Book
Gods & vampires: return to Chipaya
University of Chicago Press • Chicago • Published In 1994 • Pages:
By: Wachtel, Nathan, Volk, Carol.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Drawing on follow-up research conducted in 1991, this book discusses the substances of change that have occurred in Chipaya communities since the author's previous fieldwork in the 1970s and 1980s. Over those decades, Chipaya communities witnessed profound changes and social transformation. One of the most significant changes the author noticed was the dissolution of the traditional Chipaya religious system, including the disappearance of the underworld divinities that dominated community life in the 1970s. Main reasons given for this include the rapid assimilation of Chipaya people into the dominant Aymara and Spanish cultures, expansion of missionary churches, the advent of education and youth migration, and globalization. Nevertheless, the author finds continuity of some elements of the old Chipaya culture. One is the myth of [n]kharisiri[/n], a vampire-like creature believed to appear in the person of a white or [i]mestizo[/i] man, causing death and sickness by extracting body fat from innocent victims. A second element exhibiting a degree of continuity is the kinship rule by which the Chipaya divided themselves into moieties.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Cultural identity and pride
- Community structure
- Cultural participation
- Inter-ethnic relations
- Rest days and holidays
- Political movements
- Moieties
- Behavior toward non-relatives
- Sorcery
- Prayers and sacrifices
- Organized ceremonial
- Congregations
- Missions
- Religious denominations
- Religious intolerance and martyrs
- External relations
- Acculturation and culture contact
- Sociocultural trends
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Uru-Chipaya
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2014
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- South America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Central Andes
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Anthropologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Teferi A. Adem; 2012
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1973-1974, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1989
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1973-1989
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Chipaya, Oruro department, Bolivia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Nathan Wachtel ; translated by Carol Volk
- Spine title: Gods and vampires
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-143) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 93035865
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Chipaya Indians--Social life and customs
- Social structure--Bolivia--Chipaya
- Social change--Bolivia--Chipaya
- Ethnology--Fieldwork--Bolivia--Chipaya
- Chipaya (Bolivia)--Social conditions