Hup bi'id ɨd

Shamanic incantation at the nexus of language and culture

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2286243
AutoresP Epps (0000-0002-7429-7885, The University of Texas at Austin), D P Ramos (0000-0002-3169-504X, Universidade Federal da Bahia)
Año2019
Volumen29
Número2
Páginas205-212
Fecha de publicación2019-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Linguistic Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1055-1360 • E-ISSN: 1548-1395
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jola.12225
OpenAlexW2969836436
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas8

In this paper, we explore the genre of shamanic incantation (bi'id ɨd) among the Hup people of the northwest Amazon. We consider the artistic features that characterize bi'id ɨd as both verbal art and powerful shamanic action - most notably the intersecting layers of parallelism, the leveraging of metaphor from both literal and figurative perspectives, and the strategic use of evidentials. We also consider the astonishingly complex taxonomy and cosmography the genre embodies, with its ontological classification of the plants, animals, and other beings within the diverse environments of the Hup world (rivercourse, forest, sky, water, etc.). As we lay out here, Hup bi'id ɨd provides an example par excellence of Sherzer's conception of discourse as the nexus of language and culture, and an illustration of the fact that a rich understanding of language and culture must make reference to both together

Anthropological Studies and Insights · Categorization, perception, and language · Social Representations and Identity