The yuku-kahtiro is a concept that the indigenous peoples of the Upper Rio Negro use to define the “forest universe”, thought of as a living body with vegetable parts and with essences of human body elements.
For native populations, the importance of groups of vegetables goes beyond the notion of their biological benefits, for their composition and their ways of life are fundamental data to “activate”, through the bahsese, the ability to soothe pain and cure illnesses. Indigenous specialists from the northwestern Amazon call it yuku-kahtiro. The objective of this text is to present its concept and importance as one of the elements that constitute the human body.
The starting point is to talk about the origin of human formation, that is, the Yepa oãku, first anthropomorphic being forged by the Ʉmuko ñeku (“Grandfather of the world”) from elements that constitute the terrestrial world.
Experts from the Upper Rio Negro tell that Ʉmuko ñeku, one of the beings that has always inhabited the upper primordial world, decided to leave his abode, called umuse pati, to visit the lower primordial world, called wamudia. Settling at an equidistant point between the two “worlds” he saw that wamudia was in the form of a large mud lake and that on top of the mud was a very thin water sheet. He watched it thoughtfully, since it was not his desire to find a mud-predominated world, but an organized and livable world for the mahsan buharã (future humans), beings like him, endowed with knowledge of kihti ukũse, bahsese and bahsamori.
After some time at a halt, Ʉmukoñeku made the decision to “forge” the first anthropomorphic being, not an easy task. Gazing at the farthest end of the mud lake, he spotted the ukariro on the water sheet. It appeared as a tiny light spot. It was the future light of the world and the element that would form the first mahsu (singular of mahsã – human, people). It was the boreyuse kahtiro (light/life). Still on the very distant horizon, the demiurge saw another tiny luminous point over the water surface, representing the yuku kahtiro (forest/life). He also saw, at the mud lake far end, yet another tiny light spot on the water sheet, the dita kahtiro (earth/life). He saw three other small lights: ahko kahtiro (water/life), waikurã kahtiro (animals/life), ome kahtiro (air/life). This was all on the horizon of the great mud and the water sheet lake. Finally, at the end of the lake’s horizon, he saw a very small luminous point of mahsan kahtiro (human/life). All this is called kahtise (lives).
The six light spots were representations of elements that would come to constitute the terrestrial world and other non-human bodies. And mahsan kahtiro was the representation of human futures. He saw all of this, was distressed and thoughtful when asked himself how to put all these representations together and form the first anthropomorphic being, capable of carrying on with building the earthly world and creating other beings to help him organize the cosmos so that future humans would come live in this newly conceived world.
Then he concentrated and began to use bahsese on the tobacco cigarette for long hours. At the end of the bahsese, he blew tobacco smoke over the water sheet, making each kahtise become a body-conceiving power. But the tiny lights continued over the water layer, as element representations. Then, he took the cigarette again and made bahsese to cause “waves” that could bring all the powers together and form a single body. From this junction came the first mahsu being – it was the Yepa Oãku who would later conceive other beings that organize the cosmos, the waimahsan and the mahsan. The latter still populate the terrestrial world today.
In short, the body is made up of seven elements: boreyuse kahtiro (light/life), yuku kahtiro (forest/life), dita kahtiro (earth/life), ahko kahtiro (water/life), waikurã kahtiro (animals/life), ome kahtiro (air/life) and mahsã kahtiro (mahsã/life). The latter refers to the person’s name, which is a metaphysical category. It is directly related to the human/person quality, “injected” by specialists right after the child’s birth, through the heriporã bahsese, a process that endows the body with mahsã kahtiro.
Experts often say that without the bahseke heriporan, the human body is equal to the body of animals. To get out of this condition, mahsã kahtiro needs to be injected. The mahsã kahtiro connects the person with other dimensions, beyond the elements that constitute the body, such as the social group, the group’s cosmology, territory, home, after-death life, among others. In this sense, the body is more than a synthesis of elements, it is a constitutive and ontological dimension agent.
If translated literally, the yuku-kahtiro means “life/forest”, that is, a vegetable body formed by the set of existing vegetable lives, holders of sensitive and curative, protective and poisonous qualities, which can be activated by the action of bahsese for health care.
The vegetable body is part of the human body, as all vegetable qualities are present in the body in the form of power. So smell, bitterness, aftertaste, sweetness, acidity, thickness, texture, plasticity, size and hardness of vegetables are qualities that can be activated and boosted “metachemically” by specialists, at the bahsese, to prevent, protect and cure diseases, as well as to attack, causing discomfort and disease.
On the other hand, vegetal power of such body also grows into other specific vegetables, as we can see in two ancient examples – one, the origin of a special plant used to make wind musical instruments, called miriã (jurupari), originated from the body of Bisio; another, crop plants which originated from the body of Bahsebo oãku.
The Bisio was the very musicality, that is, a source of “music” called kahpiwaya. Endowed with this nature, he lived roaming cosmic space, from home to home (bahsakawiseri), as in the Doê-wi’i (“house of wolf-fish”), in the Siripituhti (“swallow’s cave”), in the Osôtuhti (“bat cave”), hosting festivities and poose (dabucuri ceremony), teaching singing, instrument playing and dancing.
Bisio was rather often called by his peers to guide through young specialists. But he saw that, despite all the effort, the peers never learned. The parents of the young eventually killed Bisio by burning. It was a revenge for having “killed” the apprentices, by inducing them to enter the tunnel of his anus to protect themselves from the great storm pouring down the forest. The hero already knew that his death would be at the stake, as the only way to pass on his knowledge and skills to the peers was to have his own bones made into musical instruments.
He did so, and from his mortal remains, that is, from his burnt bones, a special small palm tree called buhpuño (paxiubinha) was born. From this palm tree, indigenous specialists started to make miriã musical instruments, as if he were appropriating Bisio‘s own body as a source of musicality.
Another example is the origin of cultivable plants, especially the maniwa. According to experts, the maniwa arose from the body of Bahsebo oãku. It is told that Bahsebo oãku decided to leave the Upper Rio Negro and travel downstream after the conflict with his son, who despised him because of his age. On the way, he met the family (father and daughters) of Wariro, who lived in a mountain range in the current town of São Gabriel da Cachoeira. Wariro did not know the technique of making crops, nor disposed of manioc, much less mastered the process of making its products. Hearing of maniwa withholder Bahsebo oãku’s journey, he commanded his daughters to seduce him.
The girls followed their father’s instructions. On the way down the river, the hero was seduced by the beautiful women and soon began to live in the house of his “father-in-law”. Living with the new “family” he realized that Wariro lacked knowledge about the maniwa plant and about extracting techniques necessary to obtain essential products for food and life quality.
Deprived of good quality food, Bahsebo oãku found himself obliged to teach the brides the best way to obtain and produce food. For that, he had to take an attitude: as he were the very own power of maniwa and cultivable plants, he saw he would have to go through fire to provide food. First, he cleared the field, waited for it to dry, and, while preparing for the fire, became a stick, called yagu, a representation of all cultivable plants powers. He placed himself in the center of the field for burning. When the fire ceased, the seeds hatched, causing a great bang. That way, the body of Bahsebo oãku gave rise to the maniwa plants and cultivable field plants.
The idea of body transformationism has its roots in the time of the beings who played a leading role in the terrestrial world construction and. In the native conception, as seen, the body, especially the human body, made up of seven elements, is capable of transforming into any of these constituent elements: water, air, light, plant, animal and earth (minerals).
According to the kumuã, the human body is a tailor-made combination of elements. Its imbalance is understood as a consequence of the elements’ imbalance. Through bahsese, specialists perform the equalization to maintain the balance of substances, in order to prevent the “metabolism” from causing the body’s imbalance, which can manifest as discomfort or illness.
The concept of the vegetable body is what allows specialists to intervene in the body. Through bahsese, healing qualities – contained in plants, animals and minerals –, natural phenomena and medicinal plants are activated to lesser pain, cure diseases and protect the person.
So, in addition to the physical structure sight, the body consisting of ethereal or immaterial elements that gravitate to it is an extremely important concept, for it is the foundation that makes it possible to “metachemically” trigger vegetables qualities for health care and cure of diseases through the bahsese.
All the ethereal elements that make up the body are called kahtise (lives), as the body’s “anatomy”, and are essential for the individual’s proper functioning and balance.
Thinking and theorizing about the body from its meaning for the indigenous peoples of the Upper Rio Negro brings about the need to identify how the building body knowledge takes place and how this knowledge directly implies the practice of body care production, aiming at a good quality of life and care in the relationships with the things around them.
The body is a microcosm connected with the greater cosmos. According to indigenous experts, all bodies are connected to the terrestrial world body, and its forming elements intersect and affect each other, forming new bodies that meet up. Specialists speak of creative transformation and define the terrestrial world as a living organism, a system with the essential attribute of self-production. Beings make and remake themselves through connections that each body establishes with other bodies. The vegetable body is a part of the whole.
João Paulo Lima Barreto is an indigenous of the Yepamahsã (Tukano) people, born in the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, state of Amazonas. Professor and consultant, he holds a degree in philosophy and a doctorate in social anthropology from the Federal University of Amazonas, in addition to being a researcher at the Indigenous Amazon Studies Center (NEAI). He founded the Bahserikowi Indigenous Medicine Center and is a member of the SPA – Science Panel for the Amazon – and of the Brazilian Academy of Science. He is also a member of the Scientific Committee SoU_Ciência and OTCA – Organización del Tratado de Cooperación Amazônica and is coordinator of the Povos Forum of Rede Unida.
Notes
1 The bahsese are a vast collection of formulas, words and special expressions taken from the kihti ukũse (mythical narratives) and formally uttered by the specialists Pamurimahsã and Ʉmukorimahsã. It is a practice of verbally articulating the curative, preventive and protective qualities contained in plants and animals. Bahsese is also cleaning and decontaminating food, making it suitable for human consumption (João Paulo Lima Barreto et al. OMERO. Constituição e circulação de conhecimentos Yepamahsã (Tukano). Manaus: EDUA, 2018, p. 64).
2 Kihti ukũse is the mythical narrative collection of the Yepamahsã (Tukano peoples). These stories are about adventures lived by demiurges and other characters and heroes responsible for the origin and organization of the world, humanity, beings, things, techniques. The ukũse kihti speaks of a time prior to human beings, a time when the world was inhabited only by waimahsã. We can say that kihti ukũse is about the waimahsã, demiurges and organizers of the terrestrial world. In kihti ukũse we find the lessons, the rules, the obligations, the origin of illnesses and the bahsese, the etiquettes and behaviors required in the relationships between humans and their relationships with non-humans, especially with the waimahsã. Moreover, reading and interpreting the kihti ukũse allows us to understand the origin and relationship dynamics between different peoples of the Rio Negro region, their groups and their communities (João Paulo Lima Barreto et al. OMERO, op. cit., p. 26-27).
3 The concept of bahsamori used here refers to the set of social practices associated with natural landmarks, diseases, agricultural activities, gathering of and bahsese; interaction with the waimahsã, musical instruments, stories, dances and choreographies; body painting, labels, peeru (cauim), kahpi and training of specialists. More specifically, bahsamori refers to the set of festivals and ritual offering ceremonies (poose) and comprises knowledge and practices related to music, choreography, musical instruments, among others. These festivals and ceremonies are organized along the year cycle, according to a complex astronomical calendar structured by the passage of the constellations, which also guides the annual and daily activities in the field, making fishing and hunting traps and various other activities related to everyday life experiences (João Paulo Lima Barreto et al. OMERO, op. cit., p. 119).
4 It is a word from the Dessana language in terms of bahsese to refer to the luminous spot, which is also called pehkame, that is, fire representing a type of kahtise.
5 João Paulo Lima Barreto. Kumuã na kahtiroti-ukuse: uma “teoria” sobre o corpo e o conhecimento-prático dos especialistas indígenas do Alto Rio Negro. Thesis (Doctorate in Social Anthropology) – Federal University of Amazonas, Manaus, 2021.
6 Gabriel Sodré Maia. Bahsamori: o tempo, as estações e as etiquetas sociais dos Yepamahsã (Tukano). Manaus: EDUA, 2018. (Reflexividades Indígenas collection).
7 João Paulo Lima Barreto et al. OMERO, op. cit., p. 34.