This article examines pathogenic projectiles among the Makushi people in Guyana. Based on ethnographic fieldwork among Makushi in North Rupununi, the ‘magical’ darts known as waawî are described and contrasted with accounts of similar phenomena across Amazonia. For the Makushi, waawî seem to hold an ambiguous existence as both entities and objects. As embodiments of spirit-helpers, these...
This article concerns vernacular practices of "self-help" among the indigenous Makushi people of Amazonian Guyana. Contrasted with "Western" self-care, the article examines mayu, a traditional system of communal work grounded in a collaborative ethic of "helping each other out." A convivial event, mayu is always accompanied by feasting, drinking, and the celebration of social relationships....
In Indigenous Amazonian life-worlds, plants used for diverse purposes such as protecting, harming, seducing and curing are sometimes considered to be ‘plant persons’, imbued with special kinds of subjectivity. In examining plant animism in Amazonia, we consider case studies of the knowledge and use of toxic, medicinal and charm plants from two distinctive societies – the Makushi people of...
This article uses ethnographic and ethnobotanical methods to examine relationships between animate and agentive plants and human beings among the Makushi, Pemon, Karinya, and other Indigenous and mixed-Indigenous peoples in the Guianas. It considers representations of these plants and related ontologies in the archival record and contrasts these accounts with more recent ethnographic...
AbstractThis chapter explores vernacular notions of chemosensation in lowland South America. The indigenous Makushi people of northern Amazonia gather fragrant tree resins from the forest for various uses, including in shamanic healing. These resins are usually collected from ritually significant incense trees known as haiawa gum trees. The intensely fragrant resin is used in healing rituals,...