YURUPARÍ, MASKS AND POWER AMONG THE PIAROA FROM THE ORINOCO BASIN

Authors

  • Alexander Antonio Mansutti Rodriguez Universidad Nacional Experimental de Guayana/Venezuela

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22456/1982-6524.33181

Keywords:

Yurupari, Piaroa people, power, hierarchy, ritual.

Abstract

In northwest Amazonia, among other kinds, two celebrations occur: one with masks dedicated to the harvest of Bactris gasipaes and other fruits, and another with sacred flutes that evoke extraordinary beings. When both coincide in a same village they occur at different moments. However, to the Piaroa and the Wirö peoples of the Orinoco basin, both ceremonies occur simultaneously at the same place. This paper shall describe participants and procedures of the ceremony and evaluate the gender and age based power game that comes to light during it. This ceremony consolidates alliances between the shamans and their communities with the masters who control animals and plants exploited by the Piaroa people, facilitates men’s expropriations and limits women power to the domestic sphere, and shifts a society with no major hierarchical organizations into a highly hierarchical one as long as the ceremony is occuring.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Published

2012-12-21

How to Cite

RODRIGUEZ, Alexander Antonio Mansutti. YURUPARÍ, MASKS AND POWER AMONG THE PIAROA FROM THE ORINOCO BASIN. Espaço Ameríndio, Porto Alegre, v. 6, n. 2, p. 46, 2012. DOI: 10.22456/1982-6524.33181. Disponível em: https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/EspacoAmerindio/article/view/33181. Acesso em: 17 sep. 2026.

Issue

Section

ARTICLES