Reflexes of the Cashinahuas’ relationship with their environment

Abstract

In 2008, the Cashinahua participants of the DoBeS team in Peru resolved to carry out a study of rituals with chants and dances within the documentation program. They made a list of the fundamental rituals for social cohesion and decided to start with the fertility rite that is the most practiced by the entire group living along the border between Brazil and Peru. For this study, the authors organized workshops called «fundamental rituals», in order to work together with Cashinahua team members on the symbolism of this practice. This led the team to a series of reflections on the lyrics of the chants and on the importance of the ritual for the social and vital relationships of the group. It was in this context that they discussed about the concept of “fertility” that for them is intimately related to their environment: Abundance of food (vegetables and game from the forest) guaranteeing the survival and social stability of the Cashinahua society. This society is based on the alliance between two moieties: the descendants of the jaguar (inu bakebu) and the descendants of the puma (dua bakebu). Evidence of this conception of the world, which nowadays may already have suffered alterations due to the impact of globalization, can best be given by taking into consideration elements of the Cashinahuas’ traditional culture. The analyses presented in this paper, therefore, are based on selected aspects of the fertility rite of Katxa Nawaa (performances as well as chants), on oral literature in the form of a central myth regarding Cashinahua cosmology, collected a century ago, and on elements in the lexicon of the Cashinahua language which are related to this subject. This text is the result of a participatory study among researchers and local collaborators who together reflected on the symbolism of the fertility ritual that shows the relationship of humans with different elements of nature.