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PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/27001 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2017-12-05 and may be subject to change. DREAMS AND TRANSITIONS THE ROYAL ROAD TO SURINAMESE AND AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS SOCIETY Een wetenschappelijke proeve op het gebied van de Sociale Wetenschappen PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. C.W.P.M. Blom, volgens besluit van het College van Decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op maandag 24 oktober 2005 des ochtends om 10.30 uur precies door Elizabeth Pieternella Mohkamsing-den Boer geboren op 8 januari 1961 te Dordrecht Promotor: prof. dr. A.P. Borsboom Co-promotor: dr. E.M. Venbrux Manuscriptcommissie: mw. prof. dr. W.H.M. Jansen (voorzitter) prof. dr. A.J.M. van den Hoogen mw. dr. T.H. Zock (RUG) Dit onderzoek is gefinancierd door de Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek in de Tropen (WOTRO). This study was funded by the Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research (WOTRO). Dreams and Transitions: The royal road to Surinamese and Australian Indigenous Society. Thesis Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen - With ref. - With tables. - With summary in Dutch. Cover photograph by Hijn Bijnen © Elizabeth Mohkamsing-den Boer, 2005 ISBN 90-9010315-4 No part of this thesis may be reproduced in any form, by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any informations storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the author. CONTENTS PREFACE VII CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Dreams Prepare your Emotions 1 1.2 Problem and Argument 2 1.3 A Comparative Approach 4 1.4 Research in Suriname 5 1.4.1 Introduction 5 1.4.2 Indigenous People in a Multi-Ethnic Society 7 1.4.3 Amerindian Village Life 9 1.4.4 The Setting for Dream Sharing 12 1.4.5 Collecting Dreams 13 1.4.6 The Spirit World and Dreams 13 1.5 Literature Research on Australian Aborigines 17 1.5.1 Indigenous People of Australia 17 1.5.2 The Dreaming as Cosmology 17 1.6 Terminology 19 1.7 Cosmology and Dreams 21 1.8 Outline 23 CHAPTER 2. THE RELATIONAL APPROACH TO DREAMS 25 2.1 A Social Theory of Mind 25 2.2 Transitional Phenomena and Transitional Space 26 2.3 Religion and Dreams 29 2.4 Relation with the Environment 32 2.4.1 Creation-out-of-Something 32 2.4.2 Pervasiveness in Spiritual Relations 34 2.5 Experiencing Transitions 36 2.5.1 Rites and Myths as Transitional Phenomena 36 2.5.2 Dreams as Transitional Phenomena 37 2.6 Dreams of Passage 39 2.6.1 Rite de Passage 39 2.6.2 Mythe de Passage 40 2.6.3 Rêve de Passage 41 2.7 Sharing Dreams 43 2.8 Dream Genres 44 2.9 Application 46 CHAPTER 3. WHEN THE SPIRITS SPEAK: THE ANCESTRAL CONNECTION 49 3.1 To Provide with a Soul: the Origin of Dreams 49 3.2 Use Us! 52 3.2.1 Neglecting the Spirits of Medicinal Plants 52 3.2.2 Relational Field 53 3.2.3 The Piyai 54 3.2.4 Medicinal Plants 57 3.2.5 Transition and Transformation 58 3.2.6 Sharing 59 3.2.7 Accompanying the Transition 60 3.3 Village Feast: Singing and Dancing at a Ritual Feast 62 3.3.1 The Village Feast 62 iv Dreams and Transitions 3.3.2 The Lead Singer 65 3.3.3 Anxieties and Transition 66 3.4 Return to Coppenamepunt 68 3.4.1 Granny Nora 68 3.4.2 Take a Bath! 68 3.4.3 Bad or Good Omen? 69 3.4.4 Responding to the Call 69 3.5 White Flowered Teenage Struggle 71 3.5.1 Piyai of the Dream and his Practice 71 3.5.2 Ready for Marriage 72 3.5.3 Looking for Advice 73 3.6 Rooted in Tradition 75 3.7 Common Dream Symbols (table 1) 77 CHAPTER 4. WHEN DEATH KNOCKS ON YOUR DOOR 81 4.1 Dreams about Death 81 4.2 Journey of the Soul 81 4.3 The Coffee Factory 83 4.3.1 ‘Klop Klop’ 83 4.3.2 The Setting 83 4.3.3 Aity Dey 85 4.3.4 Who is after me? 86 4.3.5 The Message 88 4.3.6 Not-Good-Enough 90 4.4 Dancing in the Yard 91 4.4.1 Sharing: Two Similar Dreams 91 4.4.2 The Setting 92 4.4.3 Traditional Images 95 4.4.4 Final Transition 96 4.4.5 Recognition 98 4.4.6 Preparation 98 4.5 Dream Symbols and Death (table 2) 101 CHAPTER 5. DREAMING IN THE DREAMTIME 103 5.1 Introduction 103 5.2 Inside and Outside Knowledge 103 5.3 Relation between the Dreaming and Dreams 105 5.4 Spirit Conception Dreams 107 5.4.1 Introduction 107 5.4.2 Who are these Spirit-Children? 109 5.4.3 Prenatal Encounter 110 5.4.4 Further Implications 113 5.5 The Ritually Maturing Mother 114 5.5.1 Women’s Knowledge 114 5.5.2 Double Initiation 115 5.5.3 Judy’s Ritual Life 117 5.5.4 New Life Phase 119 5.6 Topsy Revisited 120 5.6.1 Introduction 120 5.6.2 Topsy and the Crisis 120 5.6.3 Diverting Dreams 121 5.6.4 Reconciliation 123 5.7 Transformation 124 Contents v CHAPTER 6. A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 127 6.1 Introduction 127 6.2 The Spiritual Connection: ‘distinct yet not separate’ 128 6.3 The Narrative: When and What? 129 6.4 Portentous Dreams 132 6.4.1 Death 132 6.4.2 Conception 134 6.5 Obtaining Knowledge 136 6.5.1 Ritual 136 6.5.2 Initiation 137 6.5.3 Starting Young? 138 6.6 Midlife: Change of life, Change of Status 139 6.6.1 Secular Offices 139 6.6.2 Religious Offices and Midlife-Transitions 140 6.7 Power-play and Authorisation 143 6.8 Dreams and Transformation 144 CHAPTER 7. CONCLUSION 147 Appendices 153 Map 1 Geographical distribution of indigenous peoples 153 Map 2 Kari’na villages 154 Map 3 Arawak Villages 155 References 157 Samenvatting (Summary in Dutch) 165 Curriculum Vitae 171 vi Dreams and Transitions PREFACE The notion of studying dreams originated from my interest in small-scale societies with an ‘environmental cosmology’, especially peoples such as the Australian Aborigines. In these societies dreams or rather dream sharing forms an important element in the oral tradition where people enjoy story telling for entertainment. And, here dreams also have a function in the transference of traditional knowledge. In my MA thesis I focussed on the spirit-conception dreams of Australian Aborigines. In these nocturnal dreams the connection with the cosmology carries implications that influence a child’s socio-religious identity and its relationship with the land. I found this aspect particularly fascinating and the idea that this connection would also enforce a certain function of dreams started taking shape. From the very beginning of my research on the functionality of dreams, I had planned to carry out the required fieldwork among Yolgnu women in North Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. The initial contacts with the universities and institutions indicated that this would be no problem, so I set off for Canberra and began with a library and archive research at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies (AIATSIS) and Australian National University (ANU) at Canberra. Surprisingly, the research centre of Maningrida, North Arnhem Land, did not grant the required permission to conduct the research. Thus with the sad prospect of conducting no fieldwork in Australia, I decided to use the material collected from the literature for comparative purposes, and divert my fieldwork to the indigenous people of the littoral of Suriname. The choice for Suriname needs some explanation. When it became clear that fieldwork in Australia was no longer feasible for me, I recalled the frustration of a friend from Suriname living in the Netherlands for many years. Even though he is an Amerindian (with a Kari’na mother and Arawak father), he had hardly any knowledge of his own people and culture and had realised that there was very little literature available on the subject. So when hearing about my deep interest in dreams and Australian Aborigines, he asked me why I didn’t go to Suriname, because he considered it more useful to write about his people than about Australia, and, ‘weren’t these people and their culture not already described extensively?’ This line of argumentation indeed sounded quite logical, and considering the fact that both cultures attach great value to their dreams, it actuated the idea of to compare their ways of dealing with dreams. Hence, without completely dropping the original idea to work on the Australian Aborigines, I decided to extend my research to the lowlands of the Amazon. Over a period of 5 months in 2001 and 4 months in 2004 I conducted interviews in the coastal area of Suriname in Arawak and Kari’na villages. I also interviewed a number of people in Paramaribo. I spoke on dreams and culture with around 75 persons, including in depth interviews with around 30 persons. The dreams discussed in this thesis are not exceptions, not extremities of Arawak and Kari’na dream life but rather the commonalities, viii Dreams and Transitions each in their own field.