The Apurinã
Scattered in places near the banks of the Purus, the Apurinã possess a rich cosmological and ritual universe . Its history has been greatly affected by the violence of the two rubber cycles in the Amazon region. Today they fight for their rights as some of their lands have not yet been officially recognized and are constantly invaded by loggers. Some argue that Apurinã, or in its oldest form, Ipuriná, is a word from the Jamamad language. The group’s self-identification is popũkare. Some ancient texts refer to the word kãkite as the self-identifier. The Apurinã language is a member of the Purus branch of the Maipure-Aruak family (Facundes, 1994). The closest related language is that of the Manchineri, or Pyro, that inhabit the upper Purus in Brazil and, in Peru, mainly in the lower Urubamba valley. The Apurinã inhabit 27 Indigenous Lands, at different stages of the official recognition process ; Twenty have been fully demarcated and registered, three have been declared for their exclusive use and four are in the identification study phase. The total area of these totally demarcated Indigenous Lands is 1,819,502 hectares; of these two are shared with the Paumari of Lake Paricá and the Paumari of Lake Marahã and one with the Torah, in the TI of the same name. The Apurinã of the Pauini region are divided into two clans: Xoaporuneru and Metumanetu. Membership in one of these groups is determined by paternal lineage. For each of the clans there are prohibitions on what can and cannot be eaten : Xoaporuneru cannot consume certain types of inambu (inambu clock and inambu macucau), and the Metumanetu is prohibited from eating guinea pig. The correct marriage is between Xoaporuneru and Metumanetu , since marriage between members of the same clan is the same as marriage between brothers. This is the term, furthermore, that two members of the same half can use when addressing each other (nutaru, brother, nutaro, sister), as well as Xoaporuneru and Metumanetu are sometimes called nukero (sister-in-law) or nemunaparu (brother-in-law). ). The names of the people indicate which of the “nations” they belong to.
( Nukini Tribe )
Systematic contacts with non-indigenous people began as a result of rubber harvesting. The Purús Valley began to be explored during the 18th century by itinerant merchants in search of the so-called “drogas do sertão” (products of the sertão): cocoa, copaiba balsam, turtle fat and rubber. Some of these explorers settled and processing plants began to be established in the lower Purus. In the 1850s and 1860s, several expeditions were sent to explore and map the river. According to reports, at that time some of them were already working for non-indigenous people.
( Kuntanawa Tribe )
The Purus was occupied by rubber. Exploitation began in the 1870s and in 1880 the Purús was occupied by non-indigenous people in its entirety. Rubber harvesting declined after 1910 when Asian production began , against which the Brazilian production could not compete. Without a market, the owners abandoned the rubber estates. The seringueiros (rubber extractors) and the indigenous people survived thanks to subsistence agriculture (which had been largely banned on rubber farms) and the commercialization of other products such as Brazil nuts.
“Who is your god? I do not know. I just know that your
name is Tsora “.
Artur Brasil, Mũpuraru, Artur the Shaman, thus speaks of Tsora or, in its translation: God, Jesus. Tsora is the creator of everything on Earth and that is why he is called God. The story of Tsora, the story of the beginning of the world, the beginning of everything, always begins in its many versions with Mayoroparo, or “after the earth caught fire.” Mayoru means vulture and Mayoroparo is a monstrous woman, a witch who devoured the bones of those who disobeyed (who have soft bones) and kept the bones of those who obeyed for the cassava and potato cuttings at the beginning of the world. Tsora is the son of Yakonero . Every night someone came to sleep with Yakonero. Wanting to know who the visitor was, he painted his hands with achiote and wiped them on his back. The next day it was the katokana (the shaman’s Rapé pipe) that turned black. Yakonero was thus banished. On the way to his parents’ house, his unborn son asked for several things. Annoyed, she hit her belly. To recover, he gave her the wrong directions to his house and she ended up in the Katsamãũteru house. The old woman who lived there hid it on a shelf and gave Yakonero, pregnant and wanting to spit, a pumpkin. He spat on this until it overflowed, thus alerting the men to his presence. Yakonero gave birth to four children, on the branch of a cotton bush. Tsora was the smallest and weakest, but the most intelligent and powerful. The brothers retaliated by ambushing and killing, one by one, their mother’s murderers.
The origin of everything
The origin of everything that exists today is explained by this story: the origin of the size of the chestnut tree, the origin of its sap, the color of the coati, the existence of various fish such as the surubim and the caparari. , as well as the origin of revenge. Tsora created the people and the different types of people, the different peoples: Apurinã, whites, other Indians. He made several tests to these towns and they always did worse than other Indians and whites. That is why, the narrators say, that despite being “the best there is,” the Apurinã are few and divided among them. Another extremely important story to explain about them today is the Sacred Land and the Otsamanu. The Apurinã were immortal and lived in a land where nothing got sick, spoiled or died. They accompanied the Otsamaneru, traveling between one land of immortality and another. However, they were too enchanted by the things they found in the “mortal lands” that lie among the sacred lands, and ended up staying there. The Kaxarari are frequently identified as his companions on this journey. According to some accounts, the three peoples traveled together: Kaxarari, Apurinã and Otsamaneru. The Kaxarari were the first to be enchanted with the fruits of the “mortal lands”; then the Apurinã; while the Otsamaneru continued their journey.
Ritual celebrations
The ritual celebrations, generically known as Xingané, range from small nightly song sessions to large-scale events that include invitations to various villages and offer substantial banquets, cassava wine, bananas, patauá palm fruit, and fuel for the participants’ boat. . Sometimes it is rituals to pacify the souls of the deceased , immediately after death or on anniversaries. In such cases, according to Abdias, the ritual is known as isaĩ. A Xingané begins with a ritual confrontation. The guests arrive from outside the forest armed, painted and decorated. They come screaming. The hosts, equally armed, will receive them. When they meet, the leaders come forward and start arguing, speaking quickly and loudly (this dialogue is called “corte sanguiré” in Portuguese) , all the while with their weapons pointed at each other’s chests. Behind are the other members of the group, ready, and with their weapons pointed similarly to those involved in the discussion. When the voices are lowered, so are the weapons, and the leaders proceed to wipe the Rapé from their hands. At the beginning of the discussion, each declares not to know the other and asks who he is. Then follows the sanguiré, a personal speech that always closes with the confirmation of the speaker’s parents and grandparents. Camilo Manduca Apurinã sums it up like this: “When you cut blood you have to remember the name of your father, mother, grandfather. Whatever you want to say, you have to say it at the moment of the sanguiré. Whatever happens, you have to find out during the sanguiré ”. A ritual that is no longer practiced, but is still considered very important, is that of Kamatxi. This celebration has the presence of the Kamatxi, beings who live in the buriti palm tree stands and who appear on the occasion of the ritual. Flutes are used and women have to remain locked in a house, forbidden to look.
( Marubo Tribe )
Shamans
The origins of the disease and the shaman’s cure is stones . A stone is what allows the shaman to heal and what allows him to cause illness and death. Various reports claim that during the initiation of a shaman, the first step is for it to stay for months in the forest , fasting or eating very little and chewing katsowaru. Sexual intercourse should also be avoided. When the shaman receives a stone, he inserts it into his body, since he will insert all the stones that he receives or, in the future, extract from the bodies of the sick. A shaman heals using katsoparu, a leaf that is chewed, and awire, Rapé. . The shaman has his own katsoparu and awire, but the person requesting the cure is generally responsible for providing them for the occasion. Shaman must chew the katsoparu and take a lot of rapé. Sometimes healing takes place in private, in the home of the sick; but often everyone is involved, talking and chewing, until the shaman starts the session. It is cured by sucking the place of the disease. He will often show the stone and explain the nature of the disease, how the patient acquired it, and what to do. Explain if it is the result of witchcraft or the action of a forest animal. You insert the stone into your own body and then you can recommend remedies and treatments. The remedies are generally plants, but you can also make drugs from the pharmacy. One of the most common problems that shamans have to solve are the animals that pull, that take the souls of children. There is a set of foods that a father and mother should avoid when their child is still young ; until the child is about two years old. The main prohibitions are the big fish and game, but also beans, alcohol, coconut, pineapple, katsoparu and mangoes. The latter do not take the soul, but they damage the health of the child since it will absorb the food through the mother’s milk.
During the night, the spirit of the shaman will rescue the soul of the child. This is a dangerous exercise. If the shaman is weak, he could, for example, get caught in the entrance of a fish hole and die. The shaman returns with thunder and lightning and at that moment the child begins to breathe again. An Apurinã shaman works through dreams. In these, his spirit departs, visits other places and performs tasks. Other spirits guide the shaman on these journeys: the animals and the heads of the animals (hãwite) with whom he works. Each shaman has one or more of his own: the jaguar, the snake or the mythical mapinguari. Another common problem, in both children and adults, is being wounded by arrows fired by “archers” animals (kĩpuatitirã). These are the “chiefs” (hãwite). A new trail is especially dangerous. Children bathe with the piprioca (kawaky) plant for protection or with breast milk. Children with less resistance to archers can die as a result of such attacks.
Animal spirits
According to Otávio Avelino Chaves (Atokatxu), the heads of the animal species are themselves shamans, or at least it is as such that they speak with human shamans. One of the roles of a shaman is to defeat and control these beings; for example, make them stop “chasing” or stop snakes from biting. What others see as animals, the shaman sees as people and some as family. The shaman protects his community against enemy stones and prevent and heal the attacks of forest animals. If they are strong, the shamans will travel to different lands: under the ground where they live, under the river, even up to the sky, where Tsora lives. The stronger the shaman, the more places his spirit can go. If this is so in life, it is also so in death. Some say that shamans never die, they are enchanted. Thunder is heard at the time of a shaman’s death. When the old shamans died, they gave precise instructions on how they should be buried, so that they could later leave their graves. In some cases, the tombs of the shamans were kept orderly. In other cases it is said that they can be found among herds of animals, such as the peccary. However, most go to the Sacred Land.
