helpcultivated plants grow faster, attain a larger size, and remain free ofweeds and disease. In the words of one Aguaruna, If you plant astem of manioc next to the stem of a plant of the forest, the maniocwill always grow faster because songs help i t to grow. Each stage ofthe horticultural cycle-clearing, soil preparation, planting, weeding,harvesting, and the washing of tubers-has its own characteristicsongs. There are also songs for the preparation of manioc beer sothat when it ferments it will be sweet yet intoxicating.The following are portions of three gardening songs that we re-corded in th e Alto Rio Mayo. For illustrative purposes, we have cho-sen relatively simple examples.Song I (If a woman happens to see leaves falling from a t ree beingfelled by her husband in a new garden, she sings this song so that thesight of the falling leaves does not later cause the leaves of her mani-oc plants to fall.)Do ves, doves [i .e . , the leaves]M anioc is fallingIt is n ot leaves which fallSw eet potatoe s ar e fa ll ingYam s are fal lingI am a l it t le woman of NugRuiI never fail

Song 2 (This song is sung when a woman brings manioc stem cut-tings to plant in her garden. The central conceit of the song is thatthe woman has so much skill that her manioc will grow in any kind ofsoil, no matter how poor.)1g o , I g oYo ur fa ther [ i . e. , the woman s husband] has seen som e po or soi lI g o t h e r eTakin g my mache te , I guide you [ i. e. , the manioc s tems]I plant in any kind of gardenIn w hat kind of garden can t I plant?I n the Mararion land I will plantI will plan t in a garden o f po o r soi lIn th e th ick bramble, ho m e of the b ird chwchunzpiu , I will plantBe ing a wom an of Nugkui , I cannot fail


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Song 3 (This is a fragment of a song used to increase the size of thedeveloping manioc tubers. In the song the tubers are likened to ob-jects of great thickness.)T h e tail of th e cayman is lying the reT h e r o o t o f seekemu [a plant with a large root] is lying thereT h e pig is lying ther eO n the o the r s i de o f t he ga rde nLet the re be wampu [a large tre e, Ficus sp .] on t he o the r s i deT h e r o o t o f seekemu is lying thereT he pig i s ly ing the reO n the o the r s i de o f t he ga rde n

Magical gardening songs may be sung aloud or silently in thethoughts of a woman as she goes about her daily chores. In the earlystages of a new garden s development, a woman ideally should besinging or thinking gardening songs constantly. In this song, t he sing-er hyperbolically states that she sings her songs without respite:I don' t s leep, I don' t s leepAs you sleep [i .e. , the manioc]You become as large as mente [a large t re e in th e family Bom bacaceae]I don' t s leepYo u gro w l ike the branches of wampz2sh [a large tree, possibly Ceiba sp.]"M v m o t h e r s l e e ~ s " ou s av~ h ' yd o you say ;t? 'I don' t s leep

These gardening songs bear an uncanny resemblance to theTrobriand garden spells reported by Malinowski in Coral Gardensand Their Magic ( I 935 ) and recently reinterpreted by Tambiah1968, 1973). Both the Trobriand spells and the Aguaruna songsmake strategic use of analogy with the idea of transferring certaindesired qualities from one thing to another. In Song I for example,the leaves falling to the ground-which through one analogical lineof thought are believed to cause horticultural failure-are likened togarden tubers falling in great quantity, thus metaphorically convert-ing something undesirable into something desired. In a similar fash-ion, the t remendous growth of the cayman s tail, the pig, or t he Ficustree is symbolically transferred to the manioc tubers in Song 3 .Mythology is the source of many analogies in Aguaruna gardeningsongs. Nzlgkui, the mythological giver of cultivated plants and a pow-erful symbol of fertility, is the most frequently mentioned myth fig-ure. Gardening songs also make frequent allusions to the childUwancha u, who is described in the following grisly myth:Long ago, a woman who se new bor n child had recently died came upo n an infant inthe forest . I t had been brought by the wind. The baby cried u u a . u w a ; because ofthis it was called Uwanchau . It had very fa t l ips . T h e wom an too k U u a n c h a u h o m eand began to nurse i t . I t sucked and sucked unt i l the woman had no more mi lk .Then i t kept on sucking unt i l i t drank a l l of he r b lood and the woman died . Herhusband ki lled the baby Uwanchau with his machete. The baby was full of blood.


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In gardening songs, Aguaruna wom en of ten s ing , I am a womanof Nugku i , I am a woman of Uwancbau. T h e persuasive in ten t ofthe identification of the gardener with Nugkui is obvious, but whythe comparison t o th e vampire-like infant Uwanchau? W e feel tha tth e significance of th e phr ase I am a wom an of Uwancbau is two-fold. First , by saying that sh e is l ike Uwanchau, a wom an establishesan affinity with he r children, the ma nioc plants, which are alsobeings capable of sucking blood. Second, a woman who is full ofblood l ike Uwanchau has dem onstrated that sh e is able to control th edangerous thi rs t of her manioc by using the appropriate songs andrituals-that is, she has retaine d he r bloo d bec ause h er m anioc plan tshave b een unable or unwi ll ing to t ake i t f rom h er ow ing to her r itualknowledge. By invoking the image of Uwancbau in this way, thegar den er impl ies that sh e is close to her plants and that , l ike a mo the rcontrol l ing he r chi ldren, sh e preven ts them from misbehaving.Women in the Al to Mayo are ra ther vague about how magica lsongs help their plants to grow. In general , the A guaruna explain th eefficacy of magical songs in terms of communication between theinvisible, spiri tual aspec ts of beings. W he n a man sings a magical lovesong, for example, i t is heard by the soul of the wo man w ho is theintended recipient; the soul, in turn, affects her feelings toward theman. Gardening songs apparent ly are di rected toward the variouskinds of souls or spirits of the garden: ugkui (the ultimate source ofgard en fert i li ty), the man ioc souls, and the souls of magical gard enin gstones , to be discussed shortly . In any given song, the inten ded re-cipie nt may be any o r all of these spiri tual forces. T ho ug h t he spiri tsare conceived of as inde pen den t , sent ient beings , th e at ti tude of th esinger is less supplicative than imperative. wom an tel ls th e souls ofher manioc p lan ts to grow , and they d o , as long as she has n ot b rokenany of the taboos associated with their cultivation.W e found that wom en were of ten re ticen t abou t record ing gar-den ing songs in the pres enc e of peop le o the r than close female rela-t ives (e.g. , their sisters or daughters). This is because the songs areviewed as valuable personal possessions that ne ed no t be share d free-ly. In de ed , wom en traditionally obtain at least som e of their songs bypurcha sing them w ith cloth, beads , or o the r good s. Songs obtainedwithout payments are usually taught by an older kinswoman withwhom a woman has close and fr iendly relat ions . The secrecy sur-rounding the songs reflects a certain competi t iveness in gardening,such tha t wom en a re p leased when the i r gardens produ ce m or e thanthose of their co-wives and neighbors. A woman who knows manypow erful gardening songs is sure to prod uc e a bount i ful crop of ma-nioc, which in turn raises her s tatus in th e hou sehold and t he com-munity.

MAGICALG A RD EN IN GSTON EST h e m ost closely guarded personal possess ions of Aguaruna w om-en are magical gardening stones called nantag. T h e r e a r e o t h e r


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kinds of stones that the Aguaruna use for magical purposes, but onlynantag are employed in horticulture. They are exclusively the prop-erty of women.Aguaruna women conventionally describe nantag stones as redand shiny cf. Karsten 193 27; Harner 972:72), though from ourown observations the stones resemble riverbottom pebbles of abouttwo to ten centimeters in diameter, of various colors. A few AltoMayo women state that nantag come in different colors and that thecolor indicates the cultigen with which it is associated e.g., redstones are for manioc, black stones are for yams, etc.), but this opin-ion is at variance with general belief. Most women seem to feel thatthe actual color of the stone does not substantially affect its powers,though as we shall see it is significant that the archetypal color ofnantag stones is red.Nantag stones possess a fecundating power that causes plants togrow swiftly and abundantly when brought into contact with them.This contact is achieved in a short ritual that a woman performs in anew garden when it is planted for the first time. The following is adescription of this ritual as it is carried out by the women of the AltoRio Mayo.Prior to planting a new garden, a woman collects stem cuttings ofmanioc as well as tubers or cuttings of other root crops-taro, yams,cocoyams, achira, and sweet potato. Peanuts are sometimes also in-cluded. When she is ready to plant a section of the garden, she risesearly in the morning, carefully washes her hands, and goes to thegarden without eating. She takes with her the tubers and maniocstem cuttings in a basket, her nantag stones wrapped in a piece ofcloth, an old ceramic or metal pot, enough water to fill the pot , and anumber of pods of red-staining achiote Bixa orellana). She may alsobring one or more of the following plant substances: the roots ofwampzish and mente both of which are trees), the root of the herbseekemzl source of a native soap), and the rootslbulbs of the medicinalherbs pijipig and kampanak see Table I. In some cases the bowl,water, nantag stones, or plant substances are stored in a small shelterin the garden in preparation for the planting ritual.Upon arriving in the garden, the woman crushes a pod of achioteand uses the red pulp to paint lines on her cheekbones and on thoseof other people who may be accompanying her, e.g., her children.This is done because the nantag stones and the manioc plants, ifsome have already been planted) are potentially dangerous and it isimportant that the woman and her companions identify themselvesas friends by being painted.The woman unwraps the nantag from their cloth and puts them ina bowl. Then she mashes the rest of the achiote pods and puts the redseed pulp in the bowl, mixing it with water t o form a red liquid. If theother plant materials mentioned earlier have been collected, they arenow mashed and mixed with the liquid in the bowl. The root of the


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guaruna name(s) Scientific name Part used attributesin ritual, shampu, p su Blxa orellana Iruit, seeds Source of red dye.wamp;sh eiba sp.? Root Large, fast-growing

tree of great girth.ente Unidentified member Root Large tree; reposi-

of Bombacaceae tory of shamanisticpowers.

seekemu Unidentified Root Has a thick root,similar to manioctuber; also usedas a soap which pro-duces foam similarto that of maniocbeer.

pi J 1pig arex sp. or Root Has diverse magical/Cyperus sp. medicinal powers.

kamp&1ak Eleuthrine bulbosa Bulb Medicinal powers?(Principal source of species determinations: Berlin and Berlin 1977.1

soap plant s k mu is cut up with a machete and the pieces rubbedtogether in the red liquid to form a sudsy mixture. All the in-gredients are then stirred with a manioc stem. Although Aguarunam70men handle n nt g freely in other contexts they say that whenstirring them with other ingredients one must not touch them or thestones might lose their Dower.In one Gf the plan tingrites which was recorded the gardener sangthe following song while stirring the red mixture of stones waterand plant substances:My child has hair cut in bangs,y child has bloodThe enemy's child has an oval face,Drink his blood


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My child has bloodDrink, drink the blood of the paca [a large rodent , Cunicldlus paca]Drink, drink the blood of the agouti [a large rodent , Dasyprocta aguti]Don' t drink the blood of my chi ldLe t the manioc of my ene mles com e to me ,C o m e . c o m e

The red liquid is then poured over the manioc stem cuttings andother tubers which are to be planted. While pouring, the woman iscareful not t o pour out the stones and mashed plant substances. T ogive them luck in planting, the woman and her daughters may washtheir hands in the red liquid as it pours out of the pot o nto the pile ofcuttings and tubers. Then the manioc stem sections are planted bylifting the soil with a palm wood spade and inserting the stems in theground. If manioc planted on previous days is already growing in t hegarden, the woman reserves some of the red liquid and latersprinkles it over the young plants, saying drink, drink. After theentire garden has been planted, a process which may take severaldays, the nantag are placed in a covered pot and hidden somewherein the garden, usually at the base of a large tree. This is don e so thatthe stones will be close to the developing plants but invisible t o po-tential thieves.The principal purpose of this ritual, from the Aguaruna point ofview, is to convey the growth-promoting powers of the nantag stonesto the manioc stem cuttings and other cultigens. The medium for thistransfer is the red liquid made of achiote and water in which thestones are immersed. Aguaruna women state that the red liquid satis-ifies the dangerous thirst of the manioc plants; some women explicit-ly refer to the liquid as blood. The plant substances added to theblood further increase its power by transferring their desirablequalities to the liquid and, through the liquid, to the manioc. Theroot of wampzish, for example, is mixed with the liquid so that themanioc will be thick like the trunk of the wampzish tree, and so on.These plants and the attributes that relate t hem to the planting ritualare listed in Table I

While the primary purpose of the planting rite is to encourage thegrowth of manioc and other tuberous cultigens, it has a secondaryfunction of a prophylactic nature. We mentioned earlier that withoutblood the young manioc plants might surreptitiously begin to devourthe blood of the garden owner or some member of her family. T heAguaruna state emphatically that nantag stones have this same pro-pensity, perhaps even more than the manioc plants. Nantag stonesare classified as yzrkagtin, things that eat us, a distinction that theyshare with the jaguar and the anaconda. By putting the nantag stonesin the achiote and water blood, the gardener satisfies the ir dan-gerous thirst, at least temporarily. Th e song sung when mixing thenantag with the blood further protects those present by directingboth the souls of the manioc plants and the nantag to drink the blood


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of an enemy's child, or of the rodents paca and agouti, which arecommon garden pests. As an additional precaution, the participantsin the planting rite paint their faces with achiote as they enter thegarden. This marks them as friends of the manioc plants and nan-tag stones.There are many different tales about the origin of nantag stones,both in mythical times and the present. Th e ancestors of the Aguar-una often found nantag in the forest after being directed to them indreams by Nzlgkui or o ne of her animal helpers. While women todayusually inherit many of their narztag from their mothers, there arestill cases in which someone is led to nantag in a dream. T he follow-ing account, given to us by a middle-aged woman, illustrates this kindof nantag discovery. Th e circumstances are somewhat unusual in thatit is the woman's husband who dreams of the stones, though in allother respects the story is typical of many that we heard during thecourse of ou r fieldwork:

This s ton e is the tapir ' s nantag. Long ago my husband fo und a tapir ' s t ra il . H e fol-lowed the t ra il and cam e upo n a curassow si tt ing in a tree . H e sho t the curassow andretur ned hom e. Th at night he had a dream in which a person came to him saying:W he re you w ere y esterday, in the tapir 's p ath, th ere is a log which crosses the trail .T he re I am going to leave a s tone . To mo rro w you should go the re and ge t i t . This isa s to ne for manioc and yams. I never suffer fro m h unger [ i .e . , because the s ton e ispowerful] . Do n' t neglect th e s tone. Giv e i t achiote to drink, because i t ki lled mysister. Ta ke care of i t . T he next morning, he went to the spot and found the nantagstone on the log across the tapir 's trail .Apart from inheriting nantag stones from female relatives o r beingled to them in dreams, women sometimes find them in the entrails offish or game animals, in the soil, or on the riverbottom. One of theauthors (Van Bolt) witnessed the discovery of a potential nantagwhile helping a woman cultivate her garden. The woman came upona shiny stone in the soil next to a manioc tuber, a sign that the stonewas a nantag specifically for manioc. The woman kept the stone, re-marking that she would later test it to determine whether it reallywas a nantag. To test a stone, a woman uses it to prepare variouscuttings or tubers for planting and watches to see if their growth is inany way exceptional. If the stone has no effect on manioc, it may betested with some other cultigen. Plants that have rzantag includemanioc, taro, yams, cocoyams, sweet potatoes, achira, and peanuts.There are no nantag for plants such as bananas, maize, and s q ~ a s h . ~The obvious common element among nantag-assisted crops, then, isthat their edible portions grow in the soil, the domain of Nugkzli.Nantag have several characteristics that distinguish them from or-dinary stones. They tend to move by themselves and will run away ifnot carefully wrapped in cloth and kept in a covered bowl o r storagebasket. Nantag have a soul zuakan),which may appear to their own-er in dreams. In the most commonly reported cases, the owner ofnantag stones dreams that a young girl is saying to her: Mother, I am


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suf fe r ing f rom th i r st . P lease g ive m e som eth ing to d r ink . Th i s isin te rp re te d as a sign tha t the s tones a re th ir s ty and ne ed t o be g ivenach io te and water t o d r ink . T h e s tones a re a llowed to s i t in th e mix-t u re fo r a few h o u r s o r p e rh ap s o v e rni g h t, t h en t h ey a re wrap p ed i nthe i r c lo th and pu t away. T h e Aguaruna say tha t f rom t ime t o t ime awoman d i scovers some human ha i r s wrapped a round the s toneswh en sh e r emo v es t h em f ro m t he ir p ro t ec ti v e c lo t h. Th i s mean s t h a tt h e s t o n es h ave d ru n k t h e b lo o d o r ea t en t h e sou l o f t h e o wn erof the ha ir , whoev er i t migh t be . So m e peop le insi st tha t th e dea th o fth e v ic tim can be p re ven te d by imm ediate ly scorch ing the s tones inthe f i re , the n sm ash ing them wi th a l a rger s to ne , bu t th is op in ion i sno t un iversa l ly he ld . A p ruden t woman feeds her nantag s t o n esabou t once a m onth with ach io te and water b lood so that no un to -ward in cident can occur . S he is a lso consc ient ious abo ut learning andusing magical gardening songs, s ince these are bel ieved to have acon t ro l ling e ffec t on th e nantag stones.In term s of thei r re la t ive eff icacy and poten t ia l dange rs , Ag uarunawomen d i s t ingu i sh be tween dekas ( t rue ) nantag and wainak( false ) nantag. T r u e nantag stones are usually th ose that have b eenhanded down d i rec t ly f rom a woman ' s ances to rs , pass ing f rommo t h e r t o d au g h t e r fo r man y g en e ra t i o n s . Th ese a r e t h e mo s t e f -fec t ive in hor t i cu l tu re bu t a re a l so the most dangerous to own be-cause of thei r propen si ty to d r ink b lood or ea t souls . False nantag a r ethose that a woman has found hersel f in the soi l , in animal ent ra i l s ,e t c. Th ey a re though t t o have som e pos it ive e ffec t on p lan t g rowth ,bu t n o t as much as t rue nan tag n o r a r e t h ey as p ro n e t o h a rm h u m anbeings . As far as we were ab le to de te rm ine , most w om en in th e Al toRio Mayo have a mixture of t rue and fa lse nantag s tones .T h e p o wers an d d an g e r s of nantag a re a t t h e ro o t o f t h e sec recywhich su r rounds the i r possess ion and use . Women fear tha t the i rne ighbors , cove tous o f the boun t ifu l harves ts tha t c om e f rom th epossession of nantag will a t t em pt to s t ea l the ir s tones f rom th e gar-den. Fear of nantag thef t i s a lmost an obsess ion among Aguarunaw o m en , t h o u g h w e w ere ab l e t o d o cu m en t f ew cases i n wh ich i t h asac tua l ly occur red . When asked , Aguaruna women of ten deny tha tt h ey o wn nantag part ly f rom fear that thei r s tones will be s to le n andpart ly to avoid the possibi l i ty that their tzantag mi g h t b e b l amed fo rsomeone ' s un t imely dea th . However , women read i ly iden t i fy o therwo men wh o o wn t h e s t o n es , o f t en n ami n g an en emy o r a t l e a s tso m eon e wi th wh om they d o no t en joy f ri endly re la tions. In th i s on ecan see e lem ents of envy-so-and-so has a f ine gar den because of he rp o wer fu l nantag-and cr i tic ism, s ince thes e s am e nantag p o se a d an -g e r t o t h e en t i r e co mmu n i t y . In o n e v illage t h a t we v i si ted , wo m enstated publ ic ly that thei r d isl ike for a cer ta in wo ma n (a new arrivalf rom ano ther reg ion) was based on the fac t tha t she owned ex-cept ionally powe rful nantag tha t migh t even tua l ly k i ll som eone . T h efear o f t rue nantag s t o n es i s so p ro fo u n d t h a t o n e y o u n g wo man


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admitted giving hers away during her first pregnancy because she wasworried that the stones would kill her baby. She decided to keeponly her false nantag, which are less efficacious but safer to handle.OTHERGARDENINGECHNIQUES

A N D PRECAUTIONSBesides employing magical songs and nantag stones, Aguarunawomen use several additional techniques to promote the growth oftheir garden plants. As we mentioned earlier, one of the perceivedattributes of young manioc plants is that they tend to becomethirsty. We were told that when thirsty, the souls of the youngmanioc plants cry out , Bring us water before we drink the blood of

our mother. To prevent this from occurring, women interplant themanioc with the cultigens arrowroot, cocoyam, and achira. Theseplants are described as people, just like manioc, and they are at-tributed the ability to bring water to the thirsty manioc plants.One woman described this phenomenon in t he following manner:Arr ow roo t is a woman ado rned with a snail -shel l dan ce bel t. S he carries water t othe m anioc. Cocoyam brings ev en m or e water because she has big leaves to carry thewater in. Achira has a twisted arm [an allusion to the bent leaves of this plant] andwh en sh e brings water i t s loshes out as her arm hi ts branches, b ut s he a lways arriveswith a li t t le water. If a woman doesn t have these plants in her garden, m anioc won t

g row the re .The belief that manioc will prosper only when planted with o thercultigens provides a culturally compelling reason for maintaining amixed planting strategy in the swidden garden. I t also expresses thedegree to which Aguaruna women see the relations of the plantswithin the garden as approximating human social relations. Many ofthe plants are people, with husbands, wives, and children. Theyspeak to each other, help each other, and under certain circum-stances may communicate with the woman who cultivates them. The

gardener is their mother, who must care for them while maintain-ing order in their relations. By creating and maintaining a harmoni-ous environment for plant growth, a gardener in effect becomes th ewoman of N ugk u i mentioned in magical song texts.There are at least two other species of plants worth mentioningthat are sometimes planted with manioc to promote its growth: avariety of the sedge pijipig (Carex or Cj@erus sp.) and a papaya-likeplant called tsampaunzrm (possibly Carica nzicrocarpa). Pi jig ig is oneof the most important medicinal and magical plants used by theAguaruna, its powers ranging from the promotion of a woman's fer-tility to the ability to confer witchcraft powers. However, we areunable to find any clear symbolic connection between pijz'pig andmanioc except that in both plants it is the underground parts that areregarded as most important. The papaya-like tsampaunum is fre-quently seen in swidden gardens in the Alto Mayo, planted near


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manioc stems so that it grows almost intertwined with them.T s ampaunum has no uses other than as a magical plant since its fruitsare considered inedible by the Aguaruna. We found no one whocould explain why or how t sampaunum helps manioc to grow moreswiftly. Several people remarked that the bright red fruits oft sampaunum resemble nantag stones, so it may be that the powerattributed to the plant has its origin in this property.Th ere are various precautions and avoidances that women observewhen planting manioc stem cuttings or working in a newly plantedgarden. During planting, a woman must abstain from sexual inter-course. However, it was unclear from our questioning whether sex-ual intercourse is felt to be directly damaging to the plants, or in-directly damaging through a lessening of the power of the nantagstones. A woman should not roast manioc in the coals of the fireimmediately before or after planting, as this would make her handshot and cause the new manioc stems to be burned. The smell of amenstruating woman or a new-born infant can also burn the plants,making them turn yellow and sickly, so women avoid the gardenduring their menstrual periods or immediately after childbirth.Women should not eat any kind of bird s foot (e .g., of chicken, guan,or curassow) on days when they are planting a new garden, lest thegrowing tubers stay thin and unpalatable. Neither should they combtheir hair in the garden, because this prevents the development ofthe dense tangle of stems characteristic of a mature manioc garden.Finally, while engaged in gardening tasks women do not drink waterwhen thirsty, as this is believed to bring bad luck t o the manioc crop;instead, a woman should drink only manioc beer . These precautionsseem most important when the manioc plants are approximatelywaist high o r smaller. Contact with mature manioc plants requires n ospecial precautions.

Existing works on Jivaroan religion (e.g., Karsten 93 ; Harner1972) stress the degree t o which the Jivaro conceive of the spiritworld as a part of reality with which each person must establish somekind of direct, fruitful communication. In this kind of world view,events do not happen by themselves but rather through the inter-action of spiritual forces that can be understood and controlled, tosome degree at least, by those who have sufficient knowledge. Whileshamans are thought to have the greatest familiarity with souls andspirits, all adult men and women try to develop their own under-standing through the consumption of plant hallucinogens at variouspoints in their lives. As Harner (1972:135-142) has shown in hisdiscussion of the Jivaro vision quest, a person s chances of survival-to say nothing of health, happiness, and prosperity-are considered


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to be minimal without this personal involvement in the spiritual as-pect of reality.

The attitude that human beings cannot succeed in an activity with-out understanding the spiritual reality lying within or behind it isclearly at work in Aguaruna gardening magic. Aguaruna womenknow that cultivated plants can grow without benefit of ritual activi-ty, but they are convinced that this growth would be capricious andinsufficient to meet t he substantial daily needs of their households.T o insure a regular and abundant harvest of tubers , women sing totheir plants, try to prevent them from becoming thirsty for blood,bring them into contact with sources of animistic power, and in gen-eral attempt to establish a harmonious relationship between them-selves and the souls or spirits that influence garden productivity. T heprincipal components of garden magic-magical songs, taboos, andthe use of nan t a g stones-are three refractions of Aguaruna theoriesof how people can favorably affect future events by means other thanphysical intervention, i.e., technology.Magical songs act on t he world through two parallel paths. ThoseAguaruna who express any opinion at all about how such songs worktend to emphasize the way that the songs influence the diverse spiritsof t he garden, especially ugkui and the souls of the manioc plants.The songs are thus seen as an appropriate medium for getting at theessence of things and making contact with the invisible life of thegarden. We feel that there is also considerable evidence that thesongs are thought to have a creative power in themselves, similar tothat which the Aguaruna associate with dreams and visions. TheAguaruna frequently assert that when people see something in a vi-sion, either under the influence of hallucinogens or precipitated bysome cataclysmic event, the act of seeing that particular vision willbring it into existence at some time in the future. Young men andwomen traditionally take hallucinogens t o seek a type of vision calledni imagbau in which they see an image of their future spouse, theirmany healthy children, the future abundance of their domestic ani-mals, and so on. Having seen this vision, they are assured that thishappy state of affairs will eventually come to pass (Brown 9 7 8: 2) .In a similar vein, an Aguaruna myth discloses that a shaman createdthe infectious diseases that now plague the Aguaruna by drinkingvast quantities of tobacco juice and then dreaming the diseases in toexistence one by one.We would like to argue that the evocative, highly metaphoricallanguage of magical songs has an effect similar to that of the visionaryexperience. When a woman sings, as she does in Song 3, that the tailof th e cayman is lying there the pig is lying there she conjures animage of her manioc tubers that, by its very conjuration, compels thedesired result to occur. The fact that magical songs are regarded asmost powerful when the singer is slightly intoxicated with tobaccojuice confirms the similarity between songs and visions. The idea that


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images have creative power does not necessarily contradict theAguaruna statement that the songs are addressed to spirits. For theAguaruna, both mental images and spirits are capable of bringingthings into being, and both of these sources of power are tapped ingardening songs.

Aguaruna explanations of gardening avoidances or taboos are gen-erally limited to the comment, This is the way that it always hasbeen. From the perspective of the outside observer, however , manyof the taboos can be seen as an inversion of the logic (or analogic) ofmagical songs and the manioc planting ritual. The planting ritual, aswe have noted, is based on the transfer of desirable qualities fromcertain objects to the cultivated plants; the taboos exist to preventthe transfer of undesirable qualities to the plants. By eating a bird'sfoot on days when she is engaged in planting, for example, a womanwould convey its scrawniness to her manioc tubers. Water is a liquiddrunk by the Aguaruna only when manioc beer is not available, thatis, when they are in a state of temporary poverty. The gardener,therefore, avoids drinking water during planting lest the povertysymbolized by the water be transmitted to her plants, stunting theirdevelopment.The power attributed to nantag stones is based on another prin-ciple of Aguaruna thought, namely, that certain objects may be re-positories of animistic power. Harner 97 2 72 ) reports that, amongthe Jivaro proper, gardening stones are thought to be babies of theearth mother Nugkui thus deriving their power directly from her.While the Alto Mayo Aguaruna also make an association betweennantag and Nugkui their thoughts with respect to the stones seemmore akin to those of the Canelos Quichua, whose culture has re-cently been described in considerable detail by Whitten (1976). H e(1976:42) states that the Quichua conceive of stone as a material thatcan bott le up and release animistic substances, thereby offering asource of power t o those Quichua who know how to use it correctly.The Aguaruna, like the Quichua, believe that some stones, especiallythose of an unusual shape, texture, color, or provenience, are endowedwith the power to attract game animals, promote the growth ofcultivated plants, arouse the passion of members of the opposite sex,or weaken the will of enemies. Such stones are encountered fre-quently in the course of daily activities, but only observant peopleattuned to the invisible, spiritual aspect of reality can distinguishthem from the ordinary pebbles that abound in some parts of theAlto Mayo. When a person finds a stone that gives evidence of hav-ing special power, he or she tests its efficacy by employing it in vari-ous tasks while paying close attention to dreams and omens that mayhold clues to its true nature. stone that proves effective in horticul-tural activities is classified as a nantag and used as such. The Agua-runa do associate nantag with Nugkui in a general way, since both thestones and the earth mother have an effect on the development of


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cultivated plants. However , the growth-promoting quality of nantagstones is only one form of the animistic power found in lithic rnateri-als.Blood and blood drinking are dominant metaphors in gardeningsongs and in the practices associated with nantag stones. Th e almostobsessive notion that manioc plants and nantag stones need blood(or its symbolic equivalent) to survive is consonant with a series ofdeep-seated structural oppositions in Aguaruna world view, derivingultimately from the contrast between hunting and horticulture.These oppositions form the now familiar litany of structuralist analy-sis: male activitylfemale activity, forestlgarden, animal/vegetable, andso on. Relevant to the present discussion is the fact that hunting is anactivity that takes or destroys life while horticulture is oriented tothe promotion of life. In hunting, people take the blood of animalswhereas in horticulture plants take the blood of people. Blood is akey symbol of vitality for the Aguaruna, as indeed it is for manycultures throughout the world. We also found that blood has a sym-bolic connection with human conception and gestation: many Agua-runa women say that menstrual blood appears because a woman isgoing to become pregnant, that is, because postpartum amenorrheahas ceased and a woman is again ready to conceive. Blood is thus asign of potential fertility in this case. By feeding blood composedof achiote and water to their crops, women impart a vital substancethat helps their plants grow faster and more robustly than the weedswith which they compete.Blood has another connotation related to its role as the medium bywhich thought is conveyed within the human body. In Aguaruna,there is a close linguistic association between the heart anenta i ) andthe thought process itself anentaimat, to think ). Older Aguarunawho have been relatively uninfluenced by non-native theories of hu-man physiology insist that people think with their heart and that theblood then transmits the thoughts to the rest of the body through t hecirculatory system. As it is used in the planting rite, the achiote andwater blood symbolizes, and gives palpable evidence of, the trans-fer of growth-promoting thought (in the form of magical songs,which are often repeated in the thoughts rather than sung aloud)from the gardener to her plants.Since blood and blood drinking are such important metaphors ingardening magic, why do the Aguaruna employ achiote and water inthe planting ritual instead of real blood obtained, say, from a sacri-ficed animal? Although we failed to ask this question while in thefield, in retrospect we feel that achiote has symbolic qualities of itsown that make it more appropriate than blood for the planting rite.A long Aguaruna myth explains that achiote was once a woman whowandered through the forest in the company of her sister genipaG en ipa arnericana, source of a blue-black dye). Th e two sisters suffermany humorous misadventures as they find, then reject, various hus-


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bands. Finally they decide to remove themselves from the cares ofthe world by changing into useful trees; thus they assume thei r pres-ent form. As a garden plant of feminine origin and the source of themost important coloring used in pottery manufacture, achiote isstrongly associated with the earth mother Nugkui the latter beingth e primeval giver of cultivated plants and pottery Whitten 1978:844). The use of achiote, which symbolizes blood by virtue of itscolor and Nugkui by virtue of its mythical origin and its role in pot-tery making, serves to link together and add meaning to the diversesymbols of gardening ritual.

CONCLUSIONSWe have described he re some Aguaruna Jivaro beliefs related t oroot crop horticulture and the various means Aguaruna gardenersemploy to promote the successful development of their crops, par-ticularly sweet manioc. Because it is their major source of carbohy-drates and the main ingredient of the beer that is indispensable to thetraditional system of feasting and hospitality, manioc has an ext reme-ly important role in Aguaruna society. There is a tremendous de-mand for manioc in the household, but available evidence suggeststhat gardens easily produce enough tubers t o satisfy this demand andcould even generate a surplus with little additional effort. Never-

theless, the Aguaruna themselves perceive manioc production ashighly uncertain. They feel compelled to increase th e chances of anadequate crop by using magical techniques to encourage plantgrowth and development. These techniques include the estab-lishment of harmonious communication with the souls and spirits ofthe garden, the strategic use of images especially those embodied inthe metaphorical language of songs) as a fecundating force , and theharnessing of the animistic power residing in special stones.As far as we have been able to determine, t he notion that horticul-tural success is uncertain has its origin in Jivaroan world view, not inan empirically verifiable scarcity or unpredictability of garden pro-duction. The Aguaruna gardener feels that technology alone cannotguarantee an adequate supply of manioc and other tubers; and asfunctionalist theory predicts she responds to this situation throughrecourse to the supernatural. However , the stresses associated withAguaruna horticulture are the result of cultural rather than naturalrealities.


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APPENDIX

Identification of Plants Referred to in TextCommon Name Aguaruna Name s) Bo ta;iical Namesweet maniocYamcocoyamtaroarrowrootsweet potatoachiraachiotesedge, piripiripapayillabalsa, topakapok?

soap rootojB

genipa

mamakegkesagku~ i t u khiki

kam;t, inchi, i&ukh

ip&, pisu, shampupiipigtsamp&unurnawa

wamp&shkamp6nakseekemuwarnpumente

uwa

Manihot esculentaDioscorea trifidaXanthosomaaColocasia esculentaMaranta ruizianaIpomoea batatasanna sp.ixa orellana

Carex sp./Cyperus sp.Carica microcarpaOchroma sp.Ceiba sp.'?Eleuthrine bulbosaunidentifiedFicus sp.unidentified memberof Bombacaceae

Genipa americana(Principal source of species determinations: Berlin and Berlin 1977.)


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N O T E SI Th e research o n which this ar tic le is was conducted from D ecem ber , 19 76 toOctobe r , 19 78 in several Aguaruna J ivaro comm uni t ies in the De par tm ent of SanMart in, Peru. Financial support for this research came from the Doherty Founda-t ion, the We nn er -G ren Foundat ion for Anthropologica l Research, and the C ent roAmazonico d e Antropo logia y Aplicacion Practica, Lima. W e wo uld l ike to thankWilliam L. Merrill, Richard I Ford, Aram Yengoyan, Gary J . W i therspoon, and C .Wesley Cowan, who w ere kind enoug h to co mm ent o n an ear lier draf t of this paper .2. Am on g the few exceptions to this pat tern that we have been able to f ind are theTrum a i (Murphy and Q ua in 195 ) , t he T im bi ra (N im uenda ju 1946 ) , and theQ u i c h u a ( W h i t t e n 1 9 7 6 , 1 9 7 8 ) ~he latter group sharing many cultural traits withtheir Jivaroan neighbors.3. Spelling of Agua runa words fol lows the system used by the S um me r Inst i tute ofLinguistics (Larson 196 6) and n ow by the Ag uaruna th ems elves. All letters ar e pro -nounced more or less as in Spanish except e (which represents the high centralvowel i ) , g (which is pron oun ced l ike ng as in r ing) , and b and d (pro nou nce d l ike mband nd, respectively). All accents fall on the first syllable unless otherwise noted.4. T h e scientific names of plants mentioned in the text are listed in th e Ap pen dix.For a m ore detai led inventory of plants cult ivated by the Aguaruna see B erl in andBerl in I 976:22-26.j . Com ple te vers ions of the ATugkui myth have been published in Jordana LagunaI 974, Akuts Nugkai et al I 977, and Garc ia-Rendueles I 978. Aspects of the N u g k u imyth are analyzed in detail in Berl in 19 -8 and Balldn and G arcia-Rendueles I 978 .6 . T he t e rm s duktich ( l iteral ly, grandmo ther ) and kajja ( s tone ) are also some-t imes used to refer to nantag7 Karsten ( 19 3 : 126 -13 describes a similar plant ing r i te amon g the Jivaro prop-er .8 Som e women mentioned the existence of a special kind of nantag used to mak emanioc be er sweet and intoxicat ing. This stone is reported ly kep t in the large pots inwhich th e manioc mash fermen ts. W e never had an oppo rtunity t o see this kind ofnantag durin g our f ieldwork.9. In the Alto Mayo the t radi t ional vision quest has recently been abandoned inrespo nse t o th e introduction of state-control led schools, rapid changes in the eco-nomic and social environment, and the efforts of Christian missionaries. This situa-t ion is descr ibed in greater detail in a for thcoming ethnograp hic rep ort (Bro wn , inpress).

B I B L I O G R A P H YAkuts Nugkai , T. , A. Kuji Javian, and J. Gro ver . 1 9- 7 . Histor ia Agu aruna: Pr i-mera Etapa. Comunidades y Culturas Peruanas, No. I 5. 2 vols . SummerInstitute of Linguistics. Yarinacocha, Peru.Ballon, E., and M. Garcia-Rendueles. 1978. Analisis del Mito de Nu nku i . Ama-zonia P eruan a 2: 99-1 58. Lima, Peru .Berl in, B . 197 8. Bases Empir icas de la Cosmologia Agu aruna Jibaro. AmazoniaPeruana 2 : 187-198 . Lima, Peru .Berl in, B. , and E. A. Berlin. 197'. Ethnobiology, Sub sistence, and Nu tr i t ion in aTropical Forest Society: The Aguaruna Jivaro. Studies in Aguaruna JivaroEthnobiology, Repor t No. I Language Behav ior Research Laboratory, Un i-versity of California. Berkeley.Brown, M. F . 1978 . From the Hero ' s Bones: Three Aguaruna Hal luc inogensand Thei r Uses . Th e Na ture and Sta tus of E thnobotany, ed. R. I . Ford, pp.

I 18-136 . Anthropologica l Paper 67 , Museum of Anthropology, U niversi tyof Michigan. Ann Arbor .n.d. Un a Paz Incier ta: U n Inform e Etnogrif ico Sob re 10s Agu arunas delAlto R io Mayo, P eru. Lima, Peru . ( in press) .


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Ca rneir o, R. L. 1973. Slash and Burn Cult ivat ion among the Kuikuru and ItsImplicat ions for Cultural Development in the Amazon Basin. Peoples andCultures of Native South America , ed. D. R. G ross , pp . 98-136. G a r d e nCity.I 974. Hu nt in g and Hun t ing Magic among th e Amahuaca of the PeruvianMontafia . Nat ive South Am erica: Ethnology of the Least Know n C ontin ent ..ed. P . Lyon, pp. 122-132. Boston.Chaumiel J . , and J . P. Chaumiel . 1977. El Ro l d e 10s Instrumen tos d e MusicaSagrados en la Producci6n Alimenticia d e 10s Yaguas del Nor-Este Peru ano .Amazonia Peruana I I 01- I 20. Lima, Peru.Garcia-Rendueles, M. 1978. V e rs ion P r ime ra y Se gunda del Mi to d e N un ku i e nAguaruna y Espari61. Amazonia Peruana 2: 10-52 Lima, Peru.Gillin, J. 1936. T he Barama River Caribs of Bri tish Guiana. Pa pers of the Pea-body Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 14 N o. 2 Cam-bridge, Mass.

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