Discourse Authority in the Sibundoy Valley

Abstract

There has been much speculation that verbal instrurrients of cosmology are less important in the Andes than in other settings. This paper identifies a central Andean cosmological principie, captured in various forms of the Quechua verbal root camay, which involves "instilling life force in some physical entity". In the ceremonial and ritual speech, and the mythic narratives, of the Sibundoy pebple of Andean Colombia, accomplished speakers use traditional speech forms linked to the example of the ancestors to claim authority for their speech. Two methods of accessing the ancestors are prevalent: referencing entails atrributing speech to ancestral prototypes, while sampling entails the invocation of ancestral presence. In view of the prominente of Andean speech that is camasca, laden with cosmic resonance, this paper argues for a revision of the thesis that verbal instruments are of secondary importance in Andean societies.