ABSTRACT

In this article, I take a holistic approach to the various bodies of powerful knowledge guarded by religious specialists in Baniwa culture that can all be seen as interrelated. Based on my research, I show that Baniwa jaguar shamans are central figures in a nexus of religious knowledge and power in which healers, sorcerers, priestly chanters, and ceremonial dance-leaders share complementary functions, linking the living guardians of traditions with the deities and great spirits of the cosmos, the primordial and eternal “owners,” “keepers” and generators of knowledge and power. 1