CULTIVATING SPIRITS: ON MATSIGENKA NOTIONS OF SHAMANISM AND MEDICINE (AND THE RESILIENCE OF AN INDIGENOUS SYSTEM OF KNOWLEDGE)

The world according to most Amazonian Indians is a place where no sharp distinction can be made between the social, the natural and the supernatural, rather than constituting separate realities they are interconnected and mutually interdependent. In the following I explore some ontological dimensions of health, healing, and shamanism among the Matsigenka of southeastern Peru's montaña area1 and to do so it is necessary to take into account notions of body, spirit and conviviality. The inquiry focuses on conceptual systems behind notions of healing and of the power of the medicine, that is, on cultural rather than on instrumental explanations. I am interested not only in what people say but also in how they express themselves; verbal expressions provide a convenient entrance into conceptualisations of the world as perceived and Acknowledgement: This paper has profited from generous an