Cosmology of the Amazon and Rainforest Ecology

Associated Reading:

G. Reichel-Dolmatoff, "Cosmology as Ecological Analysis: A View from the Rain Forest," Ritual and Belief, pp. 286-295 (1st ed); 400-410 (2nd ed)

Gerardo Reichel-Domatoff has written extensively about the beliefs and rituals of the Tukano (Desana) Indians of the Amazon rainforest. The Tukano possess an elaborate cosmological system, in which animals, plants, heavenly bodies, features of the landscape and human society are all linked together, and present life is seen as a continuation of the experience of the ancestors. In many ways, this reminds us of Griaule and Dieterlen's work on the Dogon. Reichel-Dolmatoff, however, argues that the symbolic system of the Tukano is more than just an elaborate system of ideas. He suggests that it provides a model of rainforest ecology similar to ones used by modern systems theory. Systems theorists argue that there is a complex set of feedback loops in which each element of an ecological system acts on and is acted upon by all other elements in the system.

According to Tukano beliefs, the world was both created and maintained through the fertilizing energy of the Sun, which is seen as male, acting upon the Earth, which is seen as female. Human, animal and vegetable fertility are seen by the Tukano as both mirroring each other and acting upon each other. All fertility depends upon energy sources, which are seen as male, acting upon energy receivers, which are seen as female. Thus, human and animal sexual reproduction is seen to mirror the action of the sun upon the earth. Moreover, since ultimately there is only one energy source, the sun, each reproductive act draws upon the total energy stores of the rainforest world, which is therefore in a state of entropy, or gradual lessening, or wearing down. To some degree this process can be slowed by limiting the amount of reproduction which is allowed to take place. Here is where we can see the complex interactions envisioned by the Tukano:

Sun's energy + gives rise to animal, plant and human life

All life forms + apply energy in + sexual reproduction

Animal and plant energy + make possible + human life

healthy humans+ contribute + energy

to ecosystem , but human sex acts +

lead to + human births

which lead to -

need for - energy food leading to -

- depletion of animal and plant energy

which causes - human death-

which can be limited by - sexual abstinence and restrained food consumption

which requires - orderly exchange of women and observance of food taboos

which allows + replenishment of plant and animal energy

which allows + human sexuality and birth etc.

Plus signs = energy used by human or available for human use

Minus signs = limit on energy available for for human consumption

Thus, the action of the sun, human and animal sexuality, birth, hunting, human death, and religious and social regulations are part of a self-regulating cycle. By practicing abstinence, exogamy, the exchange of women and food, and restrictions on what and when they eat, humans limit the amount of energy they take from the world and, thus, the amount they must give back through death. Tukano shamans take hallucinogenic drugs in order to be transported to the spirit world, where they can negotiate with a spirit being called the Master of the Animals, for the terms on which animal spirits will be released from the storehouses hidden in the landscape, in exchange for an agreed level of human death. The shaman, according to Reichel-Dolmatoff, enforces the regulations on human behaviour which will be necessary to keep the whole system in balance. (We will be learning about shamans and shamanism in more detail later in the course.)

There are many similarities in structure between contemporary scientific understandings of rainforest ecology and the Tukano world view, though the explanatory concepts are obviously different..

From this account of the Tukano cosmology, we can see that the boundary between "magic" "science" and "religion" is by no means clear in societies which have not made a conscious attempt to separate them, as Western society has done increasingly for the last couple of hundred years. The essence of "symbolic" classifications is that "symbol" and "reality" are part of a common whole.