ABOUT THIS BOOK

"An outstanding and innovative study on hunting, gardening, and love magic among the Aguaruna. . . . [It is] both highly useful ethnographically and an important contribution to the understanding of how a primitive culture conceptualizes its transactions with nature. The book touches on cosmology and religion as well as the ethnoecology of hunting and agriculture--with an interlude on sex."

--American Ethnologist

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Michael F. Brown is Lambert Professor of Anthropology and Chair, Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Williams College. He is the author of numerous works including Who Owns Native Culture?

REVIEWS

“An outstanding and innovative study on hunting, gardening, and love magic among the Aguaruna. . . . [It is] both highly useful ethnographically and an important contribution to the understanding of a how a primitive culture conceptualizes its transactions with nature. The book touches on cosmology and religion as well as the ethnoecology of hunting and agriculture—with an interlude on sex.”—American Ethnologist

— -

“A well-written and carefully crafted account of Aguaruna magic and its practical applications [that] diverges from more traditional approaches by focusing not only on the symbolic realm of magic but also on the instrumental intent.”—American Anthropologist

— -

“An excellent ethnographic account. . . . This book is highly original, imaginative, and readable. It should be popular among specialists of Amazonia, as well as useful in a broad range of anthropology courses.”—Latin American Anthropology Review

— -

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Acknowledgments

Illustrations and Plates

Tables

Orthographic Note

Preface to the Paperback Edition

Introduction

Interpretations of Magic

The Aguaruna and Amazonian Ethnography

Studying Aguaruna Magic

Chapter 1:
Alto Mayo

Alto Mayo Ethnohistory

The Alto Mayo Arguaruna, 1978

Chapter 2:
Seen and Unseen

Ankuash's Snakebite

Being and Becoming in Aguaruna Mythology

Powerful Beings

Souls

Dreams and Visions

Shamanism

Ankuash's Snakebite Reconsidered

Chapter 3:
The Uses of Affinity

Aguaruna Hunting Technology

Magical Songs

Game Grabbers

The Ethnobotany of Attraction

Hunting Failure: Causes and Cures

Chapter 4:
The Garden's Children

Aguaruna Horticulture

The Swidden as Symbolic Space

Gardening Songs

Gardening Stones

Growth-Promoting Plants

Gardening Avoidances

The Structure of Garden Magic

Manioc Horticulture as Practical Signification

Chapter 5:
A Technology of Sentiment

Male-Female Relations

Songs That Direct Human Emotion

Puségki: Agents of Demented Attraction

Love Magic, Hunting Magic, and the Limits of Affinity

Chapter 6:
Working Metaphors

The Question of Agency

Visionary Experience and the Direction of Events

Creating Order

Is Aguaruna Magic Performative?

Magic, Technology, and the Symbolic Power of the Ordinary

Afterword

Appendix 1:
Sources of Anen

Appendix 2:
Notes on the Collection, Transcription, and Translation of Aguaruna Anen

Notes

Bibliography

Index