THE PECULIAR RELATIONS

BETWEEN BRAZILIAN AMAZONIAN Maria Cndida F. Moura da Silva

SHAMANISM AND ETHNOGRAPHIC Advisor: Prof. Dr. Alice Maria de

Arajo Ferreira
TRANSLATION
 Universidade de Braslia (UnB)
Programa de Ps-graduao em Estudos da Traduo (Postrad)
Research Group: Poticas do Devir
Support: Fundao de Apoio Pesquisa do Distrito Federal (FAP-DF)
INTRODUCTION
Translation and cultural studies
Break of the concepts of what is natural and normal
Since the colonization two ontological discourses have appeared:

1. Complementation
2. Exploitation and universalist domination
SHAMANISM: SACRIFICE AND CULTURALISM
Shamanism is directly related to the knowledge path
Hugh-Jones (1996) defines it in two types: vertical shamanism and
horizontal shamanism

Vertical shamanism focus on the esoteric knowledge which is transmitted

within a small community. It is more common on hierarchical societies and
is considered to be more pacifist. Their leader, the Shaman, are
responsible for rituals and celebrations such as marriages, festivities and
rites of passage
 Horizontal shamanism is more democratic; it involves classical shamanism
features of trance and possession. It is most found in Amazonian societies
which are more egalitarian. However, their Shaman is considered to be
more aggressive on the rituals, which include cannibalism

To Viveiros de Castro (2008) there is also transversal shamanism, which is

derived from the concept of transversality of Guilles Deleuze and Flix
Guattari: A way of communication among heterogeneous, characteristic
of intensive or rhizomatic multiplicities
 One of the rituals present on the essay entitled: Xamanismo transversal:
Lvi-Strauss e a Cosmopoltica Amaznica presented by the author is
cannibalism

To the author, there is a type of cannibalism called posthumous

cannibalism, in which, the sacrifice is made in order to initiate the
metamorphosis that will guide them to immortality

This is the case of the Amazonian tribes called Arawet and Tupinamb

In this ritual the cannibalism occurs in order to incorporate the enemy. They
eat the other (enemy) so they can change their point of view, that is, to
nourish from this other, incorporate them and become the enemy
ETHNOGRAPHIC TRANSLATION
A way of translating based on ethnographic description used by Franois
Laplantine, Lvi-Strauss and others
The focus is not on finding equivalents on both languages for the referent (the
object which is being translated), however it is focused on the description of this
referent

Ethnographic description inserts the look in a context and in a history. It situates

and dates with precision its observations in a particular space. It finally tries to
undo the occidental look or occidentalizing, because it realizes on a field where it
is not the only way of seeing the world. (Laplantine, 2004, p.50)[own translation]
ETHNOGRAPHIC TRANSLATION AND SHAMANISM
Taking Amazonian shamanism perspective to the work of translation

Break the paradigms of natural and normal

Understand that the strangeness will occur on both sides
Appreciate the difference of perspectives
Do not exoticize, simplify or minimize the other
Ethnographic translation studies research a change of position the same way
cannibalism does

They try to incorporate the other with the aim of becoming the other and
seeing through their point of view

The reader when eating (reading) the other (the author) can find it difficult
to understand or to associate. Nonetheless, that is also one of the main
objectives of ethnographic translation; to cause strangeness
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
To translate ethnographically is to understand that the other (your object of
translation) is different from you
It is to break the paradigms of the perfect translation utopia
It is to be inside a different context, tradition and rituals
It to eat the other trying to understand their way of thinking and behaving
even if it seems impossible to be done
REFERENCES
CASTRO, Eduardo Viveiros de. Xamanismo transversal: Lvi-Strauss e a cosmopoltica
amaznica. In: ________. Lvi-Strauss: Leituras brasileiras. Belo Horizonte. UFMG
Editor, p. 79-124. 2008.
JONES, Hugh. Shamanism, History and the State. University of Michigan Press.
Michigan. 1994.
LAPLANTINE, Franois. A descrio etnogrfica. So Paulo. Terceira Margem. 2004.