Bi'id ID: xamanic spells and paths of observation between the Hupdah (Maku)

• Grant number: 15/10989-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Effective date (Start): September 29, 2015
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Indigenous Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: Sylvia Caiuby Novaes
• Grantee: Danilo Paiva Ramos
• Supervisor: Patience Epps
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Texas at Austin (UT), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 14/50356-9 - Bi'id ID: xamanic spells and paths of observation, BP.PD

Abstract

The research period at the University of Texas will allow the posdoctorant to do an in-depth description and analysis of the shamanic discourse as it occurs among the Hupd'äh people from the Alto Rio Negro-AM region. The collaborative investigation with the linguist Patience Epps (U.Texas), based on both anthropological and linguistic perspectives, focuses on the Hup bi'id hd 'blessing language', used for curing and prophylaxis. Our present posdoctoral research aims to anylise the relation between the shamanic spells and the younger and older people's trips to the "holy places" (hills and caves) through the forest, interpreting the learning process and the intergenerational sociability. In our description of this genre, we will first take into consideration the form of the texts, in which the use of parallelism, metaphores, and other features underscores their relevance as a form of verbal art. We then explore the content, stressing the astonishingly complex taxonomy, the cosmologic and cosmography it embodies, with its ontological classification of the different plants, animals, and other beings within the diverse environments of the Hup world (rivercourse, forest, sky, cities, etc.). This research period will seek to show that the importance of the bi'id hd genre for the Hupd'äh goes far beyond its function as a tool for curing and protection, but it also lies in the knowledge and ability transmission processes. (AU)