The Sons of the Moon: the Amahuaca Version of a Widespread Amazonian Myth
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The Sons of the Moon: the amahuaca version of a widespread amazonian myth 54 The Sons The Sons of The Moon: of the Moon: The amahuaca version of a the amahuaca version widespread amazonian myth of a widespread amazonian myth R O B E R T L. C A R N E I R O american museum of natural history, usa 55 Carneiro, R. L. Abstract In a previous publication, I presented the Kuikuru version of an important myth from the Upper Xingú which I called “To the Village of the Jaguars.” A version of this myth is widely dis- tributed among Amazonian groups, including the Amahuaca, a Panoan-speaking group of eastern Peru and western Brazil. The Amahuaca version is presented here as I recorded it among them in 1960 and 1961. After presenting the text of the myth, I discuss specific similarities and differences between the Amahuaca and Kuikuru versions of it. Key words: Amazonian myth, Amahuaca Indians, Kuikuru Indians. Resumo Em uma publicação anterior, apresentei a versão Kuikuru de um importante mito do Alto Xingú, que eu chamei de “Para a Al- deia das Onças”. Uma versão desse mito encontra-se largamente distribuída entre grupos amazônicos, incluindo os Amahuaca, um grupo falante Pano do leste peruano e do oeste brasileiro. A versão Amahuaca é apresentada aqui assim como foi registrada por mim entre 1960 e 1961. Depois de apresentar o texto do mito, eu discuto similaridades e diferenças específicas entre as versões Amahuaca e Kuikuru do mito. Palavras-chave: Mito Amazônico, índios Amahuaca, índios Kuikuru. Resumen En una publicación anterior, yo he presentado una versión de un importante mito del Alto Xingú, que yo he llamado “Hasta la Aldea de los Jaguares”. Una versión de este mito se la encuentra largamente distribuida entre los grupos amazónicos, incluyendo los Amahuaca, un grupo hablante de Pano del este peruano y del oeste brasileño. La versión Amahuaca es presentada aquí así como la oí en 1960 y 1961. Después de presentar el texto del mito, yo discuto similitudes y diferencias específicas entre las versiones Amahuaca y Kuikuru del mito. Palavras-clave: Mito Amazónico, índios Amahuaca, índios Kuikuru. 56 Amazônica 1 (1): 54-67, 2009 The Sons of the Moon: the amahuaca version of a widespread amazonian myth INTRODUCTION ily believed. As a result, today we have As a graduate student I used to dis- for our perusal an enormous corpus dain the study of mythology. To me it of origin myths. seemed trivial, and at best peripheral to Of course, there is a lot more to my- the solid substance of anthropology. thology than simply providing answers But over the years, especially as I be- to questions. Myths are stories spun gan to do ethnographic field work and out of the human imagination … nar- to collect myths myself, my attitude ratives showing great and unending toward mythology changed. For one creativity. And indeed even, oftentimes, thing, I became more fully aware of – revealing flashes of literary merit. and began to admire – the touches of imagination so much in evidence in the Moreover, it is not just the content of myths of primitive peoples. myths that attracts our interest. It is also their structure, for myths have an Another aspect of myths that increas- identifiable architecture. They consist ingly impressed me was their role in ac- of segments – building blocks – which counting for the things and events of are assembled together. These building the world, both terrestrial and celestial. blocks – the so-called myth motifs – are Many myths seemed expressly designed joined to form a coherent whole. Still, to explain features that primitive peoples these segments are separable. They can were familiar with, but could not possi- be disassembled and reassembled in dif- bly understand. How, for example, could ferent ways. When we examine several an Amazonian Indian, utterly ignorant versions of what we regard as basically of plate tectonics, know the causes of the same myth we see how the compo- an earthquake? Myths provided answers nent elements can be rearranged in vari- to questions such as this, and to count- ous ways. And the segments themselves less others: Why do we have an alterna- can be altered: they can be elaborated tion of day and night? What produces or truncated. Or they can be left out al- thunder and lightning? Why do eclipses together. At the same time, entirely new occur? And why do the Sun, the Moon elements may be introduced and joined and the stars sit up in the heavens and with older ones to alter or enhance the look down upon us? myth. The basic myth may still be rec- At a rudimentary stage of culture, it ognizable as an entity, but the different was impossible for primitive peoples to combinations of its elements may im- formulate anything like a scientifically part to the new version of it a distinctly accurate explanation of many natu- different character. ral phenomena. Still, human curiosity I mentioned that individual elements has always been strong and insistent. of a myth may be elaborated. What And so human beings devised stories started out as a simple episode in one purporting to account for how these version of the myth may be length- things came to be. Moreover, in that ened, complicated, and embellished credulous age these stories were read- in another version. Here is where we Amazônica 1 (1): 54-67, 2009 57 Carneiro, R. L. see the mythmaker at work. The gifted apart, revealing a former closeness storyteller is not likely to feel a sense now broken. Alternatively, two dis- of obligation to a myth as he originally tant tribes may come to have the same heard it. The urge to embellish it may myth through diffusion. Historical re- be too strong to resist. He sees an op- construction may thus be aided by the portunity to brighten up the myth and study of mythology. he takes it. The Amahuaca myth to be presented Let me offer a concrete example of this here is one which I find of particular process. The myth I call “To the Vil- interest. It is by no means unique to the lage of the Jaguars,” which I collected Amahuaca or the Kuikuru, who share among the Kuikuru in 1975 (Carneiro certain core features of it. Indeed, the 1989) is a case in point. More than myth is found over much of Amazonia. half the pages of the printed version But while the Amahuaca and Kuikuru of this myth consist of footnotes – versions of it have several elements in 170 of them in all. And each footnote common, there are also distinct dif- represents a variant, small or large, of ferences between them. The fact that other versions of this myth that have certain common elements of the two been recorded. Each variant is a case occur far and wide in Amazonia sug- where the re-teller of the myth, in one gests that the myth has a respectable Upper Xingú village or another, found antiquity. At the same time, it indicates himself giving a slight creative twist to that other parts of the myth are eas- the myth as he recounted it. ily detached from its core. Or perhaps Now, if we go back to the very begin- they are simply more susceptible to de- ning of things, there is no question cay. So far as I know, though, the myth that myth had to be invented. What- does not occur outside of greater Am- ever subsequent listeners to the myth azonia. It would appear, then, that the may have thought about it, the person myth did not take shape until well after who first told it had to know it was a Indians had moved into Amazonia. fabrication. He may have reasoned that The particular version of the myth if he made the story vivid, detailed, and given below was told to me by Ama- persuasive enough, people around him huaca informants in 1960 and 1961. would tend to believe it. The Amahuca are a Panoan-speaking Yet another aspect of myths make group inhabiting parts of the Peruvian them useful to the anthropologist. By Montaña. The myth does not have a comparing myths gathered over a large common name, although Alfred Mé- area like Amazonia it may be possible traux, who first recognized it as distinc- to see historical connections among tive, called it a twin myth in the title of societies spread over a large region. his article about them (Métraux 1946). Entire myths, or portions of them, While twins do occur in the myth—the may be retained by societies which Sun and the Moon, for example—this were once neighbors but have moved is a relatively minor element of the 58 Amazônica 1 (1): 54-67, 2009 The Sons of the Moon: the amahuaca version of a widespread amazonian myth myth. For reasons that will soon be- to permit even an educated guess as to come apparent, a more fitting designa- where it began. tion for the Amahuaca version is “The Without further ado, I present below Sons of the Moon.” Some years ago I “The Sons of the Moon,” the Ama- published the Kuikuru version of this huaca version of this widespread myth, calling it “To the Village of the myth, one of the most distinctive in all Jaguars (Carneiro 1989), and this name of Amazonia1. could also fittingly be applied to the Amahuaca version of it. While the two THE SONS OF THE MOON myths differ widely in a number of re- spects, at certain points they virtually Far back in the mythological past, a coincide.