Book

Amazonian cosmos: the sexual and religious symbolism of the Tukano Indians

University of Chicago PressChicagoPublished In 1971 • Pages:

By: Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This work is a study of the religious symbolism of a small group of tropical rain forest Indians known as the Desana (a subgroup of Tucano) living in the Vaupés region of Colombia's northwest Amazon area. Much of the information is based on the author's conversation with a single informant -- a largely acculturated Desana Indian by the name of Antonio Guzman. The document is divided into three major parts. Part I presents an ethnographic sketch of the Desana people and their land; part II, the Creation Myth, contains a relatively concise statement of cosmology and forms the basis of the establishement of various cultural institutions and religious codes; and part III provides a detailed analysis of religious symbolism in various aspects of Desana life.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Hunting and trapping
Fishing
Literary texts
Shamans and psychotherapists
General character of religion
Mythology
Ethnophysics
Ethnozoology
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Tukano
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
1998
RegionThe area the document pertains to
South America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Amazon and Orinoco
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.
Ethnologist
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
John Beierle ; 1996
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
ca. 1960s
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1960s
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Desana tribe; Vaupés region, Colombian northwest Amazon
NotesAdditional notes
Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff
Translation of: Desana
Includes bibliographical references (p. 276-280)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
73133491
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Tukano Indians