Soul Loss in the Forest of Symbols: Transformational Bodies, Avá-Guaraní Acoustemology, and Magical Mediating Methodological Instruments

An ethnographer's Avá-Guaraní ritual sponsor named and ensouled him, embedding him in kinship and cosmology. During fieldwork he participated in all-male activities, studied shamanic rituals, and shared dream discussions. After returning home, viewing recordings of male shamans weeping over cultural and forest loss made him weep. Over years he realized this was soul loss, not reverse culture shock, requiring community healing. Raised with "boys don't cry" masculinity, he learned to cry to unlearn and grasp embodied relational knowledge. This suggests male Avá-Guaraní shamans cultivate charismatic relationships through emotional displays of care for their communities.

Study at a glance

Abstract

“Eric, you no longer have an Americano soul,” my Avá-Guaraní sister told me as my 2006-2007 fieldwork was ending. In 2005, her mother became my ritual sponsor in the naming/ensouling ritual, mitã karaí, identifying me as “Yvyrajú”, indicating the tree for which I was named/ensouled. That ritual enmeshed me in relations of familial reciprocity, positioning me in their cosmology, and identified where my soul might be found if lost. I spent my days with shamans and their kin, engaging in all-male activities when possible, including learning about and from flora and fauna. My nights were spent researching shamanic rituals, waking and sharing morning maté as we discussed our dreams. Upon returning home, I drank maté whilst archiving field recordings and writing in isolation after the intense enmeshment in the human ecological community. Viewing and listening to recordings featuring male shamans’ harangues and wept speech as they discussed the intertwined loss of culture and forest and the concomitant web of relations made me weep. Over many years, I realised that this was what, from an Avá-Guaraní perspective, might be interpreted as an instance of soul loss–rather than a case of reverse culture shock–requiring community healing through soul retrieval led by shamans. Instead, I was forced to work through “boys don’t cry” rules of masculinity in which I was raised and learn how to cry to continue the unlearning process and better understand unfamiliar forms of embodied relational knowledge. This empathetic process of embodied (un)learning suggests that male Avá-Guaraní shamans cultivate charismatic relationships with their followers through these emotional displays of care for their communities. Keywords: Guaraní, Paraguay, acoustemology, shamanism, sound healing, trauma, transformational bodies