Hup bi'id ɨd

Shamanic incantation at the nexus of language and culture

Dados 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)
Ano2019
Volume29
Fascículo2
Páginas205-212
Data de publicação2019-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Linguistic Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1055-1360 • E-ISSN: 1548-1395
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jola.12225
OpenAlexW2969836436
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências 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