Out of the Amazon: life on the river

Early on the morning of September twelfth my class group got a tour of the out of the Amazon: life on the river exhibit at the HMNS. This exhibit explored the life culture and lifestyle of 13 different tribes in the Amazon. Some of the tribes had similar believes and lifestyle, including different he

ad dresses and the different roles shaman might have played in that tribe as well as how they made there baskets etc. And each tribe was unique in some aspect.when we were finished with our tour we were asked to go back to a specific part of exhibit that spoke to us and take some field notes and to further explore and research that part of the exhibit and put it in our blog post.

I chose to further explore the role of shamans in tribes. So a shaman is basically the doctor of the tribe. But there are some other roles shamans play in the tribe. I chose to almost compare and contrast two tribes shamans and see what some similarities they share.
(Insert photos).

First I will talk about the Yanamamö. The Yanamamö shaman held the duties of healing any person in the tribe that might be sick or is injured. To do this he would cast spells on them, or blow smoke on there body's to cure some sickness. Most of the time these techniques would include powder of some kind of plant or herb. The Yanamamös cosmos consist of four key layers. the first is empty but used to be occupied by gods, the second is almost an earth but with better food, materials etc. the third is home to the sphirits of the dead, the fourth is the almost underworld, it's where evil sphirits are banished, it is the shamans job to keep these sphirits at bay.

Now I will compare the Yanamamö shamans to the shuar tribe shamans. The shuar tribe have two shamans instead of one. They have one shaman that cast spells and is very gifted in magic, it was said that if he wanted he could make anyone die with an almost sphirits dart. That is also how they would explain people dying of natural causes. The second shaman would be used for healing members of
the tribe. The shuar tribes cosmos consist of three layers, the bottom is almost like the essence of nature, the middle is our earth, here is where all evil sphirits live. It's the shaman that is gifted with sorcery that controls these sphirits. The top is the heavens where God would live.

Both of these tribes are very similar but share different believes and there shamans are very different.

On the right: some tools used by a shaman. On the left: a stool used by a shaman, only a shaman can use a stool.