Made from Bone: Trickster Myths, Music, and History from the Amazon

Overview

Overview The primordial times are explored in a cycle of narratives that focus on the invincibility of Made-from-Bone (Iñápirríkuli). These narratives are set in the distant past, before there were cultural distinctions between human and animal beings, men and women, old and young, day and night, here and there. What is present from the very beginning of primordial times is an irreducible principle of violence, deceit, and hostility between kin and affines. The story of how Made-from-Bone originally came into being starts with an act of violence in which a woman’s husband kills her brother. Specifically , an evil animal-person whose name means “Great Sickness” (Kunáhwerrim) murders his wife’s brother. The woman saves the bones of her slain brother’s outer fingers, which then transform into two Cricket-Brothers. The narrative continues with a series of episodes in which Great Sickness tries in vain to kill the CricketBrothers . In this first story, the narrator does not yet use the name Made-from-Bone to refer to the Cricket-Brothers.1 However, the story itself is called “The Origin of Made-from-Bone,” and it is generally understood that the older of the two brothers is the forerunner of Made-from-Bone, the trickster-creator who goes on to become the central character in all three periods of mythic time. The Cricket-Brothers already possess the invincibility of Madefrom -Bone because they always know in advance what Great Sickness is planning and manage to escape by transforming into different species of forest animals, insects, or birds. The story ends when the Cricket-Brothers trick their uncle, Great Sickness, into eating a pot of human flesh in which they had thrown poison. The theme of violent interactions between kin and affines continues to develop through the next eight narratives. Like the more general organization of narratives into three cycles, or periods of time, the order of narratives making up the primordial times (úupi pérri) reflects collaborative decisions that Félix Oliveiros and I made during my fieldwork in 1998. The cycle begins and ends with a pair of stories that feature violent struggles between Made-fromBone and his archenemy, Great Sickness. Between these beginning and ending stories are five narratives in which Made-from-Bone or members of his family fight against other kinds of dangerous animal spirits: a poison-bearing Owl-Monkey, a lecherous AnacondaPerson , bloodthirsty Bat-People, dangerous Fish-Spirits (Yópinai), and carrion-eating Vulture-People. Immediately after the story about the origin of Made-fromBone comes a narrative that explains the origin of death. In this second narrative, Great Sickness invites Made-from-Bone and his family to a pudáli ceremony and tries to kill them all by throwing poison into their drinks. Made-from-Bone’s aunt (his father’s sister ) brings along medicine that saves everyone except the youngest brother, Máwirríkuli, who dies because the supply of medicine runs out. Made-from-Bone manages to bring his brother back to life by blowing tobacco smoke over his bones, but his magic is undone when the brother’s wife violates the taboo against looking at her revived husband before Made-from-Bone can bring him the sacred food that would have completely restored him to life. Having powers of clairvoyance, invincibility, and magical protection allows Made-from-Bone to thwart his enemies’ attempts to kill him. However, such powers do not allow Made-from-Bone to stop the violence by cutting it off at its source or to completely block its effects on other members of his family, such as his youngest brother (Máwirríkuli). It is as if the original acts of killing with poison in the first two stories of the cycle have opened up a Pandora’s box that can never again be closed. The limits of Made-from-Bone’s ability to prevent outbreaks of violence become evident again in a narrative about Owl-Monkey, who has become the owner of poison . Made-from-Bone tries to put an end to the poison by secretly moving the monkeys’ favorite fruit tree into the middle of a river late at night so that they will drown or be eaten by alligators. But the plan fails when Owl-Monkey transforms into a tiny ant and floats downstream in the husk of a dried-up fruit. The myth of Anaconda-Person (Uliámali) offers a variation on the general theme of violence...