Akawaio - Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. The conceptual system is founded on the belief that all material bodies are possessed by the sun's radiant light ( akwa), which endows them with vitality, well-being, and knowledge. This possessed force ( akwaru ) may transmigrate, entering different bodies (as in dreams and acts of sorcery). Every species, resource, and environmental sphere has akwaru, which is personified and in part anthropomorphic. All are ultimately classified as imawariton (environmental forces), which include deceased humans. A major category is the masters and mistresses ( esak ) of species and resources, who figure in shamanic séances and dwell in special, privately owned stones. Offerings of tobacco, food, and beverages are made at the stones to propitiate the master or mistress so that a species or resource will be increased and released for human use. A series of prophet-led, enthusiastic movements, stimulated by mission contact, culminated in Hallelujah in about the 1870s. Adopted from the Makushi (Pemon) of the Rupununi-Rio Branco region, Hallelujah combines indigenous cosmolgy with basic Christian beliefs. Its sung and danced prayers are modeled on traditional forms.

Religious Practitioners. Shamans ( piai'chang ) treat with the akwaru of the universe during night séances. Hallucinating through dieting and the use of tobacco, shamans are possessed and also detach their own vital force to search the cosmos for aid. They determine ultimate causes. Hallelujah prophets are noted for long periods of dreaming during which their vital force journeys upward to akwa. They hear God and receive songs, prayers, and injunctions that will strengthen life on earth.

Ceremonies. Traditional song-and-dance festivals are associated with animals, fish, and forest fruits and their availability. They have been superseded by Hallelujah sung and danced prayers, for communication with God and spirits in heaven (akwa) and to obtain an increase in akwaru, goodness, and well-being for all on earth. The shaman's séance is a skilled theatrical performance for curing sickness and misfortune. It is also a commentary on community affairs, with audience participation as each spirit character possessing the shaman talks and sings. Family ceremonies include the couvade, girls' puberty seclusion, and boys' rites to ensure successful economic enterprises.

Arts. Different categories of songs convey knowledge and power. They include songs of shamans, of Hallelujah prophets, and of the former dance festival, notably tukuik, parishara, and imawari. Numerous privately owned invocations ( taling ) are used—they are rhythmic recitations and poems with complex analogies and metaphors. Some men excel in basketry with red and black designs. Women make patterned bead aprons and fine cotton thread and weave comfortable cotton hammocks. Many traditional craft skills are disappearing.

Medicine. The objective of treatment is to restore the body's akwaru and a balanced harmony. Sick Akawaio rest, diet, and take plant remedies. Healing invocations (taling) and shamanic séances are used. Cold illness is cured when the shaman returns the lost or captured vital force to the body. To cure hot illness, he ejects malevolent forces possessing the patient and summons cold ones to effect a cooling down.

Death and Afterlife. Sudden death is attributed to sorcery ( edodo), whereas death after a long illness is attributed to a curse (evil taling). Deep-seated envy is the stated reason for sorcery, which may be the work of a personal enemy but is usually attributed to other, hostile groups. The body, in its hammock, is interred in a space between two sheets of tree bark, the head of the grave being orientated toward the sunrise. The family leaves the house for three months. Death of a settlement owner may lead to definitive abandonment. A series of deaths of important people in a village formerly led to the formation of a new village. On death, the life-giving radiance departs to reenter the cosmos. In Hallelujah belief it returns to the light of heaven to reside there in happiness. A shade ( akwarup ) is also detached and joins the environmental spirits (imawariton) who dwell inside the mountains feasting, drinking, dancing, and living a replica of life on earth, but without sunlight. Shamans visit there to feast, dance, and seek aid for the sick. The deceased may reincarnate, becoming a protective force within the body of a descendant. Death is a definitive separation of the properties of the two opposed forces of the cosmos, light (akwa) and darkness ( ayan ), which material forms unify and embody. It is also a return to "long ago" ( pena tai), when "all things were like people" ( kapon-pe ) and "all spoke and understood each other."