The Value of Narrative: Memory and Patrimony among the Siona

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31048/1852.4826.v11.n0.21463

Keywords:

narrative, memory, ethnic identity, language revitalization, Siona Indians

Abstract

This paper explores the value of narrative of the Siona Indians of Colombia as cultural patrimony and expression of ethics and aesthetics of daily life, collective memory and identity. It focuses on a group of narratives collected in the 1960s by a young Siona man, Felinto Piaguaje, who learned to write his language. Five of these were presented in a workshop in 2014 that intended to collaborate with the ongoing language revitalization and ethnoeducation projects of this Western Tukanoan speaking group. Two of the narratives examined in the workshop are analyzed, as well as the discussions and performances that they stimulated. The participating elders emphasized their value for collective memory regarding their perspective of the world and need for their preservation as cultural patrimony. The young teachers expressed the value of the narratives for educational activities and ethnic identity because they reference their own tradition and language in a context of rapid change. Siona narrative tradition continues to invoke their perspective of a fractal universe as well as philosophy of living well. In addition, in the contemporary situation, these narratives represent the expression of identity for the Siona, conveying information about who they are to themselves and others.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

  • Esther Jean Langdon, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia Social
    Professora titular de Antropologia e coordenadora do INCT Brasil Plural.

References

Salvaguarda. ACIPS/Ministerio del Interior, Puerto Asis, Putumayo.

ACIPS/Associación de Cabildos Indígenas del Pueblo Siona (2014). Hoja de Vida. Manuscrito.

Belaunde, L.E. (2001). Viviendo Bien: Género y Fertilidad entre los Airo-Pai de la Amazonía Peruana. Editora CAAP/BCRP, Lima.

Belaunde, L.E., J.A. Echeverri. (2008). El yoco del cielo es cultivado: perspectivas sobre Paullinia yoco en el chamanismo airo-pai (secoya-tucano occidental). Anthropologica, 26 (26): 87-112.

Bellier, I. (1991). El Temblor y la Luna. Vol. I e II. ABYA-YALA, Quito.

Burke, K. (1957). Literature as Equipment for Living. The Philosophy of Literary Form. pp. 253-262, Vintage Books, New York.

Candre-Kinerai, H. and J.A. Echeverri (1993). Tobaco Frío, Coca Dulce. Colcultura, Bogotá.

Candre, H. and J.A. Echeverri. (1996). Cool Tobacco, Sweet Coca: Teachings of an Indian Sage from the Colombain Amazon. Themis Books, England.

Casas-Manrique, M. and M. de Castellví. (1940) ms. “Encuesta siona y eno”. Manuscript in the archives of Centro de Investigaciones Lingüísticas y Etnográficas de la Amazonía Colombiana (CILEAC), Bogotá, Colombia

Cesarino, P. de N. (2010). Donos e Duplos: relações de conhecimento, propriedade e autoria entre Marubo, Revista de Antropologia, 53 (1) :147-197.

Chaves Chamorro, M. (2002). Jerarquías de color y mestizaje en la Amazonia occidental colombiana. Revista Colombiana de Antropologia 38: 189-216.

Chaves Chamorro, M. (2003). “Cabildos multiétnicos e identidades depuradas”. C.I. Garcia, Ed. Fronteras territories y metáfora, pp. 121-135, Instituto de Estudios Regionales, INER, Universidad de Antioquia, Hombre Nuevo Editores, Medellín.

Cipolletti, M.S. (1988). Aipe Koka: La palabra de los antiguos. Tradición oral secoya. Ediciones ABYA-YALA, Quito, Ecuador.

Corte Constitucional (2009). Auto no. 004 de 2009. http://www.mintic.gov.co/portal/604/articles-3486_documento.pdf (Last access 20/09/2016)

Echeverri, J.A. ed. (2004). “Botando Pereza : El Yoco entre los secoya del Putumayo. Leticia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Graham, L.R. (2000). “The One who created the sea”: Tellings, meanings and intertextuality in the translation of Xavante narrative.” K. Sammons and J. Sherzer, ed. Translating Native Latin American Verbal Art: Ethnopoetics and Ethnography of Speaking. pp. 252-271, Smithsonian Institution Press,

Kelly Luciani, J.A. (2001). Fractalidade e Troca de Perspectivas, Mana, 7(2): 95-132.

Kienzl, S. (2006). Informe Preparatorio para la Mision Internacional de Verificación de la Situación de derechos humanos y derecho internaiconal humanitario en pueblos Indígenas en Colombia. http://www.acnur.org/t3/uploads/media/1647.pdf?view=1 (Last Access 19/09/2016).

Langdon, E.J. (1990). La historia de la conquista de acuerdo a los Indios Siona del Putumayo. R. Pineda Camacho and B. Alzate Angel, ed. Los Meandros de la Historia em Amazônia, pp. 13-41. Ediciones Abya-Yala, Quito, Ecuador.

Langdon, E.J. (1996). Mueren en realidad los chamanes? narracciones de los siona sobre chamanes muertos. Alteridades, Antropologia de la curación. 6(12): 61-75.

Langdon, E.J. (2001). A Doença como Experiência: O Papel da Narrativa na Construção Sociocultural da Doença. Etnográfica: Revista do Centro de Estudos de Antropologia Social. V(2):241-260.

Langdon, E.J. (2013). “La visita a la casa de los tigres”: La contextualización en narrativas sobre experiencias extraordinarias. Revista Colombiana de Antropologia 49(1): 129-152

Langdon, E.J. (2014). La negociación de lo oculto: chamanismo, medicina y familia entre los Siona del bajo Putumayo. Editora Universidade del Cauca, Popayán, Colombia.

Langdon, A.S. and E.J., directors. (2015). Taller de Bain Coca con el Pueblo Siona del Putumayo. 30 min. INCT: Instituto Brasil Plural, Florianópolis.

Mallol de Recasens, M.R. (1963). Cuatro representaciones de las imagenes alucinatorias originadas por la toma del yagé. Revista Colombiana de Folclor (Bogotá) III(8): 59-79.

Mallol de Recasens, M.R. and J. de Recasens T. (1964-65). Contribución al conocimiento del cacique-curaca entre los Siona. Revista Colombiana de Antropología (Bogotá) 13:91-145.

Musalem Nazar, P. (2015). Circuitos políticos en el Putumayo indígena. Paper presented in the XV Congreso de Antropología en Colombia: Regiones, “Postconflicto” y Futuros Posibles. June, Santa Marta, Colômbia

Musalem Nazar, P. (2016). Os Siona do Putumayo: Memoria, Historia e Ritual. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil. Doctoral Thesis, Biblioteca, UFSC.

Overing, J. and A. Passes, ed. (2000). The anthropology of Love and Anger: The Aesthetics of conviviality in Native Amazonia. Routledge, London.

Portela Guarín, H., et. al. (2003). Plan de vida del pueblo Siona Ga’ntëya bain. Editorial Universidad del Cauca, Popayán.

Ramírez, M.C. (2011). Between the Guerrrillas and the State: The Cocalero Movement, Citizenship and Identity in the Colombian Amazon. Duke University Press, Durham.

Seeger, A., R. DaMatta, E. Viveiros de Castro (1987). A Construção da Pessoa nas Sociedades Indígenas Brasileiras”. Pacheco de Oliveira Filho, J. ed., Sociedades Indígenas e Indigenismo no Brasil, pp. 11-30. UFRJ/Editora Marco Zero, Rio de Janeiro.

Vickers, W. (1989). Los Sionas y Secoyas: Su adaptación al medio ambiente amazónico. ABYA-YALA, Quito.

Viveiros de Castro, E.B. (1996). Os Pronomes Cosmológicos e o Perspectivismo Amerindio. Mana, 2 (2): 145-162.

Viveiros de Castro, E.B. (2006). A Floresta de Cristal: Notas sobre a Ontologia dos Espíritos Amazônicos. Cadernos de Campo 14/15: 319-338

Wheeler, A. (1987). Gantëya bain (El pueblo siona del río Putumayo, Colombia). 2 vol. Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, Bogotá.

Downloads

Published

2018-10-08

Issue

Section

Dossier Etnografía del habla

How to Cite

Langdon, E. J. (2018). The Value of Narrative: Memory and Patrimony among the Siona. Revista Del Museo De Antropología, 11, 91-100. https://doi.org/10.31048/1852.4826.v11.n0.21463

Similar Articles

1-10 of 753

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.