De mulher a pajé: aprendizagem das mulheres pajés Yawanawa como transformação

Abstract

This work approaches the female Yawanawa pajés shamanic learning as a transformation. Initially departing from the concept of learning as genesis, the complexity of processes involved in shamanic learning points to other directions. The body, central issue for the comprehension of the conception of person in American indigenous societies, is the local where transformations occur. Starting from the body approach, we analyze how being Yawanawa, being a Yawanawa woman and being a Yawanawa pajé are conceptualized. The Yawanawa body is produced, and, through a long process, it is imbued with male or female agency. Yawanawa female body and agency are associated to the production of human beings through processes of gestation and nurturing, and are associated to the bata (sweet) category, while Yawanawa male body is formed with more tsimu (bitter), and is prepared for interactions with non-human beings, yuxin. Furthermore, female body is, naturally, due to its processes related to its specificity (menstruation, pregnancy, puerperium), is a ‘visible’ body to the eyes of the yuxin, and susceptible to their revengeful and predatory action. On the other side, the pajé’s body is that one which transforms itself through a series of processes: diets and rigorous isolation, and the use bitter substances considered to be ‘strong spirits’, such as muká, seya, uni, rume and yutxi, which whom the pajé turns one (samakei), with the objective of ‘seeing’ the yuxin and ‘being seen’ by them as an affine or relative, as well as developing capacities such as being able to transform himself and to transform the surrounding reality. In the past, shamanic practice was exclusive to men. Due to the colonization processes suffered by the Yawanawa people, it was almost abandoned for decades (form the 60’s to 1999). Stem from various historical processes, related to interactions between the Yawanawas and the nawas (white people) world, such as identity affirmation, land demarcation and alliances with nawas, a new generation of pajés emerges with the resumption of muká initiations. In this new generation of pajés, as a consequence of the initiation of two sisters, Hushahu and Putanny, further transformations are produced on the field of female agency as well as on shamanic agency: kenes (drawings), which are shot through with ‘the force’, emerge, and female chanting gets into the uni (ayahuasca) rituals. Through the muká sacred oath, women transform a female body into a female pajé body. And, as pajés, they acquire the capability of transforming themselves, and transforming reality around them. Here we go through this transformation from woman to pajé, departing from the mythological narration, as a metaphor and conducting thread; as well as from ethnographic data collected from initiated pajés, and the researcher’s own field camp transformation experience.