The Twins and the Jaguars
The Twins and the Jaguars
This chapter employs the verse analysis method developed by Dell Hymes to analyze an Amazonian Quichua myth-narrative, “The Twins and the Jaguars,” from the province of Napo. The narrative's theme, “becoming a jaguar,” is expressed through a rhetorical logic of onset, ongoing, and outcome that unfolds as a structural transformation relation between humans and mythical jaguars. This structural transformation relation is mediated by a third element, the twins, who not only lend movement to structure but also advance the development of drama by obviating previous relations as a dynamic synecdoche. The chapter demonstrates the major contours of performative complexity involved in Amazonian Quichua narration of traditional mythical knowledge and the importance of the jaguar as an active and dominant symbolic “sign” of “becoming” in Napo Runa cosmology and culture. It shows that narrative performance emerges as an important artistic, cultural, and religious tool for experiencing the “transcendence” of everyday human form.
Keywords: verse analysis, Amazonian Quichua myth-narrative, Napo Runa mythology, Quichua storytelling, cosmology, narrative performance
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