Abstract

MATAREZIO FILHO, Edson Tosta. A passage between both Americas: Ticuna myth and ritual. Etnográfica [online]. 2019, vol.23, n.3, pp.579-604. ISSN 0873-6561.  https://doi.org/10.4000/etnografica.7214.

Following the trail left by Lévi-Strauss when suggesting that the analysis of a Ticuna myth would impose a “passage from one continent to the other,” I contribute to the hypothesis that the mythology of this people can be thought as operating the transition between the indigenous mythologies of South and North America. Instead of the classic mitema of the “bird nester,” Ticuna mythology would have as one of its characters a “fruit nester.” Thus, these narratives would relate less to the origin of fire, as in the stories of the “bird nester,” than to the origin of adornments, game meat and human flesh. Like in the narratives from North America, culture is more closely associated with the origin of clothing than that of cooking. An analogous “twist” occurs in ritual exchanges between the Ticuna. While the pattern of South Amerindian ritual supposes the exchange of meat for drinks, during the ritual of female initiation among the Ticuna, drinks and/or meat are exchanged for adornments.

Keywords : Ticuna; mythology; ritual; exchange.

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