The spirit with no anus and the pots that fart: ceramics of life and death in Northwest Amazonia
This paper takes as its starting point the story of a spirit with no anus whose inability to fart leads to his death and transformation into clay. In particular, it examines the relationship between pottery trumpets associated with this spirit (played in exchange ceremonies) and bark Jurupary trumpe...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Société des américanistes
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Journal de la Société des Américanistes |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/21930 |
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| author | Stephen Hugh-Jones |
| author_facet | Stephen Hugh-Jones |
| author_sort | Stephen Hugh-Jones |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper takes as its starting point the story of a spirit with no anus whose inability to fart leads to his death and transformation into clay. In particular, it examines the relationship between pottery trumpets associated with this spirit (played in exchange ceremonies) and bark Jurupary trumpets and suggests that the two instruments stand in a relationship of “flesh” and “bone”. Uncovering this parallelism provides an opportunity to revisit noise, putrefaction, and beer in Northwest Amazonian mortuary rituals, where other types of pottery trumpets are used in conjunction with Jurupary trumpets. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the relevance of these mythical and ritual materials to Amazonian archaeology and the interpretation of anthropomorphic burial urns. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-df8f723911274ca5a64497751a6f4301 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0037-9174 1957-7842 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | Société des américanistes |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal de la Société des Américanistes |
| spelling | doaj-art-df8f723911274ca5a64497751a6f43012025-02-05T15:54:17ZengSociété des américanistesJournal de la Société des Américanistes0037-91741957-78422023-07-01109194610.4000/jsa.21930The spirit with no anus and the pots that fart: ceramics of life and death in Northwest AmazoniaStephen Hugh-JonesThis paper takes as its starting point the story of a spirit with no anus whose inability to fart leads to his death and transformation into clay. In particular, it examines the relationship between pottery trumpets associated with this spirit (played in exchange ceremonies) and bark Jurupary trumpets and suggests that the two instruments stand in a relationship of “flesh” and “bone”. Uncovering this parallelism provides an opportunity to revisit noise, putrefaction, and beer in Northwest Amazonian mortuary rituals, where other types of pottery trumpets are used in conjunction with Jurupary trumpets. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the relevance of these mythical and ritual materials to Amazonian archaeology and the interpretation of anthropomorphic burial urns.https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/21930archaeologypotterytrumpetsJuruparymortuary ritualsbeer |
| spellingShingle | Stephen Hugh-Jones The spirit with no anus and the pots that fart: ceramics of life and death in Northwest Amazonia Journal de la Société des Américanistes archaeology pottery trumpets Jurupary mortuary rituals beer |
| title | The spirit with no anus and the pots that fart: ceramics of life and death in Northwest Amazonia |
| title_full | The spirit with no anus and the pots that fart: ceramics of life and death in Northwest Amazonia |
| title_fullStr | The spirit with no anus and the pots that fart: ceramics of life and death in Northwest Amazonia |
| title_full_unstemmed | The spirit with no anus and the pots that fart: ceramics of life and death in Northwest Amazonia |
| title_short | The spirit with no anus and the pots that fart: ceramics of life and death in Northwest Amazonia |
| title_sort | spirit with no anus and the pots that fart ceramics of life and death in northwest amazonia |
| topic | archaeology pottery trumpets Jurupary mortuary rituals beer |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/21930 |
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