ANTH XXX:   Amazonian Religion and Nature

Contact Hours: 45  Credits: 3

Instructor: Tod Swanson

  

Course Description 

 

The course examines Amazonian cultural knowledge of water, weather, plant and animal life seeking to uncover underlying assumptions that constitute a systematic, if implicit, religious philosophy of nature.  It also teaches students how to ask key questions and to carry out qualitative ethnographic research in the Cultural Anthropology and the Humanities.  How do Amazonian people understand their relatedness to a natural world believed to be alive and human-like?  How do they understand the hidden social lives of plants and animals.  What is believed to cause new species to emerge or to become extinct? How are human emotions related to the seasonal cycle of rains?  How is plant and animal ecology believed to serve as a model for understanding human society and vice versa.  What aesthetic, emotional or religious practices were developed to create bonds of empathy or communication between human beings and the natural world.

 

Learning Objectives:

 

•  Learn to analyze Amazonian narratives on plant and animal origins 

•  Understand the aesthetics of Amazonian engagement of other species.   

•  Understand how nature works as a pattern for organizing Amazonian social life and conversely, how social life works as a model for understanding nature.

•  Learn to carry out qualitative research in Cultural Anthropology and the Humanities.

 

Method of Instruction

This course is a field course which teaches students how to elicit and analyze indigenous knowledge of nature.  Because Amazonian cultures are oral cultures their knowledge of nature has not been codified in texts but rather in origin stories, art, songs, prohibitions and patterns of speech for addressing nature.  It is thus these materials which the course teaches students to analyze.

 

Grading and Assessment:

Daily entries in an academic journal.      60%

Participation  40%.

 

Required Readings:  (Selections from) 

 

Brown, Michael.  Tsewa’s Gift:  Magic and Meaning in an Amazonian Society.  Smithsonian Institution Press.  1986

Descola, Phillipe.  In the Society of Nature:  A Native Ecology in Amazonia.  Cambridge University Press, 1996 [1986]. 

Muratorio, Blanca.  The Life and Times of Grandfather Alonso:  Culture and History in the Upper Amazon.  Rutgers University Press, 1991.

Overing, Joanna and Alan Passes.  The Anthropology of Love and Anger:  The Aesthetics of Conviviality in Native Amazonia, Routledge Press, 2000.

Swanson, Tod.  Singing to Estranged Relatives:  Quichua Relations to Plants in the Ecuadorian Amazon.  Journal of Religion and Culture, Vol 3.1 (2009) 36-65. 

 

Schedule

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Itinerary

Saturday June 30

11:30 PM Arrive in Quito Shuttle to Real Audiencia

 

Sunday,  July 1

8:00 AM Breakfast

9:00 AM Tour colonial Quito (founded 1535)

12:00 Lunch At Hotel Real Audiencia

1:PM  Hike in the high altitude páramo polylepus forest.

6:30 PM Arrive at Yanayacu Cloud forest Station

7:00 PM Dinner

 

Monday  July  2

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

2-4 Hike in the cloud forest

7:00 Dinner at Iyarina

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Tuesday, July 3

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

2-5 Introduction to the Ecuadorian Amazon.    Swanson

7:00 Dinner

 

​Wednsday July 4

Reading:

Swanson, Instructions and rubric for writing weekly essays, title questions and responses  
Swanson Lecture, Features shared across Native Traditions in the Americas that are distintive  

Swanson, Tod.  Singing to Estranged Relatives:  Quichua Relations to Plants in the Ecuadorian Amazon.  Journal of Religion and Culture, Vol 3.1 (2009) 36-65. 

 

Thursday,  July 5   

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

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• Tod Swanson.  "Singing to Estranged Relatives: Runa (Quichua) Relations to Plants in the Ecuadorian Amazon."   In Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture.  Vol 3:1 2009. Pp. 36-65.  " 

• Emergence of the Air Spirit People," from Diné bahane, pp. 37-49. 

• Swanson Lecture, Guide to reading Native Origin Stories   (especially Air Spirit People and Origin of the Moon and Ilucu)

• Origin of the Sahuaro Cactus (Tohono O'odham) 

• Origin of the White Beans (Tohono O'odham)   

• Origin of the Pleides (Tohono O'odham)  

• Origin of the Yaqui Flute 

• Origin of the Agoutis 

• Bélgica Dagua, "How an unwanted man became the spirit eye tree”

• Bélgica Dagua, "Origin of the Wooly Monkeys."

• The Origin of the Moon and the Iluku Bird 

• The Moon's Sister Follows Him to Become the Kingu Constellation This is another version or episode in the story of the moon and his sister.  In this version the sister is left behind pregnant with their child.  After the the brother become the moon and the sister is left behind she follows him downriver to the east carrying their child.  When she reaches the ocean at the mouth of the Amazon she and the child follow the moon into the sky.  The child becomes the evening star and the sister become the zig-zag kingu constellation that rises following the moon each evening.

• Clara Santi Grefa, "Hearing the Jilucu (Grand Potoo bird) Makes Me Sad."

2-5  Amazonian Religion and Nature

• Mother Water, Hopi Testimony on Water (video)

• Peruvian Quechua Water Ceremony

• The Trees Call Water           

 

7:00 Dinner

 

Friday,  July 6

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

Afternoon: Free Time

7:00 Dinner

 

Saturday July 7   Free Day.  No Class.

8:00 Breakfast

1:00 Lunch

7:00 Diner

 

Sunday  July 8    Free Day.  No Class.

8:00 Breakfast

1:00 Lunch

7:00 Dinner

 

Monday, July 9  

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Amazonian Religion and Nature

• Swanson Lecture "The Emotions of Compassion and Anger in the articles by Peter Gow, Elvira Belaunde and Elsje Lagrou   

•  Peter Gow (2000),  “Helplessness – the affective preconditions of Piro social life”.  In Joanna Overing and Alan Passes eds., The Anthropology of Love and Anger:  The Aesthetics of Conviviality in Native Amazonia,  pp 46-63.  Routledge: London.   

• Elsie Lagrou, "Homesickness and the Cashinahua Self: A reflection on the embodied quality of relatedness 

• Swanson interview with Eulodia Dagua on Emotions and the Weather

• Swanson interview with Eulodia Dagua,  "Widowed toucans sing love songs." (YouTube video)

• Swanson interview with Eulodia Dagua and Pedro Andi, "A Bird the Cries When People Die." (Video)

• Carmen Andi and E. Dagua, "We Are To Talk to Him Nicely: Amazonian Quichua women harvest bark from a medicinal tree."

• Vicuñita Song in which a girl evokes sympathy for herself by pitying a vicuña

• The Poor Alcalde: Salasaca Kichwa Story of the Origin of their Annual Fiesta 

7:00 Dinner

 

Tuesday,  July 10 

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Amazonian Religion and Nature

On anger:  

 

• Luisa Elvira Belaunde. "The convivial self and the fear of anger amongst the Airo-Pai of Amazonian Peru"   

• On the Travels of the Jesuit Father  (How a Quichua community avoids anger and then kills) 

• Eulodia Dagua, "On the new moon the orphan child is going away."   

• "Bitter, Bitter, Ayambi: An elderly Quichua woman's song to repel anger"

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Wednesday,  July 11    

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Amazonian Religion and Nature

7:00 Dinner

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Thursday July 12

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Amazonian Religion and Nature

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• Swanson, "Relatives of the Living Forest:  The Social Relation to Nature Underlying Ecological Action in Amazonian Kichwa Communities   .  Please read the whole article but focus your attention on the portion of the paper from page 5 on.  In this article I examine how Amazonian Quichua come into a physical relation with the forest spirit owners of the animals.

 

Objectives:

• articulate how people came into a special relation to the forest and animals as they matured.

• articulate patterns of similarity that distinguish Native stories of encounters with animals and their world

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• "Antelope Girls", from Frank Linderman, Pretty Shield: Medicine Woman of the Crow. 

• The Antelope Boy of Shogopovi.  From Harold Courlander, The Fourth World of the Hopis, 139-146. 

• "Squirrel Cuckoo: A bird that lies and sometimes tells the truth."

• Tohono O'odham Coyote Stories 

• Apinayé Man's Encounter 

• O'Odham Deer Hunting Stories 

• On the Seductive Quality of Animal People, from Muriel Thayer Painter, With Good Heart: Yaqui Beliefs and Ceremonies in Pascua Village. Tucson:  University of Arizona Press, 1986.  P. 52-53 

• Baby boy placed in the body of a moose 

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7:00 Dinner

 

Friday,  July 13

8:00 Breakfast

Travel to Yasuni National Park

 

Saturday July 14   Yasuni National Park

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Class

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Class

7:00 Diner

 

Sunday  July 15   Yasuni National Park

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Class

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Class

7:00 Dinner

 

Monday, July 16   Return from Yasuní National Park

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Tuesday, July 17   Free Day

 

Wednesday, July 18  Free Day

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Thursday,  July 19  

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Amazonian Religion and Nature

• Tod Swanson, “Looking at the Sun as an Act of Memory: An Analysis of Two Kichwa Sun Songs." 

• Singing With the Orphaned Birds

• First Woman Sends Her Children Away As  Animals

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7:00 Dinner

 

Friday, July 20  

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Free time

7:00 Dinner

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Saturday, July 21   Free Day.  No Class.

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Class

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Class

7:00 Diner

 

Sunday, July 22     Free Day.  No Class.

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Class

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Class

7:00 Diner

 

Monday, July 23 

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Amazonian Religion and Nature

• Eulodia Dagua, "On Waking Up a Tree to Ask for Its Medicine."

• Regina Harrison, The Metaphysics of Sex: Quichua Songs from the Tropical Forest 

• Yawamana Story of the Origin of Ayawaska (animated video)

 

7:00 Dinner

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Tuesday, July 24  

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Amazonian Religion and Nature

7:00 Dinner

 

Wednesday, July 25 

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Amazonian Religion and Nature

7:00 Dinner

 

Thursday, July  26  

8:00 Breakfast

9-12  Tropical Ecology

1:00 Lunch

2-5  Amazonian Religion and Nature

7:00 Dinner

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Friday,  July  27 

8:00 Breakfast

9-12 Tropical Ecology Wind up

1:00 Lunch

Travel to the airport

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Saturday July 28 

Arrive home. 

Saturday          June 30         Arrive in Quito

Sunday             July 1            Travel down to Iyarina. Culture of the Cloud Forest

Monday           July 2             Culture of the Cloud Forest. (Reading: Blanca Muratiorio)

Tuesday           July 3             History of the Ecuadorian Amazon.  (Reading: Blanca Muratiorio)

Wednesday     July 4             Plant and animal origin stories.   Swanson, Tod.  Singing to Estranged Relatives:  Quichua                                  Relations to Plants in the Ecuadorian Amazon.  Journal of Religion and Culture, Vol 3.1                                                       (2009) 36-65. 

Thursday         July 5             Swanson "Mixed Flock Fruit Eating Birds as Symbols of Love Relations"

Friday               July 6             Guided research and interviewing on native cultural relations to environment.

 

Saturday          July 7             Free Day.  No class. 

Sunday             July 8            Free Day.  No class. 

 

Monday            July 9            Yasuni National Park.  Waorani culture and unconnected peoples

Tuesday            July 10          Yasuni. National Park. Waorani culture and unconnected peoples

Wednesday     July 11           Yasuni. National Park. Waorani culture and unconnected peoples

Thursday          July 12          Yasuni. National Park. Waorani culture and unconnected peoples

Friday               July 13          Guided research and interviewing.

 

Saturday          July 14           Free Day. No classes.

Sunday             July 15          Free Day.  No classes.

 

Monday            July 16           Swanson, Engaging the Spaces and Times of Species:  The Kichwa Temporal Relation to                                                    Nature

Tuesday           July 17           Cultural relations to water.   Descola, “The world of the River.” From In the Society of                                                         Nature.    Video on Origin of Ayawaska,  Anaconda Sirena and the Kandu Stones

Wednesday     July 18           Cultural relations to manioc gardens.  Michael Brown, “The Gardens Children,”  Tsewa’s                                                    Gift:  Magic and Meaning in an Amazonian Society.  Smithsonian Institution Press.  1986.

Thursday         July 19           Cultural Relations to Animals in Hunting.  Michael Brown, Tsewa’s Gift: Magic and Meaning                                 in an Amazonian Society.  Smithsonian Institution Press.  1986.

Friday               July 20           Guided research and interviewing.

 

Saturday          July 21           Free Day.  No class. 

Sunday             July 22          Free Day.  No class. 

 

Monday           July 23           Hike into the forest.   Round table discussion on strangler figs.   Kichwa story of                                                                  strangler figs.  Swanson, Engaging the Spaces and Times of Species:  The Kichwa                                                                Temporal Relation to Nature.

Tuesday           July 24           Native Culture and the Changing Environment

Wednesday     July 25           Native Culture and the Changing Environment.  

Thursday         July 2 6          Final.  Course wind up. 

Friday               July 2 7         Travel to the airport

Saturday          July 28          Arrive in Pittsburgh

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Academic Policies, University of Pittsburgh

 

If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and the Office of Disability Resources and Services, 216 William Pitt Union, 412-648-7890/412-383-7355 (TTY), as early as possible in the term. Disability Resources and Services will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course.

 

Cheating/plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students suspected of violating the University of Pittsburgh Policy on Academic Integrity, noted below, will be required to participate in the outlined procedural process as initiated by the instructor. A minimum sanction of a zero score for the quiz, exam or paper will be imposed.

 

The integrity of the academic process requires fair and impartial evaluation on the part of faculty and honest academic conduct on the part of students. To this end, students are expected to conduct themselves at a high level of responsibility in the fulfillment of the course of their study. It is the corresponding responsibility of faculty to make clear to students those standards by which students will be evaluated, and the resources permissible for use by students during the course of their study and evaluation. The educational process is perceived as a joint faculty-student enterprise which will perforce involve professional judgment by faculty and may involve—without penalty—reasoned exception by students to the data or views offered by faculty. Senate Committee on Tenure and Academic Freedom, February 1974

 

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