Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman (second half)

 Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman (second half)

Throughout this week's sections of the reading, there were two recurring themes that although were applied to specific examples, I think really contributed to the overall message of the text that if the Amazon is destroyed, everything else will be too. 

The first of which was making clear distinctions that white people are completely different from the Yanomami, and that the white people don't understand the forest and don't want to try to understand the forest. Kopenawa refers to white people's knowledge of his community and the Amazon as claims, and explicitly distinguishes at times that their words are false and outright lies, such as the perception of the Yanomami as warlike; he especially denounces this narrative, and says that if our elders had actually killed each other like white people say, then the war raids would've never ended and no-one would be here today. He also highlights the frustrating hypocracy rooted in these hegemonic assumptions, that the nature of white people's wars are much more dangerous with bombs, and that Yanomami only arrow each other to take back value of relative's blood, which can pass on through generations. The message that white people know nothing of the forest and the multifaceted values it holds, yet they create false stories to justify claiming rights over and subsequently destroying it, is made especially clear when Kopenawa describes all of the numerous types of spirits, especially the xapiri, and how they are integral to life in the Amazon, so destroying the forest would destroy the spirits and therefore human life. My favorite points that Kopenawa makes to distinguish that white people should not have rights over the Yanomami land and Amazon are that the xapiri truly own nature, and what white people call nature are simply images of the value of the growth of the forest, as well as that money is ultimately papeo siki/tree skin; capitalism and neoliberalism that is driving Amazon exploitation is rooted in the Amazon itself, highlighting the insane irony and hypocracy of the entire situation.

The second theme/motif was the greater value of orality over writing, and thus indigenous knowledge systems over white/colonial knowledge systems. When Kopenawa talked about how white people never stop setting their eyes on the drawings of their speech, circulate it among themselves, and end up only knowing what is already inside their brains, it emphasized how narrowed, self-centered, and close-minded white people really are when participating in cross-cultural, interdisciplinary issues, and that they don't truly speak or think, and then they think that communities like the Yanomami are ignorant because they don't have drawings to put down their words. This kind of ties into the first theme, but I thought it was super effective to get his overarching message across when Kopenawa then compared these white knowledge systems with shamans; shamans are connected to the spirits and truly see them and communicate through speech with them, and therefore can dream far, sleep well, and actually take care of the forest.

Comments

  1. joshua6 April 2024 at 00:16

    I really like your use of the word 'hegemonic' to describe the ways western civilization propagates itself upon. In its attempt to rationalize its destructive tendencies, it is forced to try and paint Indigeneity as something barbaric. I feel the demise of our society will forever be other hegemonic values ingrained in each of us which continuous lead us down this path of destructive consumption, as our way of knowing is so far removed from the spirits around us.

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