Content uploaded by Bernd Brabec
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Bernd Brabec on Oct 17, 2017
Content may be subject to copyright.
ISSN 0344-8622 32(2009)1+2
Zeitschrift für Medizinethnologie • Journal of Medical Anthropology
hrsg. von/edited by: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnomedizin e.V. – AGEM
Curare 32(2009)1+2
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
ISBN 978-3-86135-757-5
Band 1:
Transkulturelle Begutachtung. Qualitätssicherung
sozialgerichtlicher und sozialmedizinischer Begutachtung
für Arbeitsmigranten in Deutschland
hrsg. von J. Co l l a t z , E. Ko C h , R. Sa l m a n & W.
ma C h l E i d t
1997 • 175 S. • ISBN 978-3-86135-130-6
Band 2:
Psychiatrie im Kulturvergleich.
hrsg. von K. ho f f m a n n & W. ma C h l E i d t
V E R G R I F F E N
Band 3:
Psychosoziale Betreuung und psychiatrische
Behandlung von Spätaussiedlern
hrsg. von th o m a S hE i S E & Jü R g E n Co l l at z
2002 • 282 S. • ISBN 978-3-86135-132-0
Band 4:
Transkulturelle Psychotherapie. Hilfen im ärztlichen
und therapeutischen Umgang mit ausländischen
Mitbürgern
hrsg. von th o m a S hE i S E
1998 • 224 S. • ISBN 978-3-865135-133-7
Band 5:
Transkulturelle Beratung, Psychotherapie und
Psychiatrie in Deutschland
hrsg. von th o m a S hE i S E
2. Au. 2002 • 398 S. • ISBN 978-3-86135-138-2
Band 6:
zhao Xu d o n g :
Die Einführung systemischer Familientherapie in
China als ein kulturelles Projekt
2002 • 160 S. • ISBN 978-3-86135-135-1
Band 7:
ha m i d PE S E S C h K i a n :
Die russische Seele im Spiegel der Psychotherapie. Ein
Beitrag zur Entwicklung einer transkulturellen
Psychotherapie
2002 • 128 S. • ISBN 978-3-86135-136-8
Band 8:
th o m a S hE i S E : Qigong in der VR China. Entwicklung,
Theorie und Praxis
1999 • 272 S. • ISBN 978-3-86135-137-4
Band 9:
an d R E a S hE i n z :
Anthropologische und evolutionäre Modelle
in der Schizophrenieforschung
2002 • 227 S.. • ISBN 978-3-86135-139-9
Band 10:
Ju l i a Kl E i n h E n z :
Chinesische Diätetik. Medizin aus dem Kochtopf
2. Auage 2008 • 72 S. • ISBN 978-3-86135-190-0
Band 11:
ha n S -Jö R g aS S i o n :
Traditionelle Heilpraktiken türkischer Migranten
2004 • 170 S. • ISBN 978-3-86135-141- 2
Band 12:
th o m a S hE i S E :
Qigong und Maltherapie. Komplementärtherapien
Psychosekranker
2009 • 248 S. • ISBN 978-3-86135-144-3
Band 14:
mu R a t oz a n K a n :
Verhaltensauffälligkeit türkischer Kinder im
Einschulalter im Urteil der Eltern aus transkultureller
Sicht. Ergebnisse der Kölner Einschulstudie
2009 • 168 S. • ISBN 978-3-86135-146-7
Band 15:
Von Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschieden. 1. Kongress
der transkulturellen Psychiatrie im deutschsprachigen
Raum, 6.-9. September 2007 Universität Witten/Herdecke
hrsg. von So l m a z go l S a b a h i & th o m a S hE i S E
2008 • 308 S. • ISBN 978-3-86135-187-0
Band 16:
Jeder ist weltweit ein Fremder. 2. Kongress des
Dachverbands der transkulturellen Psychiatrie,
Psychotherapie und Psychosomatik im deutschsprachigen
Raum e.V. (DTPPP), 26.-28.September 2008
Medizinische Universität Wien
hrsg. von So l m a z go l S a b a h i , th o m a S St o m P E & th o m a S
hE i S E
2009 • 250 S. • ISBN 978-3-86135-188-7
Kultur, Medizin und Psychologie im Trialog I
– Bilanzen im interdisziplinären Arbeitsfeld
Ethnologie & Medizin.
Beiträge zur 21. Fachkonferenz
Ethnomedizin 2008, Remscheid
herausgegeben von PD Dr. Dr. Thomas Heise
Das transkulturelle
Psychoforum
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
ImpressumU2
Herausgegeben im Auftrag der / Edited on behalf of:
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnomedizin e.V. – AGEM
von Ekkehard Schröder, auch verantwortlich im Sinne des Presse-
rechtes V.i.S.d.P. / Editor-in-chief
Geschäftsadresse / ofce AGEM: AGEM-Curare
c/o E. Schröder, Spindelstr. 3, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
e-mail: ee.schroeder@t-online.de, Fax: +49-[0]331-704 46 82
www.agem-ethnomedizin.de
Herausgeberteam /Editorial Board Vol. 31(2008) - 35(2012):
Hans-Jörg Assion (Detmold) info@gpz-lippe.de // Ruth Kutalek
(Wien) ruth.kutalek@meduniwien.ac.at // Kristina Tiedje (Lyon)
kristina@tiedje.com // Anita Zahlten-Hingurange (Basel) azahlten
@yahoo.de
Beirat /Advisory Board: John R. Baker (Moorpark, CA, USA) //
Michael Heinrich (London) // Mihály Hoppál (Budapest) // An-
nette Leibing (Montreal, CAN) // Armin Prinz (Wien) // Hannes
Stubbe (Köln)
Begründet von / Founding Editors: Beatrix Peiderer (Ham-
burg) – Gerhard Rudnitzki (Heidelberg) – Wulf Schiefenhövel
(Andechs) – Ekkehard Schröder (Potsdam)
Ehrenbeirat / Honorary Editors: Hans-Jochen Diesfeld (Starn-
berg) – Horst H. Figge (Freiburg) – Dieter H. Frießem (Stuttgart)
– Wolfgang G. Jilek (Vancouver) – Guy Mazars (Strasbourg)
IMPRESSUM 32(2009)1+2
Verlag und Vertrieb / Publishing House:
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, Amand Aglaster
Postfach 11 03 68 • 10833 Berlin, Germany
Tel. +49-[0]30-251 04 15 • Fax: +49-[0]30-251 11 36
e-mail: info@vwb-verlag.com
http://www.vwb-verlag.com
Bezug / Supply:
Der Bezug der Curare ist im Mitgliedsbeitrag der Arbeitsgemein-
schaft Ethnomedizin (AGEM) enthalten. Einzelne Hefte können
beim VWB-Verlag bezogen werden // Curare is included in a
regular membership of AGEM. Single copies can be ordered at
VWB-Verlag.
Abonnementspreis / Subscription Rate:
Die jeweils gültigen Abonnementspreise finden Sie im Internet
unter // Valid subscription rates you can find at the internet under:
www.vwb-verlag.com/reihen/Periodika/curare.html
Copyright:
© VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, Berlin 2009
ISSN 0344-8622 ISBN 978-3-86135-757-5
Die Artikel dieser Zeitschrift wurden einem Gutachterverfahren
unterzogen // This journal is peer reviewed.
Zum Titelbild: Das Titelbild zeigt ein Exponat aus dem Essener Museum “Soul of Africa”. Das im Ortsteil Essen-Rüt-
tenscheid gelegene Privatmuseum von Henning Christoph besitzt unter Anderem speziell zur westafrikanischen Voodoo-
Kultur vielfältige Exponate (Rüttenscheider Str. 36, 45128 Essen). Das Museum wurde während der 21. Fachkonferenz
Ethnomedizin in Remscheid besucht. Die Abbildung wurde freundlicherweise zum Nachdruck zur Verfügung gestellt.
www.soul-of-africa.com © by Soul of Africa e.V. mit freundlicher Unterstützung von www.shikra.de
To the title: The cover shows an exhibit from the private museum “Soul of Africa” in Essen-Rüttenscheid. This museum
is specialized in voodoo culture from West Africa. An excursion to this ne museum was part of the Remscheid meet-
ing.
Zeitschrift für Medizinethnologie
Journal of Medical Anthropology
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnomedizin – AGEM, Herausgeber der
Curare, Zeitschrift für Medizinethnologie • Curare, Journal of Medical Anthropology (gegründet/founded 1978)
Die Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnomedizin (AGEM) hat als rechtsfähiger Verein ihren Sitz in Hamburg und ist eine Verei-
nigung von Wissenschaftlern und die Wissenschaft fördernden Personen und Einrichtungen, die ausschließlich und un-
mittelbar gemeinnützige Zwecke verfolgt. Sie bezweckt die Förderung der interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit zwischen
der Medizin einschließlich der Medizinhistorie, der Humanbiologie, Pharmakologie und Botanik und angrenzender Na-
turwissenschaften einerseits und den Kultur- und Gesellschaftswissenschaften andererseits, insbesondere der Ethnologie,
Kulturanthropologie, Soziologie, Psychologie und Volkskunde mit dem Ziel, das Studium der Volksmedizin, aber auch
der Humanökologie und Medizin-Soziologie zu intensivieren. Insbesondere soll sie als Herausgeber einer ethnomedizini-
schen Zeitschrift dieses Ziel fördern, sowie durch regelmäßige Fachtagungen und durch die Sammlung themenbezogenen
Schrifttums die wissenschaftliche Diskussionsebene verbreitern. (Auszug der Satzung von 1970)
Die nächsten Hefte / forthcoming issues:
Curare 32(2009)3+4: Themen: 30 Jahre Transkulturelle Psychiatrie in der Curare. // Beiträge zum 100. Geburtstag von
Georges Devereux. (Themes: 30 years transcultural psychiatry in the Journal Curare; // Contributions on the 100 anni-
versary of Georges Devereux); Herausgegen von / edited by U. Kl U g e , e. Sc h r ö d e r & M. Wi e n c K e
Curare 33(2010)1+2: New Trends in Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology. Proceeding of the 6th European Colloquium
of Ethnopharmacology / 20th conference “Ethnomedizin” / Medical Anthropology at Leipzig 8th to 10th November 2007,
edited by eK K e h a r d Sc h r ö d e r , rU t h KU t a l e K , an n e t t e le i b i n g et al.
curare 32(2009)1+2
Hinweise für Autoren
Sprachen: deutsch und englisch.
Manuskripte: Curare veröffentlicht Originalbeiträge. Bitte liefern Sie
mit dem Manuskript (unformatiert im Flattersatz) eine Zusammen-
fassung (ca. 250 Wörter, Titel und ca. 5 Schlagwörter) in Deutsch,
Englisch und Französisch. Fußnoten sollten vermieden werden.
Danksagungen sind in der ersten Fußnote unterzubringen. Alle Fuß-
noten sollten gleich als Anmerkung am Ende des Textes vor die Li-
teraturhinweise.
Zitate: Direkte und indirekte Zitate bitte direkt im Text aufführen,
Quellenangabe im Text: (aU t o r Jahreszahl: Seiten). Im Manuskript
können anstatt der Kapitälchen bei den Autoren diese auch normal
geschrieben und dann unterstrichen werden.
Literaturangaben in alphabetischer Reihenfolge am Ende des Textes:
Instruction to Authors
Language: German or English.
Manuscripts: Original manuscripts only will be accepted. Please
provide additionally to the manuscript (unformated ragged type) an
abstract (appr. 250 words, appr. 5 keywords, and the title) in English,
French, and German language. Footnotes should be avoided. Ac-
knowledgements should be in the rst footnote. All footnotes become
endnotes after text and before the bibliography.
References: Please quote in-text citations in the following form: (aU-
t h o r year: pages). If small capitals are not possible to handle, normal
writing and underlining of the name.
Literature in alphabetical order at the end of the mansuscript.
The form for listing of references is as follows:
Hinweise für Autoren / Instructions to Authors U3
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnomedizin – AGEM, editor of
Curare, Journal of Medical Anthropology and Transcultural Psychiatry, founded 1978.
New subtitle 2008: Curare, Zeitschrift für Medizinethnologie • Curare, Journal of Medical Anthropology
AGEM, the Working Group “Ethnomedizin”/Medical Anthropology, registered association with legal capacity seated in Hamburg/Ger-
many, is an association of scientists and academics as well as persons and institutions promoting science, serving exclusively and directly
non-prot purposes. It pursues the promotion of interdisciplinary co-operation between medicine, including history of medicine, human
biology, pharmacology, and botany and adjacent natural sciences, on the one hand, and cultural studies and social sciences, especially eth-
nology, cultural and social anthropology, sociology, psychology and the sociology of medicine. With view to this goal, and also to diffuse
widely the scientic discourse, it acts in particular as publisher of a journal in the eld of medical anthropology/“Ethnomedizin”, organises
specialist conferences on a regular basis, and collects and make accessible relevant literature. (Extract of rules of 1970)
www.agem-ethnomedizin.de
• Zeitschriften / Journals:
St e i n C. 2003. „Beruf PsychotherapeutIn“: Zwischen Größenphantasien und Versagensängsten. Imagination 25,3: 52-69.
Fa i n z a n g S. 1996. Alcoholism, a Contagious Disease. A Contribution towards an Anthropological Denition of Contagion. Culture, Medicine
and Psychiatry 20,4: 473-487.
Bei Zeitschriften mit Namensdoppelungen, z.B. Africa das Herkunftsland in Klammern dazu setzen. / Journals which occur with the same name,
e.g. Africa put in brackets the country of origin.
• Bei speziellen Themenheften mit Herausgeber(n) oder Gastherausgeber(n) / In case of an issue on a special theme and with editor(s) or
guest editor(s):
M
a i e r
B. 1992. Nutzerperspektiven in der Evaluierung. In b
i c h M a n n
W. (Hg). Querbezüge und Bedeutung der Ethnomedizin in einem holistischen
Gesundheitsverständnis. Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag von Hans-Jochen Diesfeld. (Themenheft/Special theme). Curare 15,1+2: 59-68.
• Rezensierter Autor, der im laufenden Text (Sc h ü t t l e r nach Fi S c h e r -ha r r i e h a u S e n 1971: 311) zitiert wird:
Sc h ü t t l e r G. 1971. Die letzten tibetischen Orakelpriester. Psychiatrisch-neurologische Aspekte. Wiesbaden: Steiner. Rezension von Fi S c h e r -
ha r r i e h a U S e n H. 1971. Ethnomedizin I,2: 311-313.
• Autor einer Buchbesprechung / Reviewer:
PF e i F F e r W. 1988. Rezension von / Bookreview from Pe l t z e r K. 1987. Some Contributions of Traditional Healing Practices towards Psychosocial
Health Care in Malawi. Eschborn: Fachbuchhandlung für Psychologie, Verlagsabt. Curare 11,3: 211-212.
• Bücher und Monographien / Books and Monographs:
PF l e i d e r e r B., gr e i F e l d K., bi c h M a n n W. 1995. Ritual und Heilung. Eine Einführung in die Ethnomedizin. Zweite, vollständig überarbeitete und
erweiterte Neuauage des Werkes „Krankheit und Kultur“ (1985). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
Ja n z e n J.M. 1978. The Quest for Therapy in Lower Zaire. (Comparative Studies in Health Systems and Medical Care 1.) Berkeley and L.A., CA:
University of California Press.
• Sammelband / Collection of essays (papers) (name all authors):
Sc h i e F e n h ö v e l W., Sc h U l e r J., Pö S c h l r. (Hg) 1986. Traditionelle Heilkundige – Ärztliche Persönlichkeiten im Vergleich der Kulturen und medi-
zinischen Systeme. Beitr. u. Nachtr. zur 6. Intern. Fachkonferenz Ethnomedizin in Erlangen, 30.9.-3.10.1982. (Curare-Sonderband/Curare
Special Volume 5). Braunschweig, Wiesbaden: Vieweg.
bl a c K i n g J. (Ed) 1977. The Anthropology of the Body. (A.S.A. Monograph 15). London: Academic Press.
• Artikel aus einem Sammelband / Article in a collection of papers:
Sc h U l e r J. 1986. Teilannotierte Bibliographie zum Thema „Traditionelle Heilkundige – Ärztliche Persönlichkeiten im Vergleich der Kulturen
und medizinischen Systeme“. In Sc h i e F e n h ö v e l W. et al. (Hg), a.a.O.: 413-453. (wenn das Werk mehrfach zitiert wird, sonst komplett nach
obiger Anweisung zitieren)
lo U d o n J.B. 1977. On Body Products. In bl a c K i n g J. (Ed), op. cit.: 161-178 (if the vol. is cited more than one time, otherwise citation of refe-
rences as above)
Vornamen vollständig, wenn es einheitlich bei allen Autoren ist / Prenames can be used if all authors are also cited with prenames
Curare-Sonderbände sind Bücher und werden nicht als Zeitschrift zitiert, sondern als Sammelband mit Herausgeber(n) / Curare Special Volumes
are books and are not cited as a journal but as collection of essays with editor(s).
1Inhalt
curare 32(2009)1+2
Zeitschrift für Medizinethnologie
Journal of Medical Anthropology
hrsg. von/ed. by Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnomedizin (AGEM)
Inhalt / Contents
Vol. 32 (2009) 1+2
Doppelheft / Double Issue
Kultur, Medizin und Psychologie im Trialog I:
Bilanzen im interdisziplinären Arbeitsfeld
Ethnologie & Medizin.
Beiträge zur 21. Fachkonferenz Ethnomedizin 2008, Remscheid
Herausgeber / Editors:
Ma r k u s Wi e n c k e , ul r i k e kl u g e & ek k e h a r d sc h r ö d e r
Er n s t E. Bo E s c h gewidmet
Editorial
Ma r k u s Wi e n c k e : Ethnologie und Psychologie im Dialog. Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Allgemeine Perspektiven
re i n e r Bü c h : Erinnerung an die Konnotationsanalyse. Zur Methodik der Symbolischen
Handlungstheorie und Kulturpsychologie von Ernst E. Boesch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Be r n d ri e k e n : Volkskunde und Psychologie. Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede . . . . . . . . . 18
ho r s t h. Fi g g e : Erlebte Wirklichkeit, Krankheit und Krankheitsbewältigung.
Ein Diskussionsbeitrag aus psychologischer Sicht zur 21. Fachkonferenz Ethnomedizin ......... 23
Fallstudien
he l e n e Ba s u : Contested Practices of Control: Psychiatric and Religious Mental Health Care
in India ........................................................................ 28
Ma r t i n de s c h a u e r : Subjektivität in der Behandlung psychischer Krankheiten – Das Konzept
des strategischen Synkretismus am Beispiel der Depressionstherapie ........................ 40
ca r s t e n kl ö p F e r : Coping-Prozesse bei HIV/Aids-Patienten aus der Perspektive westlicher und
buddhistischer Psychologie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2Inhalt
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
gu i d o sp r e n g e r : Die Pege der Dissoziation. Die Ideologie der Moderne und die
Schamanen der Rmeet, Laos ........................................................ 64
Ma r k u s Wi e n c k e : Kulturelle Vielfalt als Ressource bei Schizophrenie. Ein Beispiel aus einer
interkulturellen Gemeindepsychiatrie für Mapuche in Chile. ............................... 78
ev a Zö l l e r : Die Bewältigung chronischer Schmerzen im biograschen und kulturellen
Lebenszusammenhang – Eindrücke aus Deutschland, Thailand und Australien ................ 84
Freie Beiträge im Zusammenhang mit der Tagung
ar n e st e i n F o r t h : Whose Madness? Diverging Manifestations of Mental Illness in Dialogue . . . . 96
Wo l F g a n g kr a h l : Der Impact-Faktor – ein Instrument zur akademischen Hegemonie? Das
Beispiel psychiatrischer Journale und die Auswirkungen auf Entwicklungsländer . . . . . . . . . 106
er n s t ed u a r d Bo e s c h : Die poetische Sicht [Reprint (Privatdruck 2008)] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Freier Beitrag
Be r n d Br a B e c d e Mo r i : Words Can Doom. Songs May Heal: Ethnomusicological and
Indigenous Explanations of Song-Induced Transformative Processes in Western Amazonia . . . . 123
Berichte und Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Ma n t o n hi r s t : Cape Town August 2007. Promoting Dialogue between Jungian Analysts and
African Traditional Practitioners in South Africa – 145 // as s i a Ma r i a ha r W a Z i n s k i : Reproduktions-
medizin bei Muslimen: Religiöse und säkulare Ethiken im Widerstreit? Tagung am 20. Juni 2008
in Tübingen – 147
Buchbeprechungen / Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
th e d a Bo r d e & da v i d Mat t h i a s (Hg) 2008. Frauengesundheit, Migration und Kultur in einer
globalisierten Gesellschaft. Frankfurt // ol i v e r ra Z u M , Jü r g e n Br e c k e n k a M p & pi t t re i t M a i e r (Hg)
2008. Kindergesundheit in Entwicklungsländern. Frankfurt // el s v a n do n g e n & ru t h ku t a l e k (eds)
2007. Facing Distress. Distance and proximity in times of illness. Wien, Berlin // he l g a Jo c k e n h ö v e l -
sc h i e c k e 2008. Soziale Reproduktion in den Zeiten von AIDS. Waisen und ihre Familien im ländlichen
Tansania. Berlin // kl a u s -di e t r i c h st u M p F e (2007). Glaubensheilungen in Geschichte und Gegenwart.
Köln // si B y l l e v a n d e r Wa l t & ch r i s t o p h Me n k e (Hg) 2007. Die Unversehrtheit des Körpers.
Geschichte und Theorie eines elementaren Menschenrechts. Frankfurt
Dokumentation Zeitschriften/Journals (EthnoScripts // Ethnologia Americana // Shaman) . . . . . 157
Die Autorinnen und Autoren in Curare 32(2009)1+2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Zum Titelbild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . U2
Impressum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . U2
Hinweise für Autoren / Instructions for Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . U3
Endredaktion: Ma r k u s Wi e n c k e & ek k e h a r d sc h r ö d e r
Redaktionsschluss: 30.06.2009
Die Artikel in diesem Heft wurden einem Reviewprozess unterzogen / The articles of this issue are peer-reviewed
9Widmung
curare 32(2009)1+2
Die Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnomedizin
widmet diese Curare-Ausgabe ihrem im 93. Lebensjahr stehendem Ehrenmitglied
Er n s t Ed u a r d Bo E s c h aus St. Gallen,
dem bedeutenden Psychologen, Psychoanalytiker und Kulturtheoretiker
Rückseite des Buches von Wa l t e r J. lo n n e r & su s a n n a a. ha y e s (eds) 2007. Discovering Cultural Psy-
chology. A Prole and Selected Readings of Ernest E. Boesch. (A volume in “Advanced Studies in Cultural
Psychology”). Charlotte, North Carolina: IAP, Information Age Publishing, 371 S. mit einer kompletten
Liste der Veröffentlichungen Boeschs von 1942-2006.
123Word Can Doom. Songs May Heal
curare 31(2008)2+3: 123-144
Words Can Doom. Songs May Heal:
Ethnomusicological and Indigenous Explanations of Song-Induced
Transformative Processes in Western Amazonia
Be r n d Br a B e c d e Mo r i *
Abstract This article analyzes the healing practices of the Shipibo-Conibo, an indigenous group in the Peruvian
Amazon. The healers combine healing techniques with musical performance. The Shipibo-Conibo’s understanding
of medicine includes corrections of cultural and social processes, which, from a Western perspective, are not con-
sidered medical problems as such. Using qualitative methods and applying an ethnomusicological perspective, this
article presents a case study featuring several Shipibo-Conibo healers and patients of distinct cultural origins from
the Western Amazon in Peru. By means of in-depth analysis of several healing methods used by Shipibo-Conibo
healers, I rst examine their respective diagnoses, treatments, and interpretations of disorders from a Western and
emic point of view. More specically, I propose an analysis of the songs, highlighting their effects in different
settings. Secondly, I analyze emic views of the healing events to demonstrate alternative understandings of heal-
ing and medicine. Thirdly, I discuss methodological questions that arise in this research context. For example, I
investigate to what extent theories of music perception may explain the observed processes as opposed to emic
interpretations. Finally, the article discusses the importance and consequences of an intra-cultural analysis for the
scientic understanding of medicine.
Keywords Amazonia – Shipibo-Conibo – music and therapy – ethnomusicology – Peru
Worte können schaden, Lieder mögen heilen. Ethnomusikologische und indigene Interpretationen für
durch Gesänge induzierte persönliche Entwicklungsprozesse im westlichen Amazonasbecken.
Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel analysiert einige medizinische Praktiken aus dem Zusammenleben der Shipi-
bo-Konibo, einer indigenen Gruppe im peruanischen Tieand. Ihre Heilkundigen verwenden in ihrem medizini-
schen Repertoire in den Heilritualen auch Lieder. Im indigenen Verständnis von Medizin sind Prozeduren einge-
schlossen, die kulturelle und soziale Korrekturen bewirken, aber aus westlicher Perspektive nicht als medizinische
Probleme betrachtet werden würden. Aus einer ethnomusikologischen Perspektive wird auf der Basis qualitativer
Methoden eine Fallstudie vorgestellt, in der verschiedene indigene Heilkundige und Patienten mit unterschied-
lichem kulturellem Hintergrund untersucht werden. Mittels eingehender Beschreibung der von den Heilkundigen
angewandten Methoden analysiere ich erstens die Diagnosen, Vorgehensweisen und Interpretationen der Probleme
sowohl aus einer westlichen als auch aus einer emischen Perspektive. Insbesondere werden dabei die Lieder sowie
deren Effekte in verschiedenen Situationen beschrieben. Zweitens analysiere ich eine emische Interpretation der
Problemstellung, um auf ein alternatives Verständnis von Medizin und Heilung aufmerksam zu machen. Drittens
werden in diesem Kontext methodologische Fragen gestellt, zum Beispiel inwieweit Theorien der Musikwahr-
nehmung im Vergleich mit dem emischen Verständnis die beobachteten Prozesse erklären können. Insgesamt un-
terstreicht der Artikel die Wichtigkeit einer intrakulturellen Analyse für das wissenschaftliche Verständnis von
Medizin.
Schlagwörter Amazonien – Shipibo-Konibo – Musik als Therapie – Musikethnologie - Ethnomusikologie –
Peru
* A draft version of this paper was presented at the „IX. International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition“, 21st to 26th
August 2006 in Bologna/Italy under the title of „Perception, Effect and the Power of Words: an Introduction on Song-Induced Healing
Processes in Western Amazonia.“
124 BE r n d Br a B E c d E Mo r i
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
1. Introduction
Throughout the Western Amazonian lowlands, in-
digenous and mestizo medical techniques include
songs which are performed by healers.1 According
to indigenous understanding, these songs have an
effect on the patient. In vast parts, the use of the
hallucinogenic brew ayawaska by the healers is also
very common.2 If that is the case, songs are usually
performed after the ingestion of ayawaska. Howev-
er, the use of ayawaska is not necessarily connected
to, or considered necessary for, the efcacy of the
healing songs.
The primary research question in this article is
how this presumed “efcacy” of songs can be de-
scribed and explained. Research on this topic has
recently grown in diversity and quality, but usu-
ally concentrates on the therapeutic aspects of mu-
sic as understood in a Western clinical setting (cf.
kr o n B e r g e r & Br a n d e s 2004, Ba l Z e r 2006). Few
researchers try to relate music therapy to ethnomu-
sicology (cf. tu c e k et al. 2007, Fa r e s i n 2008). The
main problem for such a lack of connection is that
music is understood as an acoustic phenomenon that
carries certain meanings in European therapeutic
sessions. In many indigenous societies however, the
mechanisms of song efcacy are related to spiritual
entities within their emic perception of the world. In
this paper, I seek to combine these approaches us-
ing ethnomusicology as a method to describe both
the musical structures and the indigenous interpre-
tations of therapeutic music. First, in section 2 and
3, I begin with an analysis of eight cases of indig-
enous medical treatments (tratamientos). In ve of
these cases, I seek to demonstrate that biomedical
diagnosis and prescription can be compared to in-
digenous interpretation and treatment. These cases
serve as examples for the wide range of problems
that indigenous healers encounter in their practice.
In addition, they demonstrate a number of differ-
ent techniques used for healing purposes in the
Peruvian Western Amazon. Then, section 4 will
shed light on the structure and functions of specic
songs by providing an ethnomusicological analysis.
Moreover, this section will examine music percep-
tion and cognition, specically with regard to emo-
tions, such as suggestion or projection. Here, I seek
to demonstrate that today’s research instruments
and empirical studies prove largely insufcient to
fully explain the efcacy of healing songs. None-
theless, in Peru, the indigenous healers insist that
their songs are “doing something” and that they are
in fact working to appease a patient’s suffering. In
section 5, I present an indigenous interpretation of
the songs based on qualitative interviews with the
healers. While this interpretation is wholly mine,
the analysis of the indigenous narratives I collected
in the eld demonstrates an emic understanding of
the healing songs. The healers underline that their
healing practices are deeply connected to their own
worldview, including an intense communication
between humans and non-humans. Here, I base my
analysis on the concept of indigenous perspectivism
(vi v e i r o s d e ca s t r o 1997) according to which non-
human agents are regarded as actively intervening
entities. A comparison of a Western interpretation
and the emic perspective concludes the article.
The research for this paper was conducted dur-
ing ve years in and around the fast-growing city of
Pucallpa on the Ucayali River, a Peruvian tributary
to the Amazon. The major ethnic group (grupo ét-
nico) living around Pucallpa are the Pano-speaking
Shipibo-Conibo.3 All healers who participated in
this study identify themselves as belonging to the
Shipibo-Conibo society, as do three out of seven pa-
tients. Four other patients identify as having Peru-
vian mestizo or European background. The healing
processes presented here were carried out in Yarina-
cocha, one of Pucallpa’s main suburbs.4 These cases
were by far not the only ones I was able to attend
in the eld. I chose the cases presented here based
on the following criteria: (i) that I could observe
the whole process from a rst consultation until the
conclusion, (ii) that a description of the patient‘s
problem was provided by both the patient and the
healer (diagnosis), and (iii) that both patient and
healer gave a statement regarding the efcacy of the
treatment after concluding the process.
1.1 Shipibo-Conibo Medicine: A Few Denitions
Shipibo-Conibo language lacks any concept that
could be translated as medicine in the Western
biomedical sense. In fact, Shipibo-Conibo self-
understanding implies many processes of transfor-
mation or manipulation in daily life, such as help-
ing an artist to become more creative or correcting
the social behavior of individuals (e.g. “curing” a
son-in-law in order to have him obey his father-in-
law). Healers are the primary ritual specialists who
125Word Can Doom. Songs May Heal
curare 32(2009)1+2
perform these types of curing rituals. Generally, the
techniques and the setting of a curing ceremony are
quite similar to those who apply for treating health
problems such as a headache, fractures or mental
disorders. According to the Shipibo-Conibo, all of
the treatments are considered medicine (medicina).
Therefore, the Spanish word medicina, which was
introduced by missionaries and colonists, has been
re-interpreted in the Shipibo-Conibo language.5
The term medicina is an ambiguous term. First, it
subsumes potential differences between biomedical
and indigenous understandings of what medicine
means in different contexts. The Shipibo-Conibo
usually distinguish between medicina occidental
(Western medicine) and medicina tradicional (tra-
ditional medicine). This distinction depends on con-
text, rather than on the term that is actually used. As
a single concept, medicina in language mostly refers
to medicina tradicional and describes the healing
methods applied by indigenous healers in the situa-
tions outlined above. Sometimes the Shipibo-Con-
ibo term nawan rao (the stranger’s remedy) is used
for Western pharmaceutical healing techniques. The
term non rao (our remedy) is used to denote plant
preparations used in traditional medicine (medicina
tradicional). Second, medicine is understood by the
Shipibo-Conibo as morally ambivalent. For exam-
ple, when a healer applies “medicine” to a patient,
s/he does it in order to heal a disease or improve
the social situation of that particular patient. In the
same vein, a sorcerer also applies “medicine.” The
sorcerer, however, applies medicine in order to do
harm or create disease. Curar (to cure)6 has a simi-
lar spectrum of meanings, ranging from “curing”
somebody with the purpose of healing, to “curing” a
person with the intention of harming or even killing
a person. Similarly, the local terminology used to
refer to curing or healing specialists is ambivalent.
The Spanish term médico, which is often used by
the Shipibo-Conibo, has two meanings in local par-
lance: a médico can be a curandero (healer), a brujo
(sorcerer) or both.7 It solely depends on the perspec-
tive of the person using the term whether médico
means healer or sorcerer (“I am a curandero and my
enemies are brujos”). Both terms can be used to re-
fer to the same person.
Throughout this paper, I will use the English term
“healer-sorcerers” to refer to the Shipibo-Conibo
médicos. The male forms will be used here as more
than 95% of the médicos I met are men. Women usu-
ally have equally important duties in Shipibo-Coni-
bo medical practices, but are almost never involved
as healer-sorcerers. Also, the term “medicine” will
be used to refer to a re-interpreted understanding of
medicine in the Shipibo-Conibo context. The term
“treatment” will be used to translate the Spanish
term tratamiento (treatment) used by the Shipibo-
Conibo to refer to medical practices. “To cure” or
“curing” also will be used in this sense. Overall, it is
important to note that all of the terms carry ambiva-
lent meanings, which is inherent to Shipibo-Conibo
medicine and to the terms they use.
2. Case Studies
In this section, I am going to analyze eight different
cases of medical treatments. Biomedical and indig-
enous interpretations of the patients’ problems will
be compared, as well as the duration, the methods
and the outcome of the indigenous treatments. In the
cases described here, nine different médicos (eight
males and one female that is Médica C who works
with her husband, médico B) treated seven different
Table 1. Cases; Healer-sorcerers; Patients; Details Regarding Patients
Case
n°
Médicos
code
Patients
code
Age when
treated
Sex Ethnic
self-identication
Mother language
1 A T 26 f indigenous Shipibo-Conibo
2 B+C U 27 m Central European German
3 D+E V 65 m indigenous Shipibo-Conibo
4 F W 52 m Peruvian mestizo Spanish
5 D+G+H X 46 m indigenous Shipibo-Conibo
6 D+G T+U 29, 29 couple indigenous, Central-European Shipibo-Conibo, German
7 D+I Y 1 f Peruvian mestizo Spanish
8 D Z 35 f Peruvian mestizo Spanish
126 BE r n d Br a B E c d E Mo r i
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
Table 2. Cases; Symptoms
N° Symptoms
1 Woman T felt strange prickling in her extremities, then in torso and neck on various occasions,
mainly when “spiritual actions occurred”. Slight mental disorder and fear to become mad.
2Man U defecated about once a week while eating normally, without pains or atulence. Later on
showed signs of self-intoxication like dermatitis, boils, furuncles and physical debility.
3 Elder man V had diarrhea that could not be controlled by pharmaceutical treatment, neither Wes-
tern nor emic. Could not eat, fever, massive weight loss, dehydration, dermatitis, died in the end.
4 Man W was carried home from his agricultural labor with both knees swollen. Terrible pain, could
not move, was not able to walk, stand or sit, had to sleep in hammock. Light fever.
5 Man X had a slowly growing tumor on left shoulder, accompanied by increasing pain, later on
unbearable pains in arm, back and head, tumor ca. 15 cm in diameter, fever attacks, eating was
sometimes difcult.
6 Couple T+U started to stray outside of their home, felt distaste for their partner and neglected their
children. Felt an unnatural cause for this. Independently, both already speculated about separation.
7 Female baby Y suffered from diarrhea and vomiting, sometimes very acute, sometimes less; howe-
ver chronically, loss of weight, in acute phases would neither eat nor drink, physical debility.
8Woman Z suffered from chronical (repeated) inammation of ovaries and uterus. Later on showed
symptoms of abnormal pregnancy, in the end mental stress and problems in her family (mad half-
brother).
Table 3. Cases; Timetable
N° Symptom
aprox. start
Biomedical
Treatment
begin
Biomedical
Treatment
end
Médico
consulted
Duration
of médico’s
treatment
End
of médico’s
treatment
1 1999 - - 22-10-2001 5 months 18-02-2002
2 04-2001 07-2001 09-2001 05-02-2002 8 weeks 25-03-2002
3 07-2002 08-2002 22-10-2002 06-10-2002 4 weeks 02-11-2002
4 15-08-2003 - - 18-08-2003 4 weeks 15-09-2003
5 10-2002 07-2004 28-10-2004 04-11-2004 5 months 18-03-2005
6 01-2005 - - 10-02-2005 5 days 16-02-2005
7 08-2005 08-2005 25-11-2005 25-09-2005 2 months 27-11-2005
8 2004 2004 2005 25-11-2005 2 months 22-01-2006
patients with a great variety of problems. All healer-
sorcerers were specialized médicos8 who applied
their song-based techniques on the patients. In each
curing event, at least one healer-sorcerer ingested
ayawaska.
I will discuss the observations in a sequence
of tables. The case numbers from 1 to 8 refer to a
chronological order, marked by the consultation of
the médicos (see table 3).
Most healer-sorcerers prefer working in small
groups to working alone. The main reason is that
their performance is perilous (peligroso), as they
describe it: healing a patient involves repelling the
disorder’s cause (see table 5), i.e. mainly actions by
competing healer-sorcerers, who try to “ght” the
healer in order to persuade him to leave the victim/
patient alone.
Médico D appears in ve of the cases, because
he was one of the main informants regarding music.
Médicos G, H and I are his elder brothers.
The patients are three women and four men of
distinct origins from different age groups. Patient T
127Word Can Doom. Songs May Heal
curare 32(2009)1+2
Médicos D & G
is my wife and U is myself. I included these cases
because of the peculiar symptoms and indigenous
interpretations they provide to complement the
other cases.
The problems that the patients presented to their
“doctors” were anything but easy to solve. In West-
ern terms, Case 1 would probably be considered a
psychological problem, Case 6 a social one (gener-
ally without any relation to an illness or disorder).
Cases 2 and 8 could be considered chronic psycho-
somatic problems, or, more likely, they might be
viewed as physiological defects, similar to Cases 3,
4, 5 and 7 (without regarding any social or psycho-
logical dimensions).
In and around Pucallpa, people usually consult a
médico because they tend to believe that biomedi-
cine is unable to solve their problems (cf. Mo n t a g
2008: 171ff.). Furthermore, they bring problems
with them that are not considered as health prob-
lems in biomedicine, mainly relationship problems
(like Case 6) or social disorders.9
The timetable depicts the duration of the differ-
ent tasks, such as biomedical and Shipibo-Conibo
medicos’ treatments of the patients. The periods of
suffering before consulting the healer-sorcerer ex-
hibit remarkable differences between the patients.
For example, in Case 1, the patient did not think
that the problem was serious, and thus waited for
approximately two years until seeking treatment. In
Case 8, the affected woman never thought that her
problem could be solved by an indigenous médico,
so she was treated for about one and a half years
in the city’s public hospital without any lasting
success, before her husband contacted the healer-
sorcerer. Patient W in Case 4 met with médico F
by chance, so the curing sessions could start on the
third day of his acute illness. In Case 5, Patient X
underwent Western medical treatment (chemo-
128 BE r n d Br a B E c d E Mo r i
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
therapy) for almost four months. He then stopped
chemotherapy early and consulted with three heal-
er-sorcerers, médicos D, G and H. In Case 7 on the
other hand, the baby Patient Y was treated simulta-
neously by bio-medically-trained physicians and by
médicos. Astonishingly, when the pediatrician told
the parents on 25-11-2005 that he could not nd any
anamnesis that would explain the symptoms and
recommended to consult a specialist in a clinic of
the capital, the médicos D and I found a cure for the
baby in only one night (on 27-11-2005).
Table 4 shows details about biomedical treat-
ments, if applied:
In ve cases, at least one bio-medically trained
doctor had been consulted and gave a diagnosis and
treatment without being able to cure the disease. In
Case 2, the doctor told me to drink a lot and take
laxatives when I was really suffering from my prob-
lem but nothing else because no physical cause was
detected.
In Case 3, anti-bacterial medication was pre-
scribed by a Shipibo-Conibo semi-professional
sanitarian whih, however did not help. Later, in a
private biomedical clinic, analysis showed an amoe-
bic dysentery, which of course could not be cured
by anti-bacterial medication.
In Case 5, patient X was rst in treatment with
another healer-sorcerer for about half a year, but
Table 4. Cases; Biomedical Aspects
N° Diagnosis Treatment Duration Evaluation Price*
1 – – – – –
2 ostipation (cr.) laxative teas irregularly helped a bit for symptoms 30
3 amoebic dysentery
(ac.)
var. antibiotics, 3 days
in private clinic
approx.
3 months
never worked by any means,
med. doctors clueless
550
4 – – – – –
5 lymphoma non-
Hodgkin
chemotherapy in
specialized clinic in
Lima
approx.
3 months
did not work quickly, patient
feared to die and aborted
1900
6 – – – – –
7 parasitosis (ac.), ? var. antibiotics,
lombricides, etc.
approx.
3 months
killed parasites, then did not
work, med. doctors clueless
170
8ovary inam-mation
(cr.)
var. antibiotics,
repeated treatments
approx.
1 ½ years
worked well on symptoms
which however returned
repeatedly thereafter
n/a
* The prices (as in table 6) in Euro are calculated with an average exchange rate of 3,9 Peruvian Nuevo Soles for 1 Euro. They are esti-
mated, and a proximity range of +/-15% should be considered reasonable.
Médico F
129Word Can Doom. Songs May Heal
curare 32(2009)1+2
came to believe that this médico cheated on him.
Subsequently, the patient looked for economic re-
sources so that he would be able to go to Lima. In
Lima, he underwent very expensive chemotherapy.
During this therapy he could neither eat nor drink.
The patient feared to die from pain. He nally went
back to Pucallpa to consult with other healer-sorcer-
ers, médicos D, H and I. They also charged a high
price (see below), because they knew that he still
had access to economic resources from a private
institution.
The explanations the healer-sorcerers provided
are more than contrary to the Western concepts de-
scribed above. For every disorder, there is an ap-
propriate term in their language, which is evidence
of a fairly complex system. Their detailed explana-
tions offer further insights: the disorder is always
connected with a direct cause, mainly an evil brujo
or people with the declared purpose of damaging
the patient. The eight cases have very distinct but
concisely explained causes. In Case 3 destructive
powers of certain plant entities were summoned,
while in Case 4 an animal is blamed for the syn-
drome. Case 7 shows one of the very few “natural”
causes in Shipibo-Conibo comprehension: the baby
suffered a shock (raté), a very common etiology in
South American indigenous concepts (Sp. susto). It
means that the baby loses a part of her soul because
of the shock, which the médico retrieves. The pres-
ent case, however, was different, because a common
susto can be cured very easily by an experienced
healer-sorcerer. Probably, there had been additional
causes, only hinted at vaguely by the médicos.
In the column called “Treatment code” in table
6, we observe that the available curing techniques
consist of singing songs (S, bewá), blowing smoke
or perfumes (B, koxonti), massages (M, xeyóti), oral
sucking (O, oyoti), plant preparations externally
applied (E, raonti/nashiti) or ingested (I, raonti/
xeati), diets (D, samá) and spoken prayers (P, oranti
Table 5. Cases; Indigenous Interpretations
N° “Diagnosis”* Explanation
1 koshoshka xenin akana
(raonkana)
A man applied river dolphin’s oil (koshoshka xeni) on patient’s
vagina to make her desire him. Patient then should become insane
and would probably die.
2 chipoko nexanaankana
(bewákana)
A brujo “bound” patient’s anus (chipoko), so he should intoxicate
himself to die slowly. Probable motive: to pass patient’s wife on to
brujo’s son.
3xono meran chopa niakana
(raonkana)
A jealous woman soaked patient‘s underwear in a liquid with pora
plant extract and buried it under a xono tree, so patient should die
rotting slowly from the inside.
4 neinonin yotoa
(yotoa)
A nutria (neino) sent magic darts (yobé) into patient’s knees. Pro-
bable motive: he worked in the nutria’s territory cutting trees and
planting crops.
5 yobekan yotoa
(yotoa)
A brujo sent magic darts (yobé) into patient’s shoulder to make him
die slowly. Probable motive: revenge or sheer envy.
6 pechinkana
(boman)
Somebody paid a brujo to plant “cemetery magic” in the patients’
house, thus urging them to separate permanently, forgetting their
children. Motive: envy.
7 rateta
(raté, yotoa?, boman?)
The baby had got a shock (raté) and probably was attacked by a
brujo for revenge against the baby‘s parents who had survived his
very attack.
8 wiso majia
(= black magic)
Probably patient’s mad half-brother (a “reversed” ex-healer) planted
a black magic creature in the patient’s uterus. Motive: probably
sheer madness.
* The terms in parenthesis should help in categorization, explained in section 5.
130 BE r n d Br a B E c d E Mo r i
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
from Sp. orar). Yet, we noticed that no treatment
actually involved the application of all techniques
mentioned. In Cases 2 and 5 all techniques except
for the prayer were used. Songs and blowing were
always applied during a curing session.
As can be seen in table 6, the duration of the
treatments can be fairly long, especially if “diets”
are applied. A diet (samá, Sp. dieta) means a time
of alimentary and social (especially sexual) restric-
tions that the healer-sorcerer “prescribes” to a pa-
tient (usually when plant applications are used). A
diet may extend from half a day to up to several
months.
Some treatments show effect on the patient’s
health within a relatively short period of time. How-
ever, since our observation includes only “serious”
problems only, the duration of a treatment is usu-
ally long; the shortest treatment we observed is
Case 6, lasting only ve days. The longest treatment
was Case 1 (along with Case 5), which lasted ve
months. This is not surprising in view of the low
frequency of sessions.
Table 6. Cases; Indigenous Treatments
N° Médico(s)
code
Treatment code
S-B-M-O-E-I-D-P
Approx. frequency of curing sessions Duration Price
1 A S-B-M-x-x-x-x-x about 1 night per month 5 months -
2 B+C S-B-M-O-E-I-D-x once a week, then 2 weeks of diet 8 weeks 40
3 D+E S-B-M-x-E-I-x-x about twice a week 4 weeks 80
4 F S-B-M-x-E-x-x-x 3 times in 1 week, then 4 more sessions 4 weeks 18
5 D+G+H S-B-M-O-E-I-D-x 4 sessions, then 3 months of diet 5 months 600
6 D+G S-B-x-x-x-x-x-x every second night (= 3 sessions) 5 days 165
7 D+I S-B-M-x-x-I-x-P about 3 nights every 3 weeks 2 months 80
8 D S-B-M-x-x-I-D-x 3 times every 3 weeks, one month of diet 2 months 120
Table 7. Cases; Evaluation of Médicos´ Treatments
N° The patients say: The médicos say: I say:*
1Got signicantly better, but not healed;
sensations return sometimes.
Could not perform a necessary second
treatment, but the main threat was elimi-
nated.
70%
2 Got completely healed. Very abbreviated treatment, but ne. 100%
3 [died] Family members could not nd patient’s
hidden underwear to be rescued.
0%
4 Got completely healed. Healed completely (twice: the rst success
was undone by the nutria again).
100%
5 Got better, did not hurt anymore, tumor
growth reduced.
Concluded indigenous treatment but the
tumor has to be operated in hospital now.
40%
6 After one night happy again. Cleared the bad magic completely and sent
it back to its origin (brujo).
100%
7 Baby’s father: at last healed instantly, like
a miracle.
Got completely healed. 100%
8 All the symptoms were cured, psychologi-
cal problems got better.
Cured completely but the mad brujo still is
free and dangerous.
100%
total 76,25%
* In the efciency rating I did not include any metaphysical aspects, e.g. that a human‘s death (Case 3) may not necessarily mean the
absence of healing success. The rating shows what happened to the symptoms, which in Case 3 were fatal.
131Word Can Doom. Songs May Heal
curare 32(2009)1+2
Curing sessions can be undertaken any time dur-
ing the day, regardless of the technique used. How-
ever, a session including ayawaska ingestion has
to be performed at night and lasts for about two to
eight hours.
The evaluation percentage I calculated resumes
efciency, including both given statements plus my
observation, e.g. if there were symptoms still linger-
ing on or not. The overall efciency rating for the
observed cases is 76,25%.
3. Methods and Techniques
In the observed cases, only the treatments in Case
1 and Case 6 were performed without applying any
physical techniques such as massages or the admin-
istration of plant preparations. These are the cases
we mentioned earlier as cases involving “psycho-
logical” or “social” problems (when seen from a
Western perspective).
Songs seem to be of outstanding importance or
build a kind of foundation for further techniques.
Songs were used extensively, performed solo or in a
group (in unison or in polyphony), sometimes under
the inuence of the hallucinogenic drug ayawaska
during night-time. Along with tobacco smoke or
perfumes that were applied to a patient, only songs
were used during every treatment. Indeed, the blow-
ing of smoke or perfume over the patient’s body is
closely connected to the songs because it always in-
cludes a prior “charging” (koxonti) of the cigarette,
pipe or perfume bottle with one or more songs, or
at least a whistled melody. Therefore, the object is
held close to the mouth while the song or melody is
produced (for about one minute up to two hours of
“en-chanting” it). Then, the blowing can start and
will “take effect”.
Massages (xeyóti) are also used frequently. Be-
sides being used by healer-sorcerers, for example,
pregnant women receive massages from bake biti
onan yoxan (midwifes). Fractures and other skeletal
or muscular problems (tobí) are treated by tobí akai
(massage specialists). Many physical symptoms
are viewed as matsi jikiax (coldness entered), such
as rheumatism, for example. These can be treated
without consulting a healer-sorcerer. It seems that
this manual technique represents a basic element of
many treatments. It is the only technique, besides
the spoken prayer, that does not necessarily impli-
cate musical performance.
Oral sucking techniques are performed in curing
contexts in many societies around the globe. Dur-
ing our study, sucking was applied twice: in Case
2 (on me) and in Case 5 (the tumor patient X). The
latter was quite spectacular: the responsible médico
H is a yobé (sucking specialist). He rst had to acti-
vate his kenyon, a slimy substance contained within
his chest. Usually this is achieved by ‚charging‘
(koxonti) a pipe, cigarette or tobacco juice with a
song or whistled melody before the tobacco smoke
or essence is swallowed and the kenyon is thrown
up, remaining in the yobé´s mouth. For Case 5, he
sucked intensely on the ill part of the patient’s body,
where an intrusion of a magical object was sus-
pected. Many sucking specialists do not show the
materials that they retrieve from a patient’s body.
After sucking, they tend to leave quickly and vomit
outside. This was the case in Case 2. In Case 6,
however, yobé H threw up before the patient and
anybody present at the curing session. He showed
the objects he extracted from the patient’s body by
sucking. Among others, he produced a tiny piece of
the mokapari plant’s root, an object like a monkey’s
tooth and a living (!), worm-like snake he called
kapókiri, which was about ten centimeters long.
Plant preparations, usually combining various
species, are applied externally (in bathes, plasters
or lotions) or internally by ingestion (teas, brews
or tinctures). We observed the application of plant
preparations in six cases. However, the concept of
plant usage is not a pharmaceutical concept. In fact,
many plant preparations used here did not contain
any detectable active components (cf. to u r n o n et
al. 1998).10
In our study, plants were applied only because
the healer-sorcerers attributed certain powers to the
plants‘ yoshin (cf. il l i u s 1987). Yoshin refers to the
“human” persons who are considered being the ani-
mating instance in the local ora and fauna as well
as certain aspects of the landscape (rivers, lakes,
mountains, etc.). Their “human” nature is explained
by vi v e i r o s d e ca s t r o (1997: 100f). Several ob-
jects like inkanto-stones and even the healer-sor-
cerers themselves are perceived as yoshin, too. All
of these elements are viewed as being at the same
time “spiritual entities”, yoshin (in the case of ora
and fauna, there is one entity for one species, as cat-
egorized in Shipibo-Conibo emic taxonomy). Most
of them are regarded as useless, but some of them,
especially plants, are considered rao (remedies),
132 BE r n d Br a B E c d E Mo r i
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
equipped with remarkable transformative powers
(cf. lecl e r c 2003: 49-60).
Plants are applied by healer-sorcerers because
of their yoshin´s properties. Before applying a
plant preparation to a patient’s body, the respective
preparation is “charged”—as are the objects used
for blowing and sucking—with a song or whistled
melody by the healer-sorcerer. Thanks to the song,
the médico achieves a kind of “instructive summon-
ing” for this specic yoshin. Thus the yoshin may
help in the transformative process by transmitting
its corresponding properties to the patient.
The features or attributes of plant yoshin are
secret in a way, since their comprehension is tied
to the non-verbal training that the healer-sorcerers
undergo during the several years of their appren-
ticeship. However, some more popular or powerful
plants are also used in “folk medicine” without a
healer-sorcerer’s guidance.
Diets are a substantial part of Shipibo-Conibo
life and any transformative processes. Most rao
(plant remedies) require diets, as do also the healer-
sorcerer‘s apprenticeship and sometimes the recep-
tion of treatments even without plant application.
Major diets were “prescribed” in three cases (Cases
2, 5 and 8). In two cases, a diet “prescription” was
obsolete (in Case 3, as the patient did not eat nor
have sex because of his deteriorating condition, and
in the baby’s Case 7). Hence, in ve cases, diets
were practically applied—these are the same for
cases that included plant usage, except Case 4: the
médico did not explicitly order a diet, but the patient
followed a “bit of a diet” on his own anyway.
In the observed cases, a spoken prayer was only
used once: in Case 7, médico I, who denes himself
as “retired”, spoke a prayer. He told the parents in
the morning of November 28 that during nighttime
he had prayed for the baby who from that day on
was healthy. He was not willing to provide more
detail.
The prayer is very unusual in Shipibo-Conibo
treatments, as spoken words with magic activity,
called boman, are considered specically danger-
ous and evil. Although all trained healer-sorcerers
do have the boman skill, only the “bad ones” are
supposed to use it.11
Mestizo and Quechua migrants introduced heal-
er-sorcerers with a syncretistic treatment style to the
Ucayali. They call themselves oracionistas or es-
piritistas. In their curing sessions they make exten-
sive use of spoken prayers (oraciónes, taken from
Christian mysticism, for instance from the popular
prayer book of San Cipriano). These oracionistas
are perceived as dangerous by the Shipibo-Conibo.
This is also a reason, besides the boman skill, why
spoken prayers are seldom used by Shipibo-Conibo
healer-sorcerers.
4. The Songs
Any Shipibo-Conibo healer-sorcerer sings or whis-
tles during a curing session. If two or more médicos
work simultaneously, they usually also sing at the
same time. This may happen in the way that one
is considered leader and the other(s) accompany
him in unison. Otherwise, the médicos sing differ-
ent songs at the same time with different lyrics and
mostly in varying tempi. Therefore, they produce a
shifting polyphonic sound. Which option is chosen
mainly depends on the singers’ preferences. For ex-
ample, médico D usually performed in a polyphonic
style together with his brother médico G. They also
performed in unison on a few occasions. Polyphon-
ic singing was applied in Cases 2, 3, 5 and 6, while
the unison style was observed but never dominated
the treatment style (although it dominated many
sessions I could observe, which are not included in
this case study).
4.1 Ethnomusicological Analysis
Each song can be described as one “unit” that may
be applied in isolation, in sequence with other
songs, or in polyphony with one or more songs by
other singers. Melodies are not necessarily connect-
ed to a specic topic or theme in the lyrics: the same
melody may be reproduced in a completely differ-
ent situation with new lyrics—by every médico in
his own way. For example, médico G often uses the
same melody with apparently congruent lyrics for
opening a session, as did médico A. médico D, on
the other hand, sings his songs in different combi-
nations. Usually healer-sorcerers do not share the
same melodies, each one performs in his own com-
positional/improvisational style. Close relatives or a
teacher-student-couple might apply the same melo-
dy. For example, médicos D and G are brothers and
use a few similar melodies but still differ in terms of
the stylistic features they deploy.
In the Shipibo-Conibo musical tradition, songs
are formally categorized by three emic terms: (i)
133Word Can Doom. Songs May Heal
curare 32(2009)1+2
mashá, which are round-dance songs, mainly per-
formed at drinking feasts, (ii) shiro bewá, which are
line-dance songs, also performed at feasts, some-
times in a statement-answer mode (kopiananti)
by two opposed groups of singers, and (iii) bewá,
performed individually or by small groups, for any
occasion.
In curing sessions, whether they involve the use
of ayawaska or not, songs with equivalent formal
characteristics are used, but without dance or other
ritualized physical movements. Primarily mashá and
bewá are sung during curing sessions. This depends
on the individual singer. Two further categories ap-
pear in this context: ikaro (a loanword from Kuka-
ma, a neighbor indigenous language: ikara, “song”,
or ikarutsu, “to sing”), usually shows similarities to
Kukama or even Quechua singing style, and warmi-
kara (composite of Quechua: warmi, “woman” and
ikara), which are songs to attract women (or men)
and to bind people together through the application
of love magic. Warmikara often show characteris-
tics of the Andean huayno.12
Shipibo songs consist in general of sequences
similar to stanzas or verses in occidental music.
These sequences show higher-pitched phrases in
the beginning, then lead downwards and close with
a relatively low-pitched phrase with less melodic
movement, often repeating some of the melodic fea-
tures that were used in the higher-pitched phrases.
Such sequences are then repeated as often as neces-
sary to form one song.
Curing songs usually are more complex than
non-curing-related songs with regard to the struc-
ture of the sequence. For instance, in a bewá in a
festivity context, usually three to six phrases consti-
tute one sequence while in a curing bewá, there may
be up to twenty phrases to form one sequence. Espe-
cially songs performed in ayawaska sessions tend to
increase in complexity, which might also be due to
the singers’ extraordinary state of consciousness.13
Under the inuence of ayawaska, most singers
also tend to perform in a very high-pitched falsetto
voice. This is perceived by Shipibo-Conibo as a sign
that the singer is in contact with powerful yoshin.
sh a n o n (2002: 219) states that in many Amazonian
cultures, singing under the inuence of ayawaska
is often performed at a high pitch, sometimes at a
pitch a “sober” singer would be unable to reach.
Ayawaska songs can be very long. While Shipi-
bo-Conibo songs in other contexts and curing songs
performed without the ingestion of ayawaska last
for approximately six minutes at maximum, these
songs may last for up to one hour. High complex-
ity, pitch and duration are their signicant musical
features.
Polyphonic pieces sung under ayawaska inu-
ence are performed without any dissonance. Al-
though many songs are fairly complex in terms of
the applied tonal range, most of them are based upon
tritonic or pentatonic scales. Thus, “harmonically”,
most songs can be perceived as consonant when
the singers start in related pitches. The rhythms are
more complex because singers may individually ac-
celerate or slow their performance tempi. This leads
to complex rhythmic relations. Usually, they cling
together in perception, because they keep within a
very fast elementary pulsation (cf. ku B i k 1988: 71-
5). In their lyrics, the healer-sorcerers sometimes
refer to each other, for instance, one might be imi-
tating phrases another just mentioned before.
4.2 Functions and Effects
The key question arises: in what ways and to which
extent do the songs contribute to healing, or more
generally, to a permanent transformation in the pa-
tient’s psychophysical condition?
We can analyze the effect a song may have on its
listener/patient in a set of categories or dependent
variables, each of them opening many options for
further research on the subject:
a) Aesthetic perception of the acoustic phenom-
enon,
b) Emotional perception and peak experiences,
c) Suggestive elements within the semantics of
the lyrics,
d) Associations with loanwords in the lyrics,
e) Extra-musical parameters and contextual pro-
jections,
f) Interaction with additional techniques,
g) Indigenous explanation (see section 5).
a) Aesthetic Perceptions of the Acoustic Phenomenon
From a cross-cultural perspective, many criteria are
readily acknowledged: this is to say, anybody might
“hear” if a song consists of clearly pronounced
words in a strong or high-pitched voice. Anybody
could hear if the sequences are repeated in a con-
134 BE r n d Br a B E c d E Mo r i
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
sistent cycle. All these aspects are included in the
aesthetic judgment of the Shipibo-Conibo.
The perception of the acoustic phenomenon is
usually “positive”, meaning that people “like it.”
The high complexity, clear voice, and descending
phrase structure within the sequences are easily as-
sociated with an aesthetic peak, especially in poly-
phonic passages, where the level of complexity is
raised signicantly.
However, positive aesthetic perception is not
always intended, as the singer may for instance
modulate his timbre in falsetto passages to a nasal
tone. Likewise, quick staccato accents and a thriv-
ing pulse, sometimes even roughness (performed
through throat-singing in very short, repetitive pas-
sages in a low-register voice) may be associated
with a different experience, which is usually consid-
ered negative. Styles like these are mostly applied
when intending to scare off evil things or to redirect
damage to its original causer (see below).
In Shipibo-Conibo terminology, there is a pre-
cise way to judge the quality of healing songs by the
acoustic phenomenon per se. Emic aesthetic catego-
ries are applied, for example as mentioned above,
the higher the performed pitch, the more powerful
the singer’s spiritual allies are supposed to be:
wirish (adj.): “thin”, high-pitched, clear falsetto
voice,
koshi (adj.): “powerful”, referring to the voice
and/or assumed effectiveness in healing,
makei (v.i.): “to make it sound”, consistency of
voice and pronunciation,
mépini (v.t.): “to put into its place”, consistency
of phrases, sequences and lyrics,
manei (v.i.): “to maintain”, to sing without breaks
or errors while the song lasts,
onan (adj.): “with knowledge”, to use culturally
substantial metaphors in a correct way.
It is considered crucial that the singer does not
falter or stutter. He has to maintain a clear pronun-
ciation and an understandable sense in his lyrics
sequence, although he may or should use the onan
feature excessively—therefore, in many cases, even
Shipibo-Conibo native speakers do not always un-
derstand the meaning of the sentences. If most of
the aesthetic categories mentioned above are used
correctly, then the song might be considered mocha.
Mocha (adj.) is a term not translatable into any Eu-
ropean language, because it denotes explicitly the
transformative power of the sung word. A mocha
song is considered as a culmination of Shipibo-
Conibo emic aesthetics (and healing power). His-
torically, mocha songs were performed during an
eclipse to “heal” the sun or the moon. Thus, it could
be viewed as a synonym for the ultimate transforma-
tive power. In human healing context mocha songs
may therefore be applied in special situations.14
Médico I allowed me to record a few of his mocha
songs for demonstration purposes. Their music re-
sembles most aesthetic characteristics and their lyr-
ics are highly esoteric, featuring synaesthesia. For
example, see the following excerpt (repetitions of
the same text line are given in parentheses):
joi nakewe [singing] the word with designs
(kewé) applied on its interior,
mocha joi nakewe (2x) the mocha word with designs ap-
plied on its interior,
inin jakon jakonya with [its] delicious aroma,
kanoai beira [we are] coming, constructing the
way (kano),
noara jain beai [from] there we are coming,
nete xamaokea (3x) from the world’s culmination on
the other side.15
According to the patients who are familiar with
Shipibo-Conibo beliefs, highly aesthetic songs raise
the faith of the patient that s/he is treated by a very
powerful healer-sorcerer who directs equally pow-
erful spiritual entities through the process.
b) Emotional Perception and Peak Experiences
The formal characteristics of the songs, such as
pitch rate, voice timbre, rhythmic fractioning and
tempi, are supposed to induce emotions in the lis-
tener, which may be cross-culturally congruent as
observed by Ba l k W i l l and th o M p s o n (1999) for the
case of Indian Raga music.
John sl o B o d a (1991: 120) presents experimen-
tal data which partially “links emotional responses
to various classes of creation and violation of ex-
pectancy or implication within musical structures.“
Although this author remains skeptical about such
a connection in cross-cultural settings, he conrms
that „the emotional response to a piece of music can
grow during repeated exposure to the same piece
[…].” (sl o B o d a 1991: 119). Given that in nightly
curing sessions the listeners/patients are exposed
to certain songs during hours, often repeatedly, I
suggest that this exposure contributes to a learning
process regarding culturally determined emotional
responses. In this study, emotional responses as
135Word Can Doom. Songs May Heal
curare 32(2009)1+2
explained by the patients in most cases were very
similar to the intentions of the singers as declared
by those. For example, when a singer intended
“to scare evil away”, he used staccato phrases and
roughness, which then was experienced by the lis-
teners as “threatening”. Although more testing will
have to be done to conrm such observations, I sug-
gest that the singers are aware of “creation and vio-
lation of expectancy” and often use corresponding
musical features and surprising changes.
In many occasions, patients and listeners told me
that they perceived a “directedness” of the songs
towards a person. In the nightly sessions, it is com-
pletely dark and stereophonic listening reveals the
position of the sound’s source. By listening, one
may also guess into which direction the singer looks,
thus indicating the song’s “direction”. Feeling this
“directedness” towards oneself, the perception is
usually sharpened, as many patients conrmed.
ga B r i e l s s o n (1991) shows that intense exposure
to music is able to trigger a “peak experience”. The
phenomenology of “peak experience” as described
by this author overlaps signicantly with the phe-
nomenology of the “Außergewöhnliche Bewußt-
seinszustände” (extraordinary states of conscious-
ness) of di t t r i c h & sc h a r F e t t e r (1987: 38-40). In
the context of Shipibo-Conibo curing sessions, the
healer-sorcerers who drink ayawaska enter such an
extraordinary state of consciousness with “pharma-
ceutical etiology” (di t t r i c h and sc h a r F e t t e r 1987:
8). Sometimes the patient(s) may also ingest the
brew and feel certain effects from it (this was the
case in Cases 5 and 6).
Occurrences of an extraordinary state of con-
sciousness in patients who do not participate in
drinking ayawaska suggest concepts of “contact-
high” or “transmission”. Eventually, all the pa-
tients said that during the sessions, they felt states
of dreaminess, physical debility and sometimes
even perceived faint visions, thus correlating with
ga B r i e l s s o n ’s (1991: 24) phenomenology of “peak
experience”.
In the Shipibo-Conibo language exists the term
bewan tsakata (pierced by the song). As Shipibo
self-understanding takes this effect as granted and
natural, local indigenous people do not have any
difculties in explaining it. Many patients hold a
diet until next day’s noon in order to not disturb the
song that “pierced” them.
c) Suggestive Elements Within the Semantics of the
Lyrics
The lyrics of a curing song depend on the singing
individual. Usually the singer seems to improvise
because the lyrics often refer to the current situa-
tion. (cf. il l i u s 1987: 300-25 and to u r n o n 1991:
184-200). Important features of the lyrics are:
to call upon (summon) spiritual entities ( – yoshin),
to describe how the patient gets cured, cleansed, re- –
constructed, etc.,
to mention positive cultural signicandi ( – onanti),
to explain causes or origins of the patient’s problem, –
to drive away malign forces (often describing or na- –
ming them).
For example, see the following excerpt (Spanish
loanwords are printed in non-italic characters):
jaton libroyabi with their book [of black magic],
jaton cadenabora [with] their chains,
xao cadenabora (2x) their chains of bones,
pishaaketana having cast them away,
tsinkiaketanbanon (3x) we will summon them all togeth-
er,
jawen niwe torno [in spite of] his [mighty] whirl-
wind,
pishapishabainkin we go on, casting it away,
chorochorobainkin (3x) we go on, loosening its ties,
yoshin maweakekin we have got together all the de-
mons (yoshin),
maweaketana [and as] we have got them all
around us,
tsinkiaketanbanon (2x) we will summon them together.16
A healer-sorcerer may explain in a very illustra-
tive way what he is doing. In many cases, especially
médico G relates details about the origin and the na-
ture of the patient’s problem. For example, he tends
to quote a patient’s dreams or thoughts, or to talk
about countering witchcraft and reecting it back to
its origin.
Subsequently, the patient is told that the problem
is taken care of. Furthermore, the original culprit
will become the victim in the end. If the patient un-
derstands the text, s/he will quickly be aware that
the problem is handled by the spiritual allies of the
healer-sorcerer. These days (the Christian) God is
usually considered the most powerful ally, and is
mentioned by many médicos (cf. il l i u s 1987, ge B -
h a r t -sa y e r 1987: 25ff).
This understanding leads towards a socio-cultur-
al process of identication, which frees the patient
of many responsibilities around his/her problem. In-
136 BE r n d Br a B E c d E Mo r i
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
voking spiritual allies helps the patient to have faith
in the médico and the curing process.
Yet, the lyrics are important for the singer’s ex-
perience of the healing session. For example:
nai nete bitaanan after receiving the heaven‘s [or
sky‘s] light (nete),
kepenaketaananra after it had been opened,
kepenaketaananronki after it had been opened, so it is
told,
rioski mepinxon towards God (rios) it [the shinan]
shall be arranged (mepinti),
nokon shinan mepinxon putting my mental power (shi-
nan) in its place,
ani joe meranbi amidst the great light,
yakatai raenanke sitting together as we had come
here,
enronki choroban I, so it is told, will unfasten [the
illness].17
Here, médico D addresses himself. He prepares
the healing situation, calling upon his spiritual al-
lies. However, in his songs similar passages fre-
quently appear like “inserts”. He pointed out that he
“prepared” himself before curing and “reminded”
himself during the process with phrases like the
ones in the excerpt mentioned. Especially when
feeling an enemy’s attack or when experiencing
confusion (tsokas), he said that he regained control
with phrases like these.
The sufx -ronki, applied twice in this example,
appears very often in medical songs. It is a narrative
marker that indicates that the healer’s work is guid-
ed by higher forces. “I, so it is told, will unfasten
the illness.” makes the singer part of a (mythical)
narration (il l i u s 1999: 246).
In general, the lyrics may address the singer him-
self, the spiritual entities he is communicating with,
or the patient. The patient mostly is referred to in
the third person, although sometimes also directly
in the second person. The lyrics’ direction changes
quite frequently and sometimes remains unclear.
Presumably, the patient should know (if s/he can
understand the text) that during the singing perfor-
mance, higher and mightier entities (as in the above
example, God Himself) are in charge of his well-
being. Surely, the singer must not forget this and
must not get confused.
d) Associations with Loanwords in the Lyrics
The lyrics play an important role during the curing
session. This is surprising, because patients from
distinct cultural origins usually cannot understand
the lyrics. However, as was shown above, heal-
ing efciency does not correlate signicantly with
the patient’s comprehension of the lyrics (as many
treatments that were judged “efcient” were per-
formed for mestizos or foreigners). Any patient who
does not understand the Shipibo-Conibo language
may recognize some loanwords from Spanish. I
went through this process myself. Shipibo-Conibo
médicos use loanwords mainly as substitutions—
because their native language is lacking terms like
(transcribed in Shipibo-Conibo pronunciation):
Rios rokotorobo God[-like] doctors
Riosen anjiribo God’s angels
jawen simintirio his/its graveyard
ani jortonabo big fortunes
(see also the examples in the previous sub-section for a
sequence of loanwords)
The mechanism is the same as in the previous
sub-section c). Usually, the slightly different pro-
nunciation of the Spanish terms is intelligible. This
means that any person who understands Spanish
may get some “hints” about what is going on, es-
pecially if s/he is familiar with the regional Spanish
vocabulary.
e) Extra-musical Parameters and Contextual
Projections
The contextual setting subsumes: the patient is
aware of his situation. This awareness consists of
his condence in the healer-sorcerer and the spiri-
tual allies taking care of certain responsibilities.
The certain (usually minimum) ritual structure of
the sessions adds to this effect.
Faith and expectation are key elements. It is
commonly known that in any healing process in any
society, a patient trusting in his/her healer or his/her
treatment often has a higher chance to be healed.
For this reason, I only briey mention this aspect.
f) Interaction with Additional Techniques
Techniques applied in the context that can be con-
sidered “physically transforming” are: massages
(treatment code M in table 6), external or internal
application of plant preparations (E, I) and diets
(D). However, in Shipibo-Conibo curing sessions,
only the manual massage technique is independent
of musical performance. As shown above, plant
137Word Can Doom. Songs May Heal
curare 32(2009)1+2
preparations and diets undergo a “musical introduc-
tion” on the subject.
In this study, we observed cases with signicant
“physical transformation” (Cases 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8),
especially when at least two of the physically-ori-
ented techniques were applied.
This leads to offer a preliminary conclusion:
music is useful and able to manipulate certain psy-
chological, psychosocial, and religious aspects of a
person, while manual, pharmaceutical and dietary
techniques are able to manipulate the patient’s phys-
ical condition. However, if we would go with this
conclusion, we would limit ourselves in the analy-
sis. In the study, I have described a holistic healing
method that involves not only body and mind, but
also cultural and natural aspects as well as spiritual
entities. All of these elements are in fact constitut-
ing, transforming, and affecting various aspects of
human health.
5. Shipibo-Conibo Medicine: an Indigenous
Explanation
Because of the complex relationships of body and
mind, culture, nature and spiritual entities within the
Shipibo-Conibo understanding of human health, I
will undertake an attempt to subsume what I call an
“indigenous explanation” of these relationships. In
the Shipibo-Conibo language, the term kikin (cor-
rect) and the sufx -kon (indicating correctness) are
used extensively when discussing curing matters.
il l i u s translates these terms as follows: “quiquin
(quechua) richtig, wirklich, authentisch”. (il l i u s
1987: 235) and „-con MOD wirklich, genau, echt,
sehr gut“ (ibid: 207). These terms of “correctness”
or cultural conformity are used by Shipibo-Conibo
individuals in a way that suggests absolute catego-
ries. Therefore, I would insist on the fact that indig-
enous explanations on the subject underwent many
transformations and alterations during history and
depend also on the individual. In the way an “indig-
enous explanation” is depicted here, it is not meant
to appear “complete” or “absolute” by any means. I
am going to use the term “correct” in the sense as it
is applied by the Shipibo-Conibo.
What follows is based upon long-term ethno-
graphic research and qualitative interviews with in-
digenous people, especially with the médicos A, D
and I. I have translated, interpreted and summarized
their statements. The categories and sub-titles, I
have introduced in order to make the text more read-
able. They do not exactly replicate an emic catego-
rization. However, this summary intends to explain
the terms and methods as faithfully as possible in
respect of the understanding of the Shipibo-Conibo
healer-sorcerers I have been working with.
5.1 Concepts
a) A Phenomenology of Health
A Shipibo-Conibo human being is considered
healthy when s/he is not suffering from pain or nau-
sea. A man should be a good hunter and sherman
(mecha) who likes working (rayá), knows how to
produce items such as houses, tools, etc, (onan) cor-
rectly, and is respected in society. A woman shall
work quickly and efciently (meyá) and be onan
(in their case producing ne artwork like ceramics
and textiles) and be at good terms with the extended
family. Correct alimentation (pitikon) is a valid cri-
terion for both genders, as are artistry (mení) and
immaterial aspects of onan (i.e. knowing at least
some songs and being able to perform them in an
aesthetically satisfying way). One is also expected
to have some basic knowledge about rao plants,
their preparation, and application.
An object has to be “healthy”, too. For instance,
tools, houses, canoes, etc. can also “suffer” from
different etiologies and have to be maintained
“healthy” by being “cured” in order to continue to
work properly.
b) The Patterns kené
Most Shipibo-Conibo artifacts like clothes, houses,
tools, gear, etc. are covered with visible patterns
(kené, or kewé), and for festivities, the Shipibo are
supposed to paint their face, hands and feet with
kené patterns. Good (jakon) or correct (kikin) pat-
terns excel in double symmetry and often in self-
similarity in different scales. Kené are painted or
embroidered by women and carved on wooden ob-
jects by men.
Beyond those intentionally designed and pro-
duced as “publicly visible” patterns, any “healthy”
subject or object can be perceived in the eye of an
expert as covered with the “publicly invisible” cor-
rect kené. If that is the case, human beings expose
“body patterns” (yora kené) in correct proportions.
138 BE r n d Br a B E c d E Mo r i
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
Distorted patterns indicate disorder (see il l i u s 1987
and lecl e r c 2003).
5.2 Transformations
c) The Diet samá
To achieve and maintain this condition of what
is considered correct living and being healthy in
Shipibo-Conibo society, people have “to diet” (sa-
matai, Sp. dietar) on certain occasions. As men-
tioned above, social and dietary restrictions must be
respected, usually after applying a rao preparation
(cf. lecl e r c 2003: 133-185). While dieting—i.e.
applying the rao—, the human being is at the same
time very vulnerable in his “spiritual aspect” to any
disturbances or attacks, but, on the other hand, also
wide open for the rao’s yoshin (spiritual entity).
Usually children and toddlers are already cured
with rao, and anybody may diet as much as one
likes during one’s lifetime. When the diet is being
done correctly, the yoshin will make it possible for
the “dieter” to live thereafter in a more correct way.
Many men diet to be good hunters or shermen and
women most commonly diet to become good artists.
Preparation in pregnancy is accompanied by diets,
and football players may cure their legs and diet to
be good goal-getters. The diet (samá) is an overall
concept of “correcting”.
Before any diet, it is highly recommended to have
a friendly healer-sorcerer “charging” the preparation
with his song before using it. In most cases when a
powerful yoshin is considered the animating force
behind the diet, that yoshin should be “instructed”
by a specialist. The specialist sings or whistles for
this purpose, because spoken words would mainly
be understood by “evil” (jakoma) entities (see the
boman concept discussed in section 4: that is, speak-
ing to an object like a cigar or plant preparation and
then handing it over to be used by a patient is highly
suspicious). However, some entities are “publicly
accessible” and their manifestation (plant prepara-
tion, etc.) may be used by anyone.
Through any diet that one undergoes for being
better off in life, like e.g., the football player, or for
curing a disorder, the dieter also may learn more
about the interconnectedness of human beings with
nature. Special plants (onamati rao) that are regard-
ed “teachers” for becoming a healer-sorcerer also
can “be dieted” by anyone who so wishes.
A healer-sorcerer learns his duty in a long series
of diets, instructed by a (human) teacher or on his
own. He ingests certain “teacher” plants or uses
them in baths. Then he retreats into the woods for
months or even years, where he only eats minimal
amounts of small sh and grilled green bananas and
only drinks water. In this way, he converts himself
into a plant-like being which is able to communi-
cate with the yoshin in dreams and visions. From
the yoshin—i.e. his “plant teachers”—he obtains
knowledge about curing techniques, including
songs, and may also receive spiritual paraphernalia
(inkanto, arokana, etc; see lecl e r c 2003: 144ff.).
A proper healer-sorcerer should undergo at least
four years of overall diet time before ofcially prac-
ticing specialized curing—which means to survive
on the battleeld of competing médicos. After suf-
cient dieting, the healer-sorcerer can contact the
yoshin and even transform himself into one at will
(in case of the meraya). Transformations into ani-
mals or other beings also become possible then.
A healer-sorcerer’s power, however, will di-
minish with many treatments and dangers he lives
through. Therefore he should always go on dieting,
the more the better. Any action that damages his
diet, like having sex, eating meat, drinking alcohol,
etc., will lower his power little by little, so if he does
not diet again later on, he will be overthrown one
day, left by his allies, or even may turn into a mere
sorcerer (brujo) because brujo’s actions do not re-
quire high diet power. In the same way, the “skill
power” of e.g. a good artist or football player may
diminish and s/he may have to refresh the diet.
d) The Medical Songs
The performance of any song—medical songs as
well as songs not related to medicine—is learned
through oral tradition, practice, and by diet. On
drinking feasts, one is expected to be able to fol-
low the main ritual songs, reproduce traditional love
songs or insult one’s rival by singing. Likewise, one
is expected to be able to respond quickly and fun-
nily in kopiananti, the statement-response singing
in two opposing groups. Medical songs are acquired
in similar ways. Oral tradition plays an important
role because a healer-sorcerer-to-be will usually
rst practice singing along with his teacher or any
related médico in curing sessions. The diet will then
provide individual songs and vocal abilities (like
139Word Can Doom. Songs May Heal
curare 32(2009)1+2
reaching very high pitches). The complex processes
around learning, acquiring, transmitting or captur-
ing medical songs are described in more detail in
Br a B e c d e Mo r i (2007).
Medical songs are regarded powerful when ful-
lling the aesthetic criteria mentioned in section 4.
However, songs performed just after the conclusion
of a diet are regarded more effective.
In an exemplary curing session, the singer may
rst sing about detecting the patient’s “body pat-
terns”, the disorder’s cause and its relations in time
and space. Then he opens the “spiritual aspect”
(kano) of the patient’s body. He calls upon his al-
lied yoshin to help in cleaning the patient’s kano
(actually, the médico “enters” the patient’s kano and
cleans it from the inside, intentionally attracting the
disorder to himself). Finally, he will try to send any
damage back to its source. Concluding a treatment,
he “closes” the patient‘s body and sings for cover-
ing it with the best patterns (kené) available. The
kené also disguises the “protection” (arokana or
paanati), which should be applied to the patient in
order to prevent counter-attacks.
Working with a yoshin may proceed as follows:
in his diet, the healer established contact with a spe-
cic yoshin, for example the mokapari plant’s en-
tity.18 Singing its specic song or “summoning” it,
he may instruct the entity to enter the patient’s body
and remain there even after the closing process.
If the patient then ingests a mokapari preparation
along with the corresponding diet, this may multi-
ply the effect as also the physical aspect (rao) of this
entity (yoshin) will be integrated.
Songs have the power to alter the patient’s (or
also an object’s) yora kené, her (or its) “invisible”
designs. That is, these “invisible” designs will be
restored to “correctness”. However, this is but one
aspect, because the songs actually enable the heal-
er-sorcerer to achieve anything his allied yoshin is
able to support. For example, there are songs that let
precious plant seeds rain down from above (moro
pakémati).
In medical songs, kano is an important concept
that may be translated as “framework” in a setting
outside the medical context, as being applied e.g.
to a Shipibo-Conibo house’s building structure. In
the kené-pattern context it refers to main pattern
structures, such as frames or very broad lines, de-
ning elds for smaller and more rened patterns
inside. In the medical context, kano can be freely
described as a surrounding or “landscape” for the
healer-sorcerer’s actions. Its appearance depends
on the allied entities that were summoned and of
the individual singer that interacts with them. Some
Shipibo-Conibo also translate the word into Span-
ish as camino (way), fuerza (power) or mundo
(world). The “spiritual aspect” of a patient’s body,
as explained in the curing process above, was also
translated from kano.
Polyphonic songs yield their specic consonance
in sound because the singing healer-sorcerers stay
together within their kano “landscape”. Since the
constituting relation between kano and song is re-
ciprocal, singers that would perform in dissonance
would nd themselves in different kano, interfering
with each other. Likewise, entering different kano
would cause dissonance in the songs and harmonic
interference, which usually is unwanted.
However, the songs are but a vehicle for the
médico’s and his yoshin’s powers. By singing songs,
a médico directs these powers in a controlled way
to achieve his goals. The songs are the communi-
cative element between the singer, the yoshin and
the patient. In the ayawaska context, the song de-
termines the properties of the visionary kano “land-
scape”. But in the end, the power for healing is a
transformed power obtained from nature by the diet
samá.
5.3 Implications of Medicine
e) Etiologies of Illness
If any disorder occurs, a human being’s (or object’s)
“body patterns” get distorted. Any aspect of his/her
correct life may have become “wrong”, including
his/her relations to human society, his cultural be-
havior, his interactions with nature and the spiritual
beings. The disorder always has a specic cause or
origin, which may be related to self-made mistakes
(as most irabana causes, see below), to deliberate
attacks by other beings but also to incidental en-
counters with beings carrying etiological attributes
(a healer-sorcerer, certain animals, a yoshin, etc.).
The etiology of disorders can be charted as fol-
lows:
1. Incorrect behavior: if a human being does not
behave correctly (as is culturally dened), this usual-
ly does not directly result in a disorder (if the behav-
ior is not antisocial, which is considered symptom,
140 BE r n d Br a B E c d E Mo r i
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
not cause). However, it may provoke an etiology:
for example, a man whose wife is pregnant may fell
a xono (Chorisia Sp.) tree, which is considered an
incorrect action in his situation, and his child would
be born with certain defects, as a yoshin bake (de-
mon’s child). There are many rules for behaving in
the person-society-nature-supernature continuum.
The most common etiology from incorrect behav-
ior in nature is the irabana (see below). Also social
misbehavior may provoke etiologies. For example a
sherman not distributing his catch correctly among
his family may provoke a family member to “cure”
him or even to hire a sorcerer for doing so.
2. Affected by nature (irabana): many beings in
nature are apt to affect a human being’s condition
when they interfere with him/her. In general, every
being has a niwe (“wind”, “air”, see il l i u s 1992)
that might affect other beings, some more danger-
ous, some less or not at all. Most commonly, a hu-
man being may interfere with another being’s niwe
by accident or because of a lack of knowledge.
3. Affected by incorrect diet (samá xatea): if a
“dieting” person does not fulll the dietary restric-
tions corresponding to the plant, yoshin or treatment
s/he diets for, s/he may fall seriously ill because the
diet’s power turns against the dieter.
4. Suffer a shock (raté): any shock may cause
a part of the person’s kaya (internal personality as-
pect, “soul”) to get lost. Especially babies are of-
ten object to raté and may suffer symptoms such as
debility, increased whining, diarrhea, vomiting, etc
(Case 7). However, also adult persons may suffer
raté and will be poorly motivated, pallid, nervous,
etc. Encounters with yoshin are common causes for
shock, such as starting up from one’s sleep, being
hit, etc.
5. Attacked with magical objects (yotoa): both
certain animals (Case 4) and enemy sorcerers (Case
5) may send magic darts or other objects to injure
the victim. These cases must be treated by a special-
ist yobé in order to be cured and may cause diverse
symptoms.
6. Attacked with boman: a healer-sorcerer may
“curse” a victim, as described above. The boman
ability increases with any diet, but some plants are
considered yobé jiwi, which may boost the boman
skill, for instance in Shipibo-Conibo terms the trees
aná, komán, aton, etc.
7. Attacked with song (bewákana): healer-sor-
cerers may use their singing to bewitch somebody,
although bewitching is usually done by means of
boman or yotoa. Bewákana often occurs during
“healing” (!) sessions, when damage is returned to
its causer or to the person who is suspected to hav-
ing paid the original causer to do so.
8. Being “cured” by somebody (raonkana): this
includes various etiologies, like application of “bad”
plant or animal preparations (Case 3) or magic pro-
cesses like burying a photograph in a graveyard.
One may be “cured” by anybody who has a basic
knowledge of these techniques, no healer-sorcerer
is required. Of course, if a healer-sorcerer is the one
who does the “curing”, the procedure of removing
that “cure” will be much more complicated.
9. Black magic (from foreign sources like mysti-
cism books), applied by specialist black magicians
or oracionistas (Case 8). This is not an indigenous
concept but has entered their world and is now treat-
ed like an especially nasty (and immaterial) form
of raonkana.
10. Any combination of the above.
f) Symptoms
Symptoms are not separated in the same way from
the origin or cause (syndrome) as they are in West-
ern understanding. The symptoms usually are the
aspect of disorder which the patient formulates
when consulting a médico, but once the cause is dis-
covered, the symptoms play a very subordinate role.
Very often symptoms get signicantly worse (Case
2) when the treatment starts but should then disap-
pear with the conclusion of the treatment.
Many phenomena that from a Western point of
view would be regarded as psychiatric disorders are
considered quite normal or a part of someone’s per-
sonality. Yet, certain psychiatric symptoms are un-
derstood as antisocial behavior caused by a common
emic etiology. Finally, many aspects of culturally in-
correct behavior are considered curable symptoms,
as mentioned before—like tsiní (too playful, crazy),
siná (wild, angry, raging), ranóya (jealous), yopa
(being a bad hunter/sherman), chikish (lazy), etc.
g) Treatments
1. Treatment on your own: any human being usu-
ally gets “cured” by his parents in early ages. Dur-
ing adolescence, a male Shipibo-Conibo may take
any mechati rao (remedy for being a good hunter)
141Word Can Doom. Songs May Heal
curare 32(2009)1+2
on his own and do a diet for some time to reach this
goal; females may diet meyá rao (remedy for creat-
ing better artwork), all without “supervision”. Any
cases of (slight) incorrectness may be treated in that
way without exposure to the public.
2. Treatment by peers: many disorders can be
treated with commonly known techniques. Many
rao are publicly known and can be given to others
without any rituals or preparations. Diet’s modali-
ties must be known and respected, though.
3. Treatment by specialists: as in most of the
cases we studied here, a healer-sorcerer may “enter
the patient’s body” and take his/her place as the in-
iction’s target. Transforming himself into the “ill-
ness”, he binds together all damage inicted upon
his patient and sends it back to (and thus bewitches)
its origin. This is why those treatments are regarded
very dangerous: the healer-sorcerer could be over-
thrown by the power of the damage/illness or by the
causer‘s counter-attack, and thus may fall ill or even
die.
The most efcient way of achieving any goal is
to diet. Even a sorcerer who does damage intention-
ally should diet in order to ensure the efciency of
his doings. A person who is being “cured” (by him
or herself, by a peer or by a healer-sorcerer) should
diet anyway, and usually, the longer and harder, the
better. A healer may diet for his patient to help him/
her.
5.4 Review
The system described above resembles an deeply
intertwined complex of relationships combining the
concepts of person-culture-nature-supernature and
the techniques of applying plants, yoshin, diets and
songs. It does not make much sense to study some
isolated part of it without considering the whole.
The Shipibo-Conibo concept of health and achiev-
ing correctness is by denition holistic. The holistic
approach in its inherent emic logics is very precise
and able to explain many phenomena that appear
within Shipibo-Conibo society and within their in-
teractions, not only with nature, but also with other
cultures and modernization.
6. Conclusion
In this article, I rst provided data from a case
study involving nine different indigenous médicos
and seven patients from different cultural origins.
The results of this study indicate that the supposed
“efcacy” of the treatments (tratamientos) does
not signicantly depend on the cultural origin of
the patient. Analyzing the cases, it appeared that
the healers were in ve out of eight cases able to
cure the disease, as viewed by them and the pa-
tients. The songs which are regarded crucial by the
Shipibo-Conibo with respect to healing “efcacy”,
were then analyzed with an ethnomusicological ap-
proach. When treating emotional responses to the
studied songs, approaches of music perception and
cognition theories were also considered. Musical
structure together with contextual factors indeed
plays an important role in the process of indigenous
Shipibo-Conibo healing.
When comparing aspects from Western sciences
and emic knowledge one should be aware of com-
paring realities rather than methods or cosmolo-
gies. Using the scientic apparatuses of medicine,
experimental psychology or anthropology, we may
explain many of the medical processes and trans-
formations in the case study. Doing so, however,
we have to remain within scientic models. These
models are based upon a Western understanding of
nature, which implicates that spiritual entities do
not exist beyond human or cultural imagination.
Consequently, one is faced with an (emically)
logical system of interpretations that does not en-
tirely t into scientic terms. We can declare e.g.
that indigenous reality is an inherently logical sys-
tem of animistic beliefs. This, in my opinion, raises
the problem of a possible imposition of cultural su-
periority.
Regarding the effects of music in healing con-
texts, one is always confronted with a problem of
terminologies. Penelope go u k (2000: 21) states
that we face a historical problem when “these tales
of Western disenchantment [in the sciences since
Newton], of the loss of soul in an increasingly ma-
terialistic world, of how modern dualism contrasts
with the holism of traditional societies, epitomize
the problem academics (and also therapists) face
when they struggle to frame music’s effects in ac-
ceptably scientic terms. Terminology associated
with mysticism or magic is by denition excluded,
so what resources can legitimately be used to under-
stand how music and healing interconnect?”
The Shipibo-Conibo do not have this problem:
they simply express that words spoken by a per-
son who has undergone long diets may be boman,
142 BE r n d Br a B E c d E Mo r i
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
thus very dangerous as an etiology for disorders,
and songs sung by the same person may be mocha,
i.e. carrying an ultimate positive power. At least,
such songs may have the property of bewan tsakati
(piercing the listener), and, by the way, causing a
peak experience.
A possible solution to these terminological prob-
lems could be that research on the efcacy of music
may be somehow restructured in methodology. In
medicine, there are precedents: e.g. acupuncture or
homeopathic techniques, which are widely applied
and appreciated by patients, yet their exact workings
and effects are still subject to scientic research.
Music therapy is a similar precedent: evidence that
music therapy is effective is versatile, though we do
not exactly know “why” (cf. tu c e k et al. 2007).
I suggest that indigenous explanations and nd-
ings should be regarded equally valid as scientic
ndings. In modern medical anthropology this is al-
ready the case in many studies (e.g. Mo n t a g 2008).
However, in clinical and therapeutical settings in
Europe, where biomedically trained personnel is
confronted with an increasing number of patients of
distinct cultural origin, there is still a long way to go
to achieve the proposed equality of values.
7. Epilogue
However, there is one more issue that needs to be
addressed: even in the rainforest on the banks of the
Ucayali river the most powerful healer-sorcerers
meraya do not seem to exist any longer. I could not
nd any active meraya during my ve year’s stay in
the region. One can explain this as follows: the mer-
aya in this picturesque emanation of magical power
is a legend, and healer-sorcerers refer to him as an
ideal construction to assure their own acceptance in
society. Since there is always some nostalgia to be
found in Shipibo-Conibo oral tradition, the gure of
the meraya can readily be seen as another symbol of
a once glorious past.
An emic Shipibo-Conibo view on reality pro-
vides its own explanation: when the ex-meraya
médico I told me that before retiring as a healer-sor-
cerer he was able to transform himself into a black
jaguar, he insisted that he really could do this, here,
in the common human world, in a physical sense.
Today, so he explained, hardly anybody would be
able to achieve such a transformation because the
especially powerful spiritual allies needed for a
transformative process of such a dimension have
also “retired”, i.e. have ed to remote places. These
places are inaccessible to the mestizo colonists and
foreign extractive industries (oil, wood, coca, etc.)
and their “incorrect” and very dominant way of life.
Therefore, the Shipibo-Conibo who have adapted
their ways of life to these new and “incorrect” sur-
roundings, are also unable to achieve such transfor-
mations.
Shipibo-Conibo understanding admits and even
explains logically that in modern Western society
(including mestizo colonies) those spiritual entities
do not exist, because they have escaped the “incor-
rect” view on culture and nature by this society.
Notes
1) The extensive eldwork was made possible by grants from the
University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences
(program “DOC”). In particular, I would like to thank Gerhard
Kubik and Richard Parncutt for their support and the Phono-
grammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences for provid-
ing recording equipment and archiving the resulting audio and
video documents. Christian Huber kindly read and corrected
the manuscript. Kristina Tiedje provided constructive critics
and suggestions. The main acknowledgement, however, must
be reserved for the healers and patients without whom this
study would not have been possible. I thank them for their
patience, their condence, and the many things I could learn
from them. For ethical reasons, all individuals mentioned in
this survey were de-identied.
2) Ayawaska is a Quechua term, consisting of aya (“death”,
“dead”, “soul”) and waska (“vine”, “liana”). In the Shipibo-
Conibo language the brew is called either nishi or oni. There
are various publications available on the preparation and use
of ayawaska and the involved neurochemical processes. For
example, the volume edited by la B a t e and ar a ú J o (2004) pro-
vides many detailed discussions around ayawaska.
3) The indigenous group called Shipibo-Conibo or simply Shipibo
historically comprised six or probably more sub-groups (sh e l l
1973: 16-24). Nowadays it represents an ethnic unit speaking
the same language with very slight regional differences. The
Shipibo-Conibo, as well as their neighboring groups, consider
themselves a grupo étnico. The number of Shipibo-Conibo liv-
ing in Ucayali, Madre de Dios and Loreto can be estimated at
approx. 45.000 (Mi n s a 2002: 24).
4) Except Case 1 (in the village CN [Comunidad Nativa] Patria
Nueva), Case 2 (in Yarinacocha, but concluded with a 2-week’s
diet in Europe) and Case 5 (also in Yarinacocha, with a follow-
ing 3-month’s diet in CN Paococha).
5) There are many Spanish and Quechua loan-words used in
Shipibo-Conibo language, sometimes substituting terms that
are no longer used, but mainly being introduced because the
Shipibo-Conibo language lacks adequate corresponding terms
(e.g. from Spanish: escuela, “school”; dios, “God”; ciencia,
“science”; or from Quechua: koriki, “money”, atapa, “chick-
en”, etc.).
6) The Shipibo-Conibo concept rao (substantive; “remedy”) in-
cludes two verbs: raonti (transitive; “to treat/cure” somebody)
with its ambiguous meaning of healing and bewitching, and
raoti (intransitive; “to decorate” a person or object). A third
verb associated to healing is benxoati (intransitive; “to heal an
ill person” or “to store an item in its proper place”).
143Word Can Doom. Songs May Heal
curare 32(2009)1+2
7) Adequate Shipibo terms are: (i) onanya joni (a person who
has knowledge), denominating the common healer-sorcerer or
médico, (ii) meraya (translation unclear), a legendary master-
healer, (iii) yobé (not translatable), a specialist in working with
magical darts and objects, (iv) benxoamis (healer), presumably
introduced as a conceptual translation of Spanish curandero,
(v) retemis (killer), a similar translation of Spanish brujo.
There are some more terms which are used less frequently.
8) In Shipibo terminology they are onanya joni (a person who has
knowledge), save médico I who probably was a meraya, hav-
ing retired in 1988. Médico G is considered a meraya by some
peers, probably to underline his high reputation, but apparently
he works in terms of an onanya joni. Also médico H, who is
yobé, was considered a meraya before, as he pointed out, he
lost the respective abilities when the back of his head was cut
open in a wexati duel (ritual ght).
9) In Shipibo self-understanding, being e.g. an unlucky sherman
is considered a curable problem and might be brought before
the médico. Also, if an adolescent daughter appears to sleep
with a lot of pretendants, her parents could consult the healer-
sorcerer for tsinima iti, to calm her desire. On the other hand,
a “well-behaving” girl could be “cured” by somebody jealous
to become tsiní, “playing with men” and end up in insanity.
Likewise, a very good hunter or sherman could be “cured”
out of his peer’s envy in order to make him lose his skills
(yopa iti raonkanai). For detailed examples and treatments
see to u r n o n (2002: 392-416). This author also introduces the
terms “etótropas” and “etoactivos” (to u r n o n and si l v a 1988:
163) referring to remedies (rao) used in such treatments.
10) The plants used in the presented cases are bari rao, bana
boains, inoaxatan, isintapon, jasin waste, jimi moxo, jiwi
boains, joxo pionis, kanachiari, marosa, nishi boains, paiko,
paotati moxa, ronon ewa chochowasha, ronon ewa tsebé rao,
sawawa, tipo, wanin kaya rao, waste, waxmen, wiso pionis,
xana, xenan, xexon, xoro, yochi, as well as bona (honey) in
different combinations. Many of these plants are mentioned in
to u r n o n (2002: 392ff.). According to to u r n o n et al. (1998),
some of the plants, e.g. the waste family, do not show active
components. However, active components could be found by
this author in dermatological applications (which do not ap-
pear in my study). He also observed antibacterial and anti-
inammatory properties in several known rao (to u r n o n 2002:
402ff.).
11) E.g. a sorcerer when using boman may utter “look, the girl
over there stumbles!“ and when looking there one will see the
girl falling down. Or he could say, “a tree branch is falling on
Juan’s head“, and Juan will be brought home from the wood-
work with a serious cranial problem.
12) The use and meaning of these terms can differ from one singer
to another: some may dene any medical song as ikaro. Some
may never use mashá. Some may sing warmikara (which is
the only form connected to a topic) in bewá or ikaro form.
Anyway, the above mentioned categories are understood by all
Shipibo-Conibo (see my Ph.D. thesis, Br a B e c d e Mo r i , forth-
coming).
13) “Extraordinary states of consciousness” is a translation from
German “Außergewöhnliche Bewußtseinszustände”, dened
by di t t r i c h et al. (1987: 35). There are a few studies that de-
scribe effects such as “enhanced creativity” experienced under
the inuence of psychedelic drugs (for an overview see ta e g e r
1988: 103ff.; regarding music and drug use, ibid: 131-59). In
present times, little research is done on the topic because of
certain legal difculties.
14) There is no ethno-historical evidence of rites during eclipses,
although the corresponding term mochati (to perform mocha
songs) is known by many Shipibo-Conibo (cf. ge B h a r t -sa y e r
1987: 228). In the collection of music I recorded on the Ucay-
ali, there also appear a few associations of mochati with great
dangers, for instance the summoning of simpi jonibo, which
are horribly threatening demons. I suppose that the “most pow-
erful” song performed without the proper knowledge or in an
inadequate situation may also result in utter disaster, which a
visit by the simpi jonibo is considered to be.
15) Performed by médico I in his home village. The song ts into
the bewá category (archived in the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv
under le D 5544).
16) Performed by médico G in Case 6 (Phonogrammarchiv le D
5580). The song is mashá, dedicated to cleaning the patients’
bodies from the magic damage they were subjected to. The
singing style resembles the description of “negative aesthetics”
given above. For many more examples and anthropological in-
terpretations on culturally relevant terminology in song lyrics
see to u r n o n (1991) and il l i u s (1987, 1999).
17) Performed by médico D, in Case 7 (Phonogrammarchiv le D
5566). The song is bewá, dedicated to opening and preparing
the visionary world (kano) for the healing process.
18) Mokapari, in regional Quechua called chiric sanango, proba-
bly Brunfelsia grandiora. The example how to use this plant
as a healer was mentioned by Jacques Ma B i t in an interview
with the author (Phonogrammarchiv le D 5149).
Literature
Ba l k W i l l L.-L. & th o M p s o n W. F. 1999. A Cross-Cultural Investi-
gation of the Perception of Emotion in Music: Psychophysical
and Cultural Cues. Music Perception 17,1: 43-64.
Ba l Z e r H.U. 2006. Regulatorische Veränderungen vegetativer
Funktionen bei der Wirkung von Musik. Workshop paper pre-
sented at the Mozart & Science Kongress, October 1-4, Baden
bei Wien and Vienna.
Br a B e c d e Mo r i B. 2007. The Inca’s Song Emanates from my
Tongue: Composition vs. Oral Tradition in Western Amazo-
nian Curing Songs. MS. Paper presented at the 39th World
Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music
ICTM, July 5-11, Vienna.
---- (forthcoming) Sex, Drugs & Mashá iti. Dokumentation aktu-
eller indigener Musikpraxis und Analyse identitätsbildender
Aspekte am Río Ucayali, Peru. Univ. Ph.D. Thesis, Geistes-
und Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, University of Vienna.
di t t r i c h A. & sc h a r F e t t e r C. (Hg) 1987. Ethnopsychotherapie.
Psychotherapie mittels außergewöhnlicher Bewußtseinszu-
stände in westlichen und indigenen Kulturen. (Forum der
Psych iatrie N.F. 26). Stuttgart: F. Enke.
Fa r e s i n A. 2008. The Use of Overtone Singing in Music Therapy.
Paper Presented at the First Meeting of the Study Group for
Applied Ethnomusicology, International Council for Traditio-
nal Music ICTM, July 9-13, Ljubljana.
ga B r i e l s s o n A. 1991. Experiencing Music. Canadian Journal of
Research in Music Education 33: 21-26.
ge B h a r t -sa y e r A. 1987. Die Spitze des Bewußtseins. Untersu-
chungen zu Weltbild und Kunst der Shipibo-Conibo. (Mün-
chener Beiträge zur Amerikanistik) Hohenschäftlarn: Klaus
Renner Verlag.
go u k P. (ed) 2000. Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts. Al-
dershot: Ashgate.
il l i u s B. 1987 [21991]. Ani Shinan. Schamanismus bei den Shipi-
bo-Conibo (Ost-Peru). (Ethnologische Studien 12.) Münster
and Hamburg: LIT-Verlag.
––––– 1992. The Concept of Nihue among the Shipibo-Conibo of
Eastern Peru. In la n g d o n J. M., Ba e r G. (Eds.) Portals of Po-
wer. Shamanism in South America. Albuquerque: University
of New Mexico Press: 63-78.
––––– 1999. Das Shipibo. Texte, Kontexte, Kommentare. Ein Bei-
trag zur diskursorientierten Untersuchung einer Montaña-
Kultur. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.
144 BE r n d Br a B E c d E Mo r i
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
kr o n B e r g e r h. & Br a n d e s v. 2004. SaludArt – ein Konzept zur
Verbindung von Kunst und Spital. In tu c e k G. (Ed.) Musik
und Medizin. Beiträge zur Musik- und Therapieforschung
1995-2004. CD-ROM. Wien: GaMed.
ku B i k G. 1988 [22004]. Zum Verstehen afrikanischer Musik. Wien:
LIT.
la B a t e B.C. & ar a ú J o W.S. (eds) 2004. O uso ritual da ayahua-
sca. 2nda edição revista e ampliada. Campinas: Mercado de
Letras.
lecl e r c F.r. 2003. Des modes de socialisation par les plantes
chez les Shipibo-Conibo d´amazonie peruvienne. Une étude
des relations entre humains et non-humains dans la const-
ruction sociale. Ph.D. thesis, Laboratoire d’ethnologie et de
sociologie comparative, Université Paris X – Nanterre.
Minsa (Min i s t e r i o d e s a l u d d e l pe r ú ) 2002. Análisis de la situa-
ción de salud del pueblo Shipibo-Conibo. Serie Análisis de
Situación de Salud y Tendencias 5. Lima: MINSA.
Mo n t a g D. 2008. Autonomy, Cohesion and Health. Perception
and Responses to Fever among Urban Shipibo in Mai Joshin.
Ph.D. thesis, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology,
University of Oxford.
ro e P.G. 1982. The Cosmic Zygote. Cosmology in the Amazon Ba-
sin. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
sh a n o n B. 2002. The Antipodes of the Mind. Charting the Pheno-
menology of the Ayahuasca Experience. Oxford: University
Press.
sh e l l O. 1975 [21985]. Estudios Pano III: Las lenguas pano y su
reconstrucción. Serie lingüística peruana 12. Yarinacocha:
ILV.
sl o B o d a J.A. 1991. Music Structure and Emotional Response:
Some Empirical Findings. Psychology of Music 19: 110-120.
ta e g e r H.-H. 1988. Spiritualität und Drogen. Interpersonelle
Zusammenhänge von Psychedelika und religiös-mystischen
Aspekten in der Gegenkultur der 70er Jahre. Markt Erlbach:
Raymond Martin Verlag.
to u r n o n J. 1991. Medicina y visiones: canto de un curande-
ro Shipibo-Conibo, texto y contexto. Amerindia. Revue
d`ethnolinguistique amerindienne 16: 179-209.
––––– 2002. La merma mágica. Vida e historia de los Shipibo-
Conibo del Ucayali. Lima: CAAAP.
to u r n o n J., ca u p e r s. & ur Q u í a r. 1998. Los piri piri, plantas
paradójicas de la Amazonía. Revista Antropológica 16: 215-
240.
to u r n o n J. & si l v a M. 1988. Plantas para cambiar el comporta-
miento humano entre los Shipibo-Conibo. Revista Antropo-
lógica 6: 161-176.
tu c e k G., Fe r s t l E. & Fr i t Z F. M. 2007. A study of synchroniza-
tion behaviour in a group of test persons during Baksy and
Dhikr exercises via psycho-physiological monitoring. Music
Therapy Today 8, 3. Available at http://www.musictherapy
world.net (17-07-2008) [Newsletter December 2007].
vi v e i r o s d e ca s t r o E.1997. Die kosmologischen Pronomina und
der indianische Perspektivismus. Société suisse des América-
nistes, Bulletin 61: 99-114.
1st version received september 2006, accepted september 2007,
nal revised version accepted december 2008
Bernd Brabec de Mori (born 1975 in Austria), currently works on his Ph.D. thesis in ethnomusicology.
Corresponding eldwork was accomplished with the help of a scholarship (program “DOC”) provided
by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Having studied musicology, philosophy and history of arts at the
Universities of Salzburg, Graz and Vienna, he now lives alternately in Gratwein/Austria and Yarinacocha/
Perú, where he has been working for ve years in temporary cooperation with the Universities UNMSN
and PUCP in Lima and local institutes in Pucallpa. In Austria, he is employed by the Phonogrammarchiv,
an institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Au 2, A-8112 Gratwein
email: boshirashki@gmx.at
