Don’t Let the Piranha Bite Your Liver

A Combined Anthropological and Psychoanalytic Approach to Kagwahiv (Tupi) Food Taboos

Bibliographic Data

ID20060708
AuthorsWaud H Kracke (corresponding author)
Year2019
Pages205-246
Publication date2019-01-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenuePsychoanalytic Study of Society, V. 15 (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781315792033-7
OpenAlexW2519867954
ISBN9781315792033
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited1

In this chapter, the author explores the personal and affective meanings implicit in the matrix of prohibitions of certain categories of food, under specified life circumstances and the consequences threatened for their violation. The cultural analysis uses various frames of analysis—from ecological to symbolic—to examine the relevance of food taboos for various subsystems of Parintintin society. Kagwahiv symbolism draws on metaphor and metonymy in a network of associational meanings that equate violation of the food taboos with the expression of wishes ranging from infanticidal to sexual, with strong allusions to jealousy. Several anthropological theories of taboo deal primarily with the question of which species from the potential roster of the region are chosen for prohibition: A. R. Radcliffe-Brown’s initial theory, Douglas’s as developed by Leach and the cultural materialist theory proposed by E. Ross. Some elderly Kagwahiv refuse to eat pork and beef and are shocked at the willingness of missionaries, anthropologists, and neighboring Brazilians to do so

Ethnography · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multisensory perception and integration · Psychology

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