Published

2016-01-01

The Wauja snake-basket: myth and the conceptual imagination of material culture in Amazonia

O cesto-serpente Wauja: mito e a imaginação conceitual da cultura material em Amazônia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15446/ma.v7.55701

Keywords:

Upper Xingu, Cosmology, Art, Myth, Music (en)
Alto Xingu, cosmologia, arte, mito, música (pt)

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Authors

  • Aristoteles Barcelos Neto University of East Anglia

The literature on Amazonian ethnology is plenty of mythical serpents whose deeds are relatedto the origin of humanity, the invention and teaching of shamanic knowledge, artefacts, graphicmotifs and songs. If the mythological themes on Amazonian serpents have already been widelydescribed and analysed, the same cannot be said about the visual forms related to these themes.Many studies on Amazonian mythology left aside the very plastic aspects of material culture.These studies did not take into account that several features of the mythological themes areprecisely merged with the qualities of the visual styles. This article discusses some aspects ofthe conceptual imagination of Wauja (an Arawak speaking people of the Upper Xingu) materialculture through the analysis of a mythical character that explicitly exposes the intrinsic andsimultaneous musical and iconographic nature of weaving art.

A literatura etnológica amazônica é povoada de serpentes mitológicas que estão na origem da humanidade, da criação e transmissão de conhecimentos xamânicos, de artefatos da cultura material, de desenhos e de canções. Se os temas mitológicos das serpentes amazônicas já estão amplamente caracterizados e analisados, o mesmo não pode ser dito sobre as formas visuais relacionadas aos mesmos. Muitos estudos da mitologia amazônica deixaram de lado os aspectos propriamente plásticos da cultura material, sem talvez dar-se conta que determinadas particularidades dos temas mito-cosmológicos estão precisamente fundidas nas qualidades dos estilos visuais. Este artigo discute alguns aspectos da imaginação conceitual da cultura material wauja (arawak do Alto Xingu) a partir da análise de um personagem mítico que expõe de modo explícito a natureza intrínseca e simultaneamente musical e iconográfica da arte do trançado.

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How to Cite

APA

Barcelos Neto, A. (2016). The Wauja snake-basket: myth and the conceptual imagination of material culture in Amazonia. Mundo Amazónico, 7(1-2), 115–136. https://doi.org/10.15446/ma.v7.55701

ACM

[1]
Barcelos Neto, A. 2016. The Wauja snake-basket: myth and the conceptual imagination of material culture in Amazonia. Mundo Amazónico. 7, 1-2 (Dec. 2016), 115–136. DOI:https://doi.org/10.15446/ma.v7.55701.

ACS

(1)
Barcelos Neto, A. The Wauja snake-basket: myth and the conceptual imagination of material culture in Amazonia. Mundo Amazon. 2016, 7, 115-136.

ABNT

BARCELOS NETO, A. The Wauja snake-basket: myth and the conceptual imagination of material culture in Amazonia. Mundo Amazónico, [S. l.], v. 7, n. 1-2, p. 115–136, 2016. DOI: 10.15446/ma.v7.55701. Disponível em: https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/imanimundo/article/view/55701. Acesso em: 28 jan. 2025.

Chicago

Barcelos Neto, Aristoteles. 2016. “The Wauja snake-basket: myth and the conceptual imagination of material culture in Amazonia”. Mundo Amazónico 7 (1-2):115-36. https://doi.org/10.15446/ma.v7.55701.

Harvard

Barcelos Neto, A. (2016) “The Wauja snake-basket: myth and the conceptual imagination of material culture in Amazonia”, Mundo Amazónico, 7(1-2), pp. 115–136. doi: 10.15446/ma.v7.55701.

IEEE

[1]
A. Barcelos Neto, “The Wauja snake-basket: myth and the conceptual imagination of material culture in Amazonia”, Mundo Amazon., vol. 7, no. 1-2, pp. 115–136, Dec. 2016.

MLA

Barcelos Neto, A. “The Wauja snake-basket: myth and the conceptual imagination of material culture in Amazonia”. Mundo Amazónico, vol. 7, no. 1-2, Dec. 2016, pp. 115-36, doi:10.15446/ma.v7.55701.

Turabian

Barcelos Neto, Aristoteles. “The Wauja snake-basket: myth and the conceptual imagination of material culture in Amazonia”. Mundo Amazónico 7, no. 1-2 (December 31, 2016): 115–136. Accessed January 28, 2025. https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/imanimundo/article/view/55701.

Vancouver

1.
Barcelos Neto A. The Wauja snake-basket: myth and the conceptual imagination of material culture in Amazonia. Mundo Amazon. [Internet]. 2016 Dec. 31 [cited 2025 Jan. 28];7(1-2):115-36. Available from: https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/imanimundo/article/view/55701

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CrossRef citations3

1. Stephen Hugh-Jones. (2021). Monteverdi’s unruly women and their Amazonian sisters. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 46(3), p.405. https://doi.org/10.1080/03080188.2020.1830519.

2. Frédéric Laugrand, Antoine Laugrand. (2023). Et si les serpents savaient compter ? Les Alangan et les ophidiens de Mindoro (Philippines). Journal de la société des océanistes, (156), p.37. https://doi.org/10.4000/jso.14706.

3. Andrzej Rozwadowski, Janusz Z. Wołoszyn. (2024). Dances with Zigzags in Toro Muerto, Peru: Geometric Petroglyphs as (Possible) Embodiments of Songs. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 34(4), p.671. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774324000064.

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