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INDIANA 29 (2012): 53-71
Matthias Lewy*
Different “seeing” – similar “hearing”.
Ritual and sound among the Pemón
(Gran Sabana/Venezuela)
Abstract: This paper discusses the theory of “perspectivism” (Viveiros de Castro)
and its application to interpretation of the myths of the Pemón-speaking groups of
the Gran Sabana (Arekuna, Kamarakoto, Taurepán); the paper aims to compare
ontological conceptions of “seeing” and “hearing”.
Performances of the shamanic healing ritual, the hunting ritual (parishara), and
recent orekotón rituals (areruya, cho’chiman) serve as examples for understanding
“hearing” and related practices of sound production (speech, singing, imitation of
animal sounds, etc.).
Whereas the particular representations of yaukarü (spirit/ Arekuna) or yekatón
(spirit/ Taurepán, Kamarakoto), such as enek (animal), pemón (human being), and
mawarí (spirit of the tepuy), illustrate different concepts of “seeing”, the use of
the same communicative devices consisting of intelligible (speech, singing) and/
or unintelligible sound structures demonstrates the possibilities of communicative
interaction between these representations.
Along with my own material, contemporary indigenous discourses concerning
Koch-Grünberg’s recordings from 1911 will be presented in an attempt to (re-)
construct, or rather (re-)interpret, the healing ritual and the parishara and orekotón
performances.
Keywords: Perspectivism, ritual, sound, Pemón, Venezuela; 20th to 21st centuries.
Resumen: En este artículo se hace referencia a la teoría del “perspectivismo”
(Viveiros de Castro) y su aplicación en la interpretación de los mitos de los hablan-
tes de pemón de la Gran Sabana (arekuna, kamarakoto, taurepán) con el propósito
de comparar las concepciones ontológicas de “ver” y “escuchar”.
Las representaciones del rito de curación chamánica, el rito de la caza (parishara)
* Matthias Lewy studied anthropology and ethnomusicology at the Freie Universität Berlin. He did
three years of eld research mostly in Arekuna and Kamarakoto territories in the Guiana highlands
of Venezuela. The data obtained formed the basis of his PhD thesis on areruya and cho’chiman
rituals among Pemón speakers in Gran Sabana (Venezuela). At the moment he is working on con-
cepts of auditive anthropology as well as on the history of cultural interaction and material culture
in the Guianas.
Matthias Lewy54
y los recientes ritos orekotón (areruya, cho’chiman) sirven como ejemplos para la
comprensión de la “audición” y las prácticas relacionadas con la producción del
sonido (el habla, el canto, la imitación de sonidos animales, etc.).
Mientras que las representaciones particulares de yaukarü (espíritu / arekuna) o
yekatón (espíritu / taurepán, kamarakoto), como enek (animal), pemón (ser huma-
no) y mawarí (espíritu de los tepuyes), ilustran varios conceptos de “ver”, el uso
de los mismos recursos comunicativos consistentes en estructuras sonoras inteli-
gibles (el habla, el canto) y/o ininteligibles demuestra las posibilidades de interac-
ciones comunicativas entre estas representaciones.
Junto con material propio, se presentarán discursos de indígenas contemporá-
neos sobre las grabaciones de Koch-Grünberg de 1911 como un intento de (re-)
construir, o más bien (re-) interpretar, el rito de curación y el parishara así como
las representaciones orekotón.
Palabras clave: Perspectivismo; ritual; sonido; pemón; Venezuela; siglos xx-xxi.
1. Introduction
Within the debate concerning animism, perspectivism and the construction of
ontologies, I want to focus on the interaction between “seeing” and “hearing” and
the associated action of sound production in Pemón ritual practice. Pemón1 is the
denomination of three different Amerindian groups (Arekuna, Kamarakato, and Tau-
repán) living around Mount Roraima in neighbouring regions of the Gran Sabana in
Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana. Their language belongs to the Carib language family.
Ernst Halbmayer pointed out that the minimal assumption in conceptualizing
animic ontologies is the existence of beings other than human persons and that
humans maintain relationships and have interactions, including communication and
understanding, with these non-human beings (see Halbmayer, this volume). Perspec-
tivism is also to be found in Pemón cosmology, as Viveiros de Castro (1997) has
ascertained for cosmologies of Amazonia in general. Pemón tales reect this point
of view as Halbmayer notes when discussing the Piai’ma2 perspective of the world.
1 Pemón means “human being”. The Kamarakotos are settled around Auyan Tepuy. Their main
village is Kamarata. The Arekuna territory is located near the border of Venezuela and Guyana.
Taurepán communities are located in the south near the Brazilian/Venezuelan border. They live
close to Makuxi groups, who are Carib speakers as well. Butt Colson (1994: 5) chose the term
“circum Roraima people” to refer to the indigenous groups of this region.
2 Armellada, Gutiérrez Salazar & Guerrero Contreras (2007: 155) categorized Piai’ma as a non-
human being that lives in the forest. He is a giant, recognizable by his pierced earlobes and his
human feet. All human beings are more intelligent than him. His perspective differs from humans:
Rats and mice are deer for him. Mushrooms are his casabe bread (Armellada 1964: 193, 250;
Halbmayer 2010: 168).
Different “seeing” - similar “hearing” 55
In what follows I will refer to Koch-Grünberg’s collection (1916: 81ff) and to my
own eld research, conducted between 2005 and 2010, to reveal the differentiation
between “seeing” and “hearing” as well as the interaction between “changing the
body” and “changing perspective”.
In 1911 Theodor Koch-Grünberg visited a Taurepán and Makuxi village named
Koimelemóng. He recorded several songs on wax cylinders, the majority of which
have been published by the Berlin Phonogramm Archiv (Ziegler 2006). During his
tour on the rivers Uraricuera, Ventuari, Caura, and Orinoco in the years between
1911 and 1913, Koch-Grünberg was accompanied mostly by an Arekuna and a Tau-
repán shaman. His ethnographic eld data are published in “Vom Roraima zum Ori-
noko” (Koch-Grünberg 1916, 1917, 1923a, 1923b, 1928).
The myth called “Visit in Heaven” was told by a Taurepán Amerindian in the
years between 1911 and 1913. The story starts with the description of a war between
two tribes in which one tribe is eliminated. The only survivor is Maitxaúle. He hid
under a pile of bodies, afraid that the enemy would return. Some vultures passed by
with the intention of eating the esh of the dead human beings. Just at the moment
when one of the vultures tried to pick into the body of Maitxaúle, he started to talk in
his own language to the vulture, realizing that the bird was the daughter of the king
of the vultures. He begged her rst not to eat him and second to be his wife, because
he was alone and needed a partner. The bird understood and decided to stay with
him. Maitxaúle commanded her to carry out all the duties and responsibilities of a
woman, such as cleaning and cooking. When he went out to go hunting she would
transform her body, moving out of the animal cover (or bird body) and doing all of
the work as a human being. Shortly before he returned she would put on her bird
cover again. After three days of this game she nally decided to stay with him in
her “normal” shape as a female human being. They celebrated this by sharing their
rst meal together. As a man, Maitxaúle was responsible for preparing the meat for
the barbecue. While he was putting the rst pieces on the grill he said to her: “You
can eat it as you like – raw or cooked” (Koch-Grünberg 1916: 83, translation by the
author).
This ironic phrase symbolically represents different perspectives. If the woman
decides to stay with Maitxaúle, she needs to wait until the meat is roasted. If she
wants to eat it right away, she has to reassume her bird body. The myth demonstrates
the use of covers and the changing of the “perspective” of the covered being. Com-
munication is maintained through speaking, hearing, and understanding the same
language.
In our perception of Amerindian narratives, forms of communication are mostly
dened through the “speaking” and “hearing” of words as they are written down in
Matthias Lewy56
text. This allows us to localize the different locations, real or virtual, occupied by
humans and non-humans in the Pemón multiverse (see Figure 1). As Halbmayer
(2010: 196) has argued, most relationships between beings are localized in the vis-
ible and invisible dimensions of our middle earth, in the visible mountains and in the
sky. As an example of trans-specic communication practices, an extracted version
of some parts of the Pemón multiverse in relation to sound production is presented
in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Multiverse and sound communication of Pemón (extracted version).
However, in his description of practice, Koch-Grünberg (1923a) suggests the impor-
tance of intonation and sound symbols – either intelligible or unintelligible. The role
of audio material is receiving more and more attention in our eld, which takes us
back to the second minimal assumption formulated by Halbmayer – communication
and understanding between different beings. Beside the tales, Pemón rituals are the
instruments by which a connection between the different parts of the Pemón multi-
verse is established.
Different “seeing” - similar “hearing” 57
Here I want to adapt the question once used by Anthony Seeger (1987) as the
inspiration for a book title: “Why Suyá sing?” Seeger also asks a second question,
with implications for performance, in the introduction: “How do Suyá sing?”. In the
case of the Pemón I want to ask the same questions from a more “perspectivistic”
starting point – “How do spirits or non-human beings hear?” or to formulate it more
reexively: “How do Pemón think non-humans hear?”.
2. Areruya and the healing ritual
I want to start with an example that may seem paradoxical but that serves as one
approach to an answer. It is cylinder number 41,3 recorded by Koch-Grünberg in
1911 in the Makuxi/Taurepán village of Koimélemong. The title of the cylinder is
“Areruya” and Koch-Grünberg describes it in his recorded commentary as “songs
from mission time”. For him, areruya is just a “caricature” of the original parishara
dance (Koch-Grünberg 1917: 107), indebted both for the name of the genre (are-
ruya) and for the singing, which his colleague later tried to dene as “something that
sounds like Scottish or Irish songs” (Hornbostel 1923: 417, free translation by the
author). For an understanding of why Pemón people sang that way, it is necessary to
recall the origins of the areruya-ritual. Butt (1960) concluded that the rst prophets4
of that ritual were shamans who had met Christian missionaries.
To understand the “caricature”, we need to know which practice shamans used
to communicate with non-humans. They were specialists in mediation between all
beings of the multiverse. Hierarchically they had the highest position of all entities
– the most important of these being the spirits of mountains (mawariton), animals
(enek), and more recently the “Christian spirits” (orekotón). Every interaction with
one of these representations is linked to a specic performance.
The healing ritual of the shamans is no longer practiced, so it is necessary to
reconstruct it. The basic information can be found in Koch-Grünberg’s publication
(1923a: 192ff.), enhanced by some information from the eld research I conducted
between 2005 and 2010.
3 Koch-Grünberg collection, Berliner Phonogramm Archiv Nr: VII_W_2797_K_GR_BRA-
SILIEN_41 (Ziegler 2006).
4 It is necessary to note here that there is a difference between the terms ipukenak and “prophets”.
The rst prophets were called ipukenak (Butt 1960, Thomas 1976). In my opinion the meaning
of ipukenak has changed over the last few years. Older and wise people are normally referred to
by this term because they know a lot about mediation between human and non-human beings.
The orekotón ritual is still led by ipukenak. Prophets (Pemón people call them profeta) dream and
always have a special relationship with a supernatural agent from the wakü pata (paradise, see
Figure 3). An ipukenak does not need to have these special relationships; on the other hand, most
prophets are ipukenak as well.
Matthias Lewy58
When a client felt sick, he visited a shaman or invited him to his house. The
cause of the disease was in most cases the hijacking of the yekaton (soul/spirit of a
human being) by dangerous spirits such as mawariton (spirits of mountains) or rato
(the spirit of the water), who were contracted by a bad shaman. The task of the sha-
man was to deal with the dangerous spirits, with the goal of returning the yekaton to
the body to which it belonged.
After a preparation phase I (see Figure 2), the shaman established a connec-
tion with the virtual5 world in phase II. He mixed a drink using the leaves of a liana
vine called kapeyenkumá(x)pe (Koch-Grünberg 1916: 66). After that, he started with
echiripöti (calling or shouting), in which he recited the word utö 6 (come down).
The spirits who were called upon descended and took seats on the murei (bench).
The place of performance had to be dark. A human being without supernatural
capacities would drop dead the very moment he/she made eye contact with a spirit.
Little children were instructed to close their eyes. Nonetheless, people were able to
communicate with the spirits of mountains or rivers by “speaking”. Koch-Grünberg
(1917: 156f.) writes about joking with the spirits during a session when the audience
was lying in hammocks outside of the room.
The shaman used another sound symbol that referred to the arrival of imawari
or rato - tux ye edai (“here am I”). At this point the shaman conversed with the dan-
gerous spirits to obtain information about his enemy and the location of the missing
yekaton, the spirit of his client.
In phase III, the ght between the “good” shaman and the “bad”7 one began. The
sound symbol used for beating is “bóu-bóu”, and the reference to the death of the
“bad” shaman is a long intonation that resembles “a---”. The winner is the one with
the strongest voice (Koch-Grünberg 1923a: 212). This is the reason why informants
sang a note for about 18 seconds, which was a matter of interest for Hornbostel
(1923: 420).
5 I use the term “virtual” not in the sense of cyber-realities, but analogous to Bruce Kapferer’s term
“virtuality”(2006: 674). Rituals generate a “virtual reality”, which is characterized through “deter-
mination” and “reproducibility” (Köpping & Rao 2008: 195; Kapferer 1997: 179).
In orekotón rituals the “virtual space” is part of that “virtual reality”. The ritual in its entirety
contains “spaces” where human beings or “non-spirits” like shamans and clients act. There are
“spiritual spaces” to be considered as well. I prefer the term “virtual spaces” to describe both
worlds, the “human spaces” as well as those “non-human” or “spiritual spaces”.
6 Analysis of cylinder number 25 (Berliner Phonogramm Archiv Nr.: VII_W_2834_K_GR_BRA-
SILIEN_25) proves that utö is the only intelligible word on the track. During my eld research I
presented the recordings to various specialists. They all conrmed that they heard utö. All other
sound symbols are unintelligible or the transcriptions are different.
7 This differentiation between “good” and “bad” is taken from Koch-Grünberg (1923a: 212).
Different “seeing” - similar “hearing” 59
Figure 2. The healing ritual:
The levels of the multiverse are ritual locations corresponding to distinct ritual phases
(Suciña Gordon Smith and Balbina Lambos are the names of Pemón specialists).
This short example from shamanic ritual practice shows that every action and every
non-human is represented by a sound symbol. The rst prophets of areruya were
shamans,8 as Butt (1960) has noted. For a comparison of both ritual practices and
to see what has happened in recent orekotón, I will describe the ritual practice of
orekotón.
8 Shamans and prophets coexisted when areruya rituals began. This coexistence provoked competi-
tion between them. The shaman’s role was viewed with ambivalence. On the one hand the sha-
man was dreaded because of his dangerous powers, on the other hand he was needed because of
his ability to cure people (Thomas 1982: 147). Halbmayer (2010: 165) and Armellada & Colsen
(1990: 17) argue that prophets are not viewed with ambivalence. In my opinion the process of pro-
phetization testies to a certain level of ambivalence. Most prophets were “bad” people in their
former lives, and this is also a feature of recent discourse surrounding Ramón, the founder of
the “San Miguel movement” (Thomas 1976). I met the prophet Antonio in Kavanayén in 2006
and 2007. Discourse about his life before he became a ritual leader highlights his lack of ethical
behaviour.
Different ability levels of prophets and ipukenak as well as a dichotomy can be observed in trans-
specic communication. Everyone with spiritual knowledge of things such as taren (magical
formulas) or parishara (hunting ritual, the hunters), can be counted among the eld of specialists
who might be viewed ambivalently. In most cases, those who know healing taren also know the
negative magical formulas. Those who perform parishara as hunting rituals are always in posses-
sion of taren knowledge. In my opinion the shaman occupied the highest position in a ranking of
qualities viewed ambivalently.
Matthias Lewy60
3. The orekotón rituals of areruya and cho’chiman
The practice of areruya and cho’chiman reects present-day Amerindian ontology. I
subsume both rituals under the category of orekotón ritual.9 They are performed on
weekends in the early morning hours and divided into ve phases.
In preparation phase I (see Figure 3), ipukenak washes the feet of every participant
and two women offer kashíri while a group of musicians plays aguinaldo pemón10
(Lewy 2009: 438ff). These actions are more present in areruya than in cho’chiman
ritual, but in both it is an obligation to remove one’s shoes.
The ipukenak increasingly lled the vacuum of the outgoing shaman practices. Indeed, the prophets
had their sublimations through their visions, but there is a gap between “common” orekotón,
Pemón and/or non-orekotón and the family of the ipukenak in terms of how/whether they are per-
ceived as prophets. The “bad” character in evidence in a prophet before his or her visions began
is always a feature of recent discourse about prophets and their families, as in the case of Antonio.
And because of prophets’ special knowledge of how to attract “Christian spirits”, it is assumed that
they must have the same ability to contact the traditional mawari. An orekotón-ipukenak-prophet
is also considered to be a taren specialist. That means ipukenak are not viewed as ambivalently as
shamans were, but they have a very high degree of interaction with the non-human world which
gives rise to the perception that they are “dangerous”.
9 Butt (1960), Thomas (1976), Butt Colson (1985) and Kersten (1988) use terms like areruya-
religion, chochimuh or chimitin as well as “San Miguel religion” or “movement”. In my opinion
all these rituals have more or less the same cosmological basis described in Figure 3. Thomas
(1976) observed that every new prophet was responsible for a new “religion” and a new ritual
form. Kersten (1988) and I (Lewy 2011) have not found a San Miguel movement or ritual. I think
that Thomas was right within his time, but ritual practice was transformed within orekotón ritual
practice. Participants have told me that all humans and non-humans involved in areruya and/or
cho’chiman ritual are orekotón. I lived in Kavanayén with Antonio between 2006 and 2007. He is a
well-known prophet because of his close relationship, through dreams and visions, with San Fran-
cisco de Asís. As ipukenak he practiced cho’chiman. He learnt all the songs from Raimundo Pérez
(an ipukenak for cho’chiman but not a prophet) and he receives new songs from his supernatural
agent. The decision as to whether areruya or cho’chiman is to be performed depends on the ritual
knowledge of the ritual leader. So it is a question of which ipukenak is in the village.
For most participants it is not important whether areruya or cho’chiman is practised. Very often
participants told me to go to areruya but I then realized that cho’chiman was being performed. Par-
ticipants are concerned mainly with receiving their dapón (see footnote 12). Only ritual leaders and
older, very experienced orekotón members are aware of the differences. These differences lie in the
choreography of the beginning phases, in the lyrics, and in the sound organisation, as I described
in great detail in my doctoral thesis (Lewy 2011).
10 Aguinaldo is a Venezuelan music genre played during Christmas time, from 16th of December till
31st of December, during Christian services and special events. The instruments played are the
tambora criolla (drum), cuatro (4-string guitar), furruco (friction drum), and maracas (rattles).
Aguinaldos pemón are appropriated (Lewy 2009:438ff) from Venezuelan aguinaldos or received
directly from supernatural agents by prophets. They are played all year round in the beginning or
nal phases of orekotón rituals, in Christian churches and/or missions, at all kinds of events (Día
de la Resistencia Indígena), or in private households early in the morning (Lewy 2011).
Different “seeing” - similar “hearing” 61
Figure 3. Inner framing11 of orekotón rituals (areruya, cho’chiman).
The levels of the multiverse are ritual locations corresponding to distinct ritual phases.
In phase II, the ipukenak starts singing and dancing. He is building up a connec-
tion between the cho’chi (Amerindian church) and the wakü pata (paradise) through
dewa (the thread of the world).
The messengers in the virtual location of paradise hear the singing of the ipuke-
nak and his community and descend to cho’chi with the dapón12 (bench) of every
11 Inner framing is the sequencing of the ritual which forms a closed virtuality (Kapferer 2006).
12 Dapón is the bench of every orekotón, human or non-human being. The term in general is used as
the base of something or someone. For instance, the earth is the dapón (base) for the yucca plant;
the yucca plant is the dapón (base) for the spirit Püreri pachi, etc. The dapón of every participant
in orekotón ritual is located in heaven. It can be seen as a virtual location which is the base for the
yekaton (soul, spirit) of a person after dying in heaven. Messengers bring the dapón down from
wakü pata (paradise) during ritual performances. Trance can be observed at the moment when
participants receive their dapón. The murei of the shaman is, in contrast, a real bench. It was used
to locate spirits during healing sessions.
Matthias Lewy62
participant. These messengers are entities appropriated from Christian mythology,
such as San Miguel, San Rafael, San Francisco de Asís as well as the yekaton (spirit/
soul) of dead ipukenak, such as Auka, Tarikiran, Püreri pachi etc.
At the moment of their arrival every participant receives his or her dapón. Phase
III is recognizable because the choreography changes. The orekotón13 in the cho’chi
start to jump and, just in time for the incorporation of the dapón, they fall into a
trance. The body stays in the location of the cho’chi while the spirit ascends to the
kak müna’ta (heaven’s gate, Figure 3), a virtual location in front of the entry to para-
dise.
In the concluding phase V the dapón and the messengers leave the cho’chi and
return to paradise. Participants calm down and wake up. All phases are reected in
the ritual text and Amerindian discourse. The intention of the ritual is to build up
the “strength of the heart”, the seat of the yekaton – the spirit of every person. The
“strength of the heart” is an important part of caring for the spirit of a person, so that
dangerous spirits like makoi (the devil, the evil, see Figure 3) and even the spirits of
the mountain do not have any chance of kidnapping yekaton.
In comparing the healing ritual with the orekotón ritual, analogies of inner
framing can be proposed. One of the founders of the ritual-performance was Pichi-
wön. Butt (1960: 74) notes that Pichiwön received his knowledge through contact
with Christian missionaries. As a shaman he misunderstood the Christian mis-
sionaries who told him the “way to God”, because in Christian doctrine the “way to
God” is a normative interpretation of Christian mythology and its ethics of life. In
shaman ontology “the way to God” means establishing a direct connection with the
help of a liana vine. To get in touch with the supernatural agency of the Christian
missionaries, sound communication needed to be used in order to create a virtual
path or connection to the spirit “God”.
Sound symbols demonstrate the formalized style of attracting supernatural
agency. The rst prophets needed to use their own strategies of attraction. The
sounds they used were dictated by the Christian missionaries, because the mission-
aries knew how their spirits heard. This is the reason why the rst prophets initially
used Christian songs. The rst prophets were shamans. They used the songs of their
13 Orekotón are all human and non-human participants. I subsume areruya and cho’chiman under the
heading of orekotón rituals because the term is the autodenomination of all the participants. The
word orekok derives from the English words “holy ghost”. It includes all entities and human beings
as well as the potential for an energy surge inside the cho’chi during the performance. “God” is not
a normal messenger as I had previously speculated during my lecture in Marburg in 2010 (thanks
to Laura Rival for her advice). “God” has his special place in paradise, where human-orekotón are
not allowed to enter during ritual performance.
Different “seeing” - similar “hearing” 63
spirits so the spirits could hear them. Finally, the rst Pemón areruya ritual specialist
used imitations of missionary songs to attract Christian spirits.
I listened to Koch-Grünberg’s cylinder 41 with contemporary Pemón specialists.
Balbina (Kamarakoto) and Suciña (Arekuna) very quickly identied the song. The
piece is an appropriation of Webster’s church song “The sweet by and by”. It was
written in 1862 in the United States, not in Ireland or Scotland, and is mainly per-
formed by Protestant Christians.
Figure 4. Transcriptions of cylinder 41 (left) and
J.P. Webster’s original “The sweet by and by” (right).
Matthias Lewy64
Cylinder 41 is a sound witness of areruya ritual transmission from Kapon to
Pemón, which means from Guyana to the western savanna of Venezuela and down
to Brazil. This is the reason why even today orekotón ritual specialists are con-
vinced that areruya has nothing to do with Christian missionaries. The Interamerin-
dian transmission was faster than the Christian conquest by human beings. In other
words, Pemón specialists are sure that God himself sent agents such as San Miguel
or San Rafael to warn the Pemón people. Butt Colson (1960: 71; 1971: 48f.; 1985:
113) dates the ritual to 1880, a time before Christian Missionaries had entered Gran
Savanna.
A comparison of both songs – cylinder 41 and the “original” version by Webster –
reects the process of appropriation. The organisation of sound demonstrates a simi-
larity14 with the typical Pemón song style of contemporary areruya and cho’chiman
performance practice as well as the practice of parishara singing and dancing.
4. The parishara
The parishara was performed before hunting. Animals and humans shared the same
drinks, the same food, and the same songs and dances. In a recording session with
the Kamarakoto specialist Raimundo Pérez in Kavanayén in 2005, Pérez commented
on one parishara recording:
They hear their songs and they come to join the party [...] like people. And they invited
their brothers, and other animals [...] no jaguars [...] the wayura (tapir) brought his part-
ner [...] to share the kashíri [...] they were a lot of animals [...] when they arrived [...]
our grandfathers started to hunt [...] (Raimundo Pérez 23.11.2005, free translation by the
author).
Like the rst prophets and participants in the areruya ritual who imitated the sound
of the missionaries to attract the “Christian spirits”, the Pemón hunters used the
sound of the animals to attract them. Sound in this context includes the lyrics and
their intonation as an important index. The human beings appropriated the songs
from the animals. The hunting of peccary necessitates a strategy of attracting the
peccary, which is reected in the instruments, the sound-producing dance skirt, the
lyrics of the songs, and the type of sound organisation of the lyrics – the intonation.
The bamboo stick or tube depicted in Figure 5 is called a warunká. It was beaten
on the ground at every second step during the dancing. This signal could be heard
from a long distance. The warunká was always played with a xed rattle consisting
14 For sound analysis and comparison see Lewy 2009: 438ff.
Different “seeing” - similar “hearing” 65
of pieces of a dried food named kewei, the daily diet of the tapir. The conclusion of
a song is indicated by blowing the tube trumpet kamadén. The sound imitates the
grunting of peccary animals.
Figure 5. Parishara instruments and dance skirts
(illustration from Koch-Grünberg 1923a: 156).
The dance skirt maripada represents the rustling sound that the hunted animal pro-
duces when moving through the savanna. The leaves parted into belts were taken
from the maripa palm tree (Maximiliana maripa), whose material was preferred to
that of the inaja palm tree (Mauritia exuosa). The consistency of the maripa palm
leaves produces a louder sound than the ones of the inaja palm tree.
The lyrics represent the action and the sequence of a whole parishara cycle.
In Figures 6 and 7, the rst song of a cycle of around twenty songs includes
lyrics describing the production of the instrument. The second song describes
the manufacturing of the dance skirt and the third song the attraction of the tapir.
The imitation of the sound that the animal makes in the savanna is followed by
identication with the tapir. The animals are like people coming together for a party:
“I came to the place of my brother – I came like the tapir” (Figure 7). Like the
interpretation of the quoted myth, the song text reects the perspective of the tapir,
whose habits are the same as human habits. The tapir hikes over the savanna and
joins his relatives’ party, eating, drinking, dancing, and singing.
Matthias Lewy66
Figure 6. Parishara songs kewei and maripada.
Different “seeing” - similar “hearing” 67
Figure 7. Wayura from the parishara song cycle, and Wakü pe kin uyenpakauya?
from the areruya song cycle, San Luis (2006).
5. Conclusion
Pemón ritual sound structure as described above, displays the interaction between
humans and non-humans. For example, parichara and areruya dance cycles are di-
vided into around 20 independent but similar songs which take between two to four
hours to perform. Only the performance of all the songs secures the framing of the
performed ritual. Most of these songs consist of three (ABC) or four (ABCD) musi-
cal phrases, as seen in Figures 6 and 7. These phrases are the intonation of two or
three lines, which are repeated until the nal sound symbols, like hai (see Figure 6-
kewei) in parishara. This is the sound index of the father of all peccary in the healing
ritual as well (Koch Grünberg 1923a: 198).
The same organisation of syntactical and musical parallelism is found in pari-
shara and in all orekotón ritual song (Lewy 2011). The highest tone of the scale is
mostly sung in the rst phrase (A), which indicates the repetition. The second phrase
(B or C) shows a descending of the tonal center and can be described as a phrase of
Matthias Lewy68
variation. The last phrase always ends on the deepest tone of the scale and is held for
a longer time. This is a tone whose function is similar to a tonic, but in Pemón style
I prefer to describe this as a tone of reference.
Finally, this generalized sound structure can be found in most of the songs in
areruya, cho’chiman and parishara singing practice.
The forms by which the animals were attracted has been transformed in the last
one hundred years into an attraction of the “Christian spirits”. Using appropriated
western church songs at the beginning of the ritual practice, the lyrics of areruya
have been changed from the imitation of English words as unintelligible sound sym-
bols to an intelligible ritual language.15 The musical organisation of the western prac-
tice was completely abandoned and sound organisation or structure was taken over
from pari shara to areruya and cho’chiman performances as was the choreography
of circle dance and accentuation with the right foot. In the present day, only these
formalized sound structures are able to attract non-humans in the appropriated vir-
tual world of wakü pata and to help with the ascension of personal yekaton to kak
müna’ta.
In healing rituals the shamans imitate the spirit sitting on his bench. The shaman
performance was a “radio play”, because “seeing” the bad spirit is a prediction of the
forthcoming death of a normal Pemón person. The point of view of the tapir arriving
at the fake party – the parishara hunting ritual – demonstrates analogous perspec-
tives. In the moment of “seeing”, the performers start to hunt the tapir – a symbol of
the prediction of forthcoming death for a normal Pemón person, as in the shamanic
ritual.
Speech is needed to interact between these beings. But singing and sound
symbols in rituals have more specialized functions. They are used to contact and at
times to attract supernatural agencies in a virtual world, or “covered humans” like
the animals in the savanna.
In other words, the sensory perception of “seeing”, which in Pemón etymology
is closely related to “thinking” and “reecting”.16 is responsible for categorization.
Crossing the border between these cosmological categorizations is dangerous (see
Figure 1). “Hearing” and sound interaction is used to interact with these categories.
In a formalized way, every virtual or real location has a special term for sound inter-
action which in western terms can only be described as singing.
15 The orekotón ritual language is a mix of Akawaio, Arekuna, Kamarakoto, Spanish, and English.
Most of the participants are procient in these languages.
16 The term for “thinking” or “reecting” is esenu’menga. It consists of esenu (eye) or ene (seeing).
Different “seeing” - similar “hearing” 69
In each of the three rituals, different terms are employed for vocal practice (see
Figure 1). In the healing ritual, the preparation of the piasán is called ekurarama17
and the shouting practice is called echiripöti. The term for singing in the hunting
ritual parishara is eserenka.18 Communication with the “Christian spirits” is named
epürema.19 The term seems to be appropriated from “pray”, evidence of the inuence
of the Anglican missionaries in Guyana, who introduced their religious ideas to the
Akawaio and Makuxí people.
The sound symbols and structures of the healing rituals are not found in recent
orekotón rituals, but the ritual sequencing of orekotón rituals is similar to the healing
ritual. Both rituals deal with a supernatural agency in different virtual locations in
the Pemón multiverse.
The appropriation of Christian spirits and their amalgamation with and trans-
formation into well-known performance strategies for attracting non-human beings,
regardless of whether they are mawariton, peccaries, Christian messengers (such as
Jesus, San Miguel, and San Rafel), or spirits of dead prophets or ipukenak (Auka,
Tarikiran, Püreri pachi), demonstrates the emergence of a new ritual form, namely
orekotón rituals. These rituals are sonic evidence for the dynamics of the Pemón
multiverse system.
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