Kumuã na kahtiroti-ukuse: uma “teoria” sobre o corpo e o conhecimento-prático dos especialistas indígenas do Alto Rio Negro

Abstract

This thesis has its main focus on the concept of the body as seen from the point of view of the experts in indigenous medicine in the Upper Rio Negro, popularly known as pajes. The basis of this research are the kihti ukũse and bahsese, fundamental conceptions for the manipulation and intervention on the body by the pajes. In a nutshell, the body is the starting point for thinking about the Rio Negro philosophies. The body, built by vegetal and mineral (air and water) substances, aerial phenomena (fire) and animal features. The self can be subject to attacks by entities known as waimahsã, by animals, by foods, by natural phenomena and by substances that are the results of an imbalance of the body energies. Prevent those attacks, rebalance the substances that constitutes the body by the caring via bahsese and using phytomedicine is the way to grant a good and balanced quality of life for the Upper Rio Negro people. In the Rio Negro philosophy the body is dynamic, and something that is always in a process of transformation. This transformation can happen via the process of bahsese, using sutiro and by the final transformation after death. Like humans, animals and vegetables too are dynamics, transform themselves and multiply themselves. As such, the body and everything in this world are not something fixed and stable, but on the contrary are in a constant process of transformation and metamorphosis.