Supernatural Gamekeepers among the Tsimane’ Hunter-Gatherers of Bolivian Amazonia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Supernatural Gamekeepers and Animal Masters: A Cross-Cultural Perspective" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

We examine the traditional beliefs on supernatural gamekeepers by the Tsimane’ hunter-gatherers of Bolivian Amazonia. As other Amazonian Indigenous groups, the Tsimane’ believe in the existence of supernatural spirits (known as a’mo in Tsimane’ language) who own much of the natural world, including wildlife and animal breeding grounds. The Tsimane’ traditionally had a number of rules and rituals to regulate their behaviour in relation to wildlife, and particularly hunting and fishing. Some of these rules were in the hands of the shamans (cocojsi’), who acted as managers of wildlife stocks in the Tsimane’ society. Shamanic rituals provided them with an opportunity to communicate with the supernatural gamekeepers and get first-hand information on all the rules that should be respected. Amongst the many rituals used to show reverence to the spirits are the shamanic songs, locally known as ferentyé, a type of songs exclusively performed by shamans to ask supernatural gamekeepers to supply wildlife for the community. In this talk, we draw on a unique pool of 12 ritual songs of the Tsimane’ (compiled by J. Riester in the 1970s) to illustrate the powerful bonds of kinship and reciprocity that this society maintained with supernatural gamekeepers to ensure wildlife availability.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Supernatural Gamekeepers and Animal Masters: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23907