Research Catalog

Title

I foresee my life : the ritual performance of autobiography in an Amazonian community / Suzanne Oakdale.

Author

Oakdale, Suzanne

Publication

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, c2005.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xvi, 206 p. : ill., 1 map; 24 cm.

Summary

"I Foresee My Life is a study of the ritual performances of the Kayabi, a Brazilian indigenous people, during the 1990s. Kayabi rituals are distinct in that they center on the autobiographical narratives of living people. Suzanne Oakdale discusses these autobiographical performances in the context of shamanic cures, mortuary rites, and political oratory. In each ritual, leaders describe how some of the dramatic environmental, economic, and political changes taking place in the Amazon have affected them. For example, the Kayabi have moved from a heavily colonized area to a reservation and as a result have had to address different facets of Indian identity, new forms of commodity consumption, residence patterns, and leadership." "As they narrate their lives in these rituals, leaders also give other participants ways to address some of the pressing issues in their own lives. Special emphasis is given to the emotional effects of narrative performances and how these accounts move people to identify with others, compel them to act in appropriate ways, or assuage their grief over a lost loved one. Oakdale analyzes autobiographical performances using insights from studies on ritual, life history, and linguistic anthropology to better understand Kayabi notions of self and person and the role these narrative expressions play in their social life."--BOOK JACKET.

Uniform Title

Project Muse UPCC books

Subject

• Kayabi Indians > Social life and customs
• Kayabi Indians > Rites and ceremonies
• Kayabi Indians > Biography
• Autobiography
• Shamans > Parque Nacional do Xingu
• Discourse analysis, Narrative > Parque Nacional do Xingu
• Autobiography > Parque Nacional do Xingu
• Autobiographies as Topic
• Parque Nacional do Xingu (Brazil) > Social life and customs

Genre/Form

• Autobiography
• Autobiographies
• Biographies
• Autobiographies.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [185]-196) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The perils of living in the Xingu Indigenous Park -- The perils of new-style villages -- The self-conscious "Indian" -- The healing power of shamanic career narration -- Headmen's songs and the end of mourning -- The Kayabi life cycle and the development of a dialogic self -- The cosmic management of voices.

ISBN

• 080323578X (cloth : alk. paper)
• 0803205139 (electronic)
• 9780803235786

LCCN

^^2004019554

OCLC

56333967

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library