The myth of the “Two shamans” opens with the apparently comic detail of the “chicha” (Kelhtoma anmen) that the protagonists were drinking before their encounter with Valay
Veske. Why were the shamans drunk when they embarked on their apparently hazardous
trans-worldly journey? Their condition cannot be understood as a means of explaining their subsequent failure to secure the cattle obtained from Valay Veske because, as it is hinted at the end of the narrative, they were also drunk on the second occasion on which they went to the alvata, when (as on subsequent occasions) they were successful in acquiring sheep and other foreign goods.
A useful clue to the interpretation of the “chicha” detail is found in Mita Puku’s description of Enlhet shamanic practices (Arenas 1981:53, 65-66):
To be cultivators, they [the shamans] study and drink a fermented brew made from a variety of fruits or from the roots of sweet potato or manioc, etc. Then, when they drink chicha, they sing and say: “Well, I am going to make the gardens plentiful”. And it is true, because good harvests come: big roots, good squash fruits. The drunken shaman
speaks with the ahangauk (soul-spirit) of the plants. The ahangauk, of course, speaks to him. [my emphasis]
Likewise, the Enlhet shaman Lasto tells that a “chicha” feast was propitiatory of the gardening season: “when they finish preparing the land and planting, they organize a feast and call the wise man … who gets drunk and starts to sing … he causes it to rain throughout the night” (Arenas 1981:53).
Whether to make it rain or to make gardens grow, the shamans’ ingestion of “chicha” – during the gardening season, by definition – was the means of achieving affluence. Once drunk, the shamans sang, contacted their auxiliary spirits and provided their people with the benefits. The detail of the two drunken shamans was not incidental, therefore, but a depiction of how the Angaité understand that it is possible to obtain things. The enhancing nature of the “chicha” ensures a generous yield. Singing is a related shamanic activity for, by means of their chanting, shamans contact their auxiliary spirits and speak to them.
In the course of their drinking, the two shamans decide to go and fetch tobacco. At first sight, this apparently anecdotal detail reflects the predilection of most adult Angaité men and women – whether sober or drunk – for chewing tobacco.168 Many elders comment that, when they do not have tobacco to chew or yerba mate to drink, they suffer headaches. An alternative interpretation is that tobacco, despite its being an indigenous produce (Grubb, 1911:73) of mythological origin (Pittini, 1924; Arenas, 1981), has long been a trading commodity acquired from the Paraguayans (Susnik, 1953:5).169 Therefore,
168 Smoking tobacco in pipes was very common amongst the Angaité and other indigenous peoples of the Chaco (Craig, 1935:224; Grubb, 1911:194; Susnik, 1953:1). The practice is referred to in several narratives that were related to me by e.g. Andres Tome (interviewed 23/5/2005), Agapito and Agustina Aguilera. I used to carry around a pipe given to me in the Nahua community of Serjali of the Bajo Urumbamba, Peru. On seeing it, Angaité elders, both male and female, would instantly smile and laugh, saying: Lhepop! (in Kovalhok: “pipe”). Pipes are no longer common, and male and female adults and elders just chew tobacco leaf, a custom also widespread among Paraguayans.
169 Arenas (1981:299-301) recorded two broadly similar versions of the myth of the origin of tobacco (narrated by Vyato and Pablo Saavedra). Briefly the myth tells of a man converted into an ant, Maa Yamok, who killed his wife. From her remains (head lice) grew the tobacco plant. Maa Yamok secretly smoked the tobacco leaves in his pipe at night but, once discovered, he was forced to share them with his people. I read the two narratives to Agapito and he responded by telling me a different but, nonetheless, quite similar version (Fieldnotes 25/10/2005). Pittini (1924:82) transcribed a version of the same myth – told at least 49 years before those registered by Arenas and 81 years before the version related by Agapito – whose protagonist is called Maiyukuruk, a name not dissimilar to Maa Yamok. Pittini’s version differs from Arenas’ inasmuch as the tobacco grew from the ashes of the dead body of Maiyukuruk’s wife and his secret indulgence was discovered by the owl.
the shamans of the myth were going to obtain it from the Paraguayans – or, better said, from the “Chief of the Paraguayans”, Valay Veske, the owner of all things Paraguayan. Last but not least, as we will see, the underwater world is mentioned – by, for example, the Enlhet (Arenas, 1981:54) – as the dwelling-place of the spirit “owner” of tobacco.
In the narrative, the house of Valay Veske is underwater, in the alvata, and it looks like a Paraguayan house (malha tegma Valay lhangkok). Why is the house located in the alvata rather than in the vatsom, the River Paraguay? As we saw in chapter 2, the myth of the “Arrival of Paraguayans” indicates that the latter came up the Paraguay River in a steamboat. As we will see from a comparison with the Enxet version, the detail of the alvata represents an adaptation of the myth to the geographical (and ethnic) context in which it was told.
Despite contextual variations, two constant features that emerge are, on the one hand, the association between spiritual beings and water and, on the other, their resemblance to Paraguayans. The underwater world provides an adequate milieu for the ontological transformation of (human) reality, as the dark waters of the swamps and rivers of the Chaco mostly disable the human sense of sight. It is a medium in which the reality of other beings prevails, a reality to which humans can have access only as shamans. Non-shamans occasionally encounter those beings when fishing, swimming or bathing, but such encounters are largely considered to be potential sources of misfortune for the person(s) involved. 170 Among the Enxet, the Choneygmen (“From the water”) are “the ‘owners’ of many of the plants in the swamps” (Kidd, 1999b:36):
“Contemporary Enxet describe these water spirits as similar in appearance to Paraguayan soldiers, except for the fact that they are short in stature, and they inhabit the swamps of the Chaco in houses that are similar to those of Concepcion. They are the most common auxiliary spirits to be used by shamans”.171
170
Agapito commented that the spirit “owners” of fish can take a fisherman’s catch away from him (Fieldnotes, 27/7/2006; cf. Arenas, 1981:55). Other spirits are dangerous, such as Yegmen askok, Akyeva Anyapong, Yamweike or Yamyatayem, some of which have the appearance of a giant serpent which swallows people (Craig, 1935:281, Kidd, 1999b:34).
171
Kidd, 1999a:9-10. The Choneygmen also cultivate gardens (Kidd, 1992:39). For this reason Kidd argues that these spirits may be the same as the Koonaangayk of the Enlhet, for both are owners of cultivated plants that apparently grow wild in the forest but are actually the produce of the spirits themselves.
In the drier areas of Enxet territory, further to the west, are found the spirits of Walé
Apyepmeyk (“Father of Paraguayans”), who also look like Paraguayan soldiers and are
said by some to be the ghosts of those who died in the Chaco War (Kidd, 1999b:36). Kidd (1999a:9) also mentions the Egyápam (“Our father”) spirits, a category of spirits pertaining to a shamanic cult linked to Anglican missionary influence (see chapter 4) but which closely resemble the Choneygmen inasmuchas they are both of short stature.172
For analytical purposes, a series of correlations can be established among Enlhet-Enenlhet Owner/Master auxiliary spirits. Their features vary conspicuously according to geographical area, historical period, ethnic context and the kind of “other” with whom they are associated – or in whom they originate. Starting with the Enlhet’s Koonaangayk (“Father of the lagoon”) – master of fish and certain (underwater, garden and wild) plants – Arenas (1981:55) associates this powerful being with Koonalwaata (“From the alvata/small river”), an underwater master of fish that looks like a Mennonite. 173 The aforementioned Choneygmen of the Enxet share in common with the Angaité’s Valay
Veske their underwater abode, their Paraguayan-style houses and their Paraguayan
appearance. They differ in that the Choneygmen live in the swamps and Valay Veske in the
alvata, in which respect the latter is similar to Koonalwata. As “Chief of the
Paraguayans”, Valay Veske is close in name to the Enxet’s Walé Apyepmeyk, “Father of Paraguayans”, though their respective domains correspond to different sociohistorical situations: i.e. Paraguayan ranches, in the case of Valay Veske, and Paraguayan battlefields in the case of Walé Apyepmeyk.
Without venturing to establish a hard-and-fast causal link, it is clear that the particular level of reality occupied by each type of spirit corresponds to the origin, circumstances and behaviour of the outsiders with whom it is associated. The fluvial arrival of
172 The Choneygmen, Walé Apyepmeyk and Egyápam spirits of the Enxet are comparable in terms of their origin and features to the chivosis spirits of the Nivacle. The latter are similar, in particular, to the Choneygmen, inasmuch as they are said to be “the spirits of dead and aborted children” and are described as being “short and squat with round stomachs” (Grant, 2006:37-38). A further similarity consists in the fact that cartoon characters – on television or in print – are classified as chivosis by the Nivacle (Grant, ibid.) and, for Enxet shamans, they are a means of access to Walé Apyepmeyk spirits (Kidd, 1999b:38). The shortness of all these Chaco spirits recalls the “granular tininess, diminutive size” which Viveiros de Castro (2006:327) discusses in relation to Yanomami spirits (see above). An additional comparison can be made between xapiripë luminosity (ibid.320ff) and the Egyápam, whose home is said to be “full of light” (Kidd, 1999a:10).
173
The master of fish (Koonaangayk) seems to have more than one name for the Enlhet. According to Arenas (1981:54-55), the spirit is also referred to as Yap’mok, which Arenas translates as “Mother of the fish”, and as Kîlamangyap (“Father of the fish”). It is described as “a huge fish with big whiskers” (ibid.).
Paraguayans and Mennonites locates the Choneygmen, Koonalwaata and Valay Veske in swamps and rivers; the deaths of Paraguayan soldiers locates Walé Apyepmeyk in the drier, western areas; the prayers directed to heaven by missionaries locate Egyápam in the above level. All these superempirical beings, whether or not they are related to outsiders, are masters of things, be it garden plants, water plants and/or fish (Koonaangayk,
Koonalwaata, Choneygmen) or cattle and Paraguayan/foreign goods (Valay Veske,
Egyápam, Walé Apketkok). 174
Table 2. Auxiliary spirits of Enlhet-Enenlhet shamans
AUXILIARY