Bahsé ahpose - os ritos de adocicamento das águas e dos peixes na prática do tinguijamento no alto Vaupés

Abstract

In the ethnographic landscapes of the Northwest Brazilian Amazon is the Vaupés River, in the Indigenous Land of Alto Rio Negro, in the Municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira. It is in this landscape that the people of the Vaupés practice the Bahsé Ahpose – Os ritos de adocicamento dos peixes na prática do tinguijamento. The knowledge of this rite and its practice is intercultural because it is the result of the encounter of cosmological and cosmopolitical knowledge in the life of the vaupés peoples. This rite is carried out through dialogues with Kumuã (Pajés), because sweetening is part of the formula in the taxonomy of all beneficial prayers and is always present in them. The rite takes place in three events: the ritual of preparation for tinguijamento; tinguijamento ritual; and the post- tinguijamento sweetening ritual. The latter is the reordering “blessing” (bahsé ahponᵾkõsé) of the tinguijamento stream and the sweetening of water and fish, as a form of negotiation with Wai Mahsã (cosmic beings) because it involves their dwellings. For the people of the Vaupés, “bahsé ahposé” is what prevents the extinction of fish and orders the places or places of subsistence (dehsubase ahposé). It is a ritual involved in the cosmopolitical relationship of the vaupés peoples with the fish and involves the specialists Kumu (Shaman), Yâi (Shaman) and Bayaró (master of ceremonies) who dialogue with the Ahko Mahsã (Water People) and the Wa'i Mahsan. Therefore, cosmological and cosmopolitical knowledge about the Pamuri Mahsã (People of Transformation) and Wa’i Mahsã (Cosmic Beings) is essential to talk about the rite, food security and the perpetuation of life. Thus, in the argument of this ethnographic research, non-compliance with the rules and precepts established by the creator deities and the non-use of the sweetening rite “mumipa’se” (turning water into honey) is what turns tinguijamento into a predatory practice. Therefore, the rite provides for the resurgence of fish and their food. It is a dialogue that aims to contribute to indigenous and non-indigenous anthropology from the perspective of sustainability in the indigenous Amazon.

Key words Cosmologies; Cosmopolitics; Kumuã; Rites; timbo