Skip to Main Content

The Ecology of the Spoken Word: Amazonian Storytelling and Shamanism among the Napo Runa

Online ISBN:
9780252093609
Print ISBN:
9780252036569
Publisher:
University of Illinois Press
Book

The Ecology of the Spoken Word: Amazonian Storytelling and Shamanism among the Napo Runa

Michael A. Uzendoski,
Michael A. Uzendoski
Flacso Ecuador
Find on
Edith Felicia Calapucha-Tapuy
Edith Felicia Calapucha-Tapuy
Find on
Published:
15 January 2012
Online ISBN:
9780252093609
Print ISBN:
9780252036569
Publisher:
University of Illinois Press

Abstract

This book offers the first theoretical and experiential translation of Napo Runa mythology in English. It presents and analyzes lowland Quichua speakers in the Napo province of Ecuador through narratives, songs, curing chants, and other oral performances, so readers may come to understand and appreciate Quichua aesthetic expression. Like many other indigenous peoples, the Napo Runa create meaning through language and other practices that do not correspond to the communicative or social assumptions of Western culture. Language itself is only a part of a communicative world that includes plants, animals, and the landscape. In the Napo Runa worldview, storytellers are shamans who use sound and form to create relationships with other people and beings from the natural and spirit worlds. Guiding readers into Quichua ways of thinking and being—in which language itself is only a part of a communicative world that includes plants, animals, and the landscape—the book weaves exacting translations into an interpretive argument with theoretical implications for understanding oral traditions, literacy, new technologies, and language.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close