Añĩ
Araweté · numen · Araweté traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The Añĩ are the ferocious spirits of the terrestrial world, dwelling on the earth and in the forests and preying upon the living. They form the earthly, dangerous counterpart to the celestial Maï, and it is with them that the specter of the newly dead becomes associated while the corpse decays. In Araweté ritual life the forest spirits are captured and made to speak through the Añĩ pihi, distinctive speech-songs that interweave spoken and sung voice, in which a ritual specialist lends his mouth to the spirits and divinities so that they may momentarily address the living. The Añĩ thus mark the near, menacing edge of the invisible world, the forest full of predatory persons whose voices the shaman alone can master.
Domains
- forest
- cannibalism
Powers
- attacks humans from the forest
- is voiced and captured in speech-song
Relations
- companion: ta'o weThe terrestrial specter of the dead is associated with the body and with the Añĩ spirits.Viveiros de Castro, From the Enemy's Point of View, 1992. (secondary)
Sources
- The Añĩ (Ayï) are ferocious terrestrial spirits that live in the forests and attack humans; forest spirits are captured through the Añĩ pihi speech-songs, in which a ritual specialist voices spirits and divinities in combined spoken and sung form.: Instituto Socioambiental, 'Araweté', Povos Indígenas no Brasil, pib.socioambiental.org. (secondary); Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, 'The Crystal Forest: Notes on the Ontology of Amazonian Spirits', Inner Asia 9(2), 2007: 153-172. (secondary)