Robin Wright's Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon expresses the best of both the empirical and aesthetically attuned tendencies in anthropology (see also the foreword by Michael J. Harner). Wright combines decades of ethnographic observation among the Baniwa (Arawak) of the Aiarí River basin of Brazil, collaborative oral histories about a focal figure, and close attention to the linguistic and bodily practices of the jaguar shaman. The focus on a single individual, Mandu da Silva, enables Wright to craft a clear picture, tying experience at the micro level to the influence of sorcery, evangelical Christianity, and culture change at the macro level.

The book is divided into four parts. In Part 1, Shamans, Chanters, Sorcerers, and Prophets, chapters 1-3 deal with the life, initiation, and struggles of Mandu, whose fight against sorcerers is an encapsulation of the battle between matchiaperi (good people) and maatchipem (bad people). Sorcery and revenge among the Baniwa reflect concerns about inequity. A sorcerer can become obsessed with killing once he begins, and so his work moves into creating destructive imbalance. Central concerns of this part emerge out of Mandu's daughter's biography of him, focusing on the events that he says shape his life as a pajé, what was particularly noteworthy to him about his life, and how he interacted with Emi, an oppressive sorcerer who brought Mandu years of suffering. This part also considers the roles of other knowledgeable figures (manderos, sabios, prophets, and sorcerers), as well as the consumption of pariká--considered the "'blood of Kuwai,' the great spirit 'owner of sickness,'" (64)--and use of other materials of the practice.

Part 2, Shamanic Knowledge and Power in the Baniwa Universe (chapters 4 and 5) delves into narratives set in the Baniwa mythscape. This part also concerns multiple important themes: symmetry and asymmetry; transformation and translation; the importance of bone-tubes, and death and rebirth as themes of shamanic knowledge. Threaded into these chapters are exigeses of mythic narratives that explicate relations of Baniwa emplacement in time and space in This World and in the cosmos. Of special import is the figure of the universe child, Hekwapi ienipe, the first inhabitant of the universe. Wright also describes a holistic view of the universe required for understanding stories of how pajés obtained their knowledge, and which join various symbols--umbilical cord, bone tube--to types of knowledge.

Part 3, Transmission of Shamanic Knowledge and Power (chapters 6 through 8; see also appendix 2), contains the central point of the book: the relationship of the figure of Kuwai to Baniwa culture. These chapters detail Kuwai's conception, birth, and involvement in establishing boys' initiation rites. Wright provides four "guidelines" for interpretation of the story of Kuwai that are also guidelines for reading the book. The first three are: 1) semantic multivocality (Victor Turner 1969); 2) seeing shamanic "world-making" (Joanna Overing 1990) through the telling and exegesis of the story of Kuwai; and 3) witnessing the revelation of the beauty and mystery of the universe through the telling (see a diagram of the universe on page 169). Fourth, it is important to pay attention to how "nuances of meaning" provide a view of the heart-soul's "emotive content" and to avoid binary interpretations (236).

Part 4, Revitalization Movements in Traditional and Christianized Communities (chapters 9 and 10), describes three communities' orientations toward Baniwa futures. At Escola Pamaale (Pamaale School Complex), supported by the Brazilian NGO Instituto SocioAmbiental (ISA) and Norwegian foundations, the community focuses on sustainable development and celebrates an entrepreneurial spirit with a layer of crente (evangelical) identity and a shift to privileging Western ecological and administrative knowledge. At Ukuki, the establishment of the Nakuliakarudapani (House of Adorning) was a more difficult process, as Wright sought help from the ISA. The NGO was unwilling to help, as the people of Ukuki framed "sustainability" through ceremony rather than marketability. Rather than be dissuaded, the community forged ahead. At Uapui, efforts by Mandu's son Alberto and daughter Ercilia, in response to the "integrationist policy of the Brazilian government" (316), led to the creation of the Malikai Dapana (House of Shaman's Knowledge and Power). Wright asked Mandu to reflect on his life, and as we move into the conclusion (chapter 10), we are left with his--and Wright's--hope that shamanism (and the Baniwa) will continue. One of the major strengths of chapter 9 is the demonstration of how outsiders can help communities achieve their self-defined goals.

There are two more important aspects to describe. First is Wright's discussions of the differences between Arawak and Eastern Tukanoan shamans in terms of their participation in the Kuwai religion. It is one of the diagnostic features of the Northwest Amazon that intensive contact and sharing has also been a driver for inter-group distinction. Wright cites the work of Stephen Hugh-Jones (1989) and Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff (1996) on discussions of vertical and horizontal shamanic practices among Eastern Tukanoan groups and demonstrates that among the Baniwa there are no such distinctions (see also page 223 discussing Irving Goldman's 2004 work on Tukanoan-Arawakan religious hybridity). This is an important contribution to work on the existence of a greater Amazonian discourse area and soundscape.

The second important aspect is the way Wright integrates ethnopoetics and Steve Feld's (1996) concept of acoustemology. Wright considers the formal aesthetic elements of shamanic chanting via ethnopoetics while highlighting the epistemological contributions of knowing and navigating the cosmos through sound. The shaman's life is one of sounded and embodied experience. There is no way it could be otherwise, given that Kuwai himself was born full of holes emitting all manner of sounds. Wright expertly evokes the synesthetic experience of jaguar shamanism, which is no small thing given that that sensorial universe has been distilled into a textual object.

--------

[Review length: 952 words • Review posted on February 8, 2018]