Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
central part of radio's appeal. But was that all Jochade had been trying to
tell me? Why only two topics in particular? How were bodily states and
the moral transformation of humanity related and what did radio have
to do with it?
By then, I knew just how rude asking direct questions could seem, and
I knew that Jochade was particularly touchy about protocol. When I ap-
proached him again, I only had one or two shots at getting somewhere
with the topic whose grip on my imagination had already begun to slip
as I became further submerged in the everyday immediacies of survival
and suffering.
I thanked him for his instruction and said I now understood what
they talked about but that I still did not understand why people talked on
the radio at all. I said I did not understand its power. At that, he smiled
slightly and spoke gently to me, as if to a small and stubborn child. “You
have to listen to what they say. It is not about their words. It is never
about their words, Lucas. It is about their
ayipie
. They are giving their
ayipie
to each other. It moves quickly, here and there, there and here.”
I learned that
ayipie
referred to one of the three kinds of soul matter be-
lieved to animate human life. The other two—
ore'gate
and
ujopie
—were
previously associated with different dimensions of immortal and sha-
manic power and were no longer discussed except in reference to the
Holy Spirit. Not so with
ayipie.
It was associated with the corporeal seat
of memory (located in the head), emotion, rationality, and willpower
(located in various abdominal organs). That is, it encompassed precisely
all those elements believed to constitute the moral human. Moreover, I
learned that it was this kind of soul matter that Ayoreo believers imag-
ined to have been transformed by conversion to Christianity. It was a
barometer of moral standing and physical health and personal agency.
Accordingly, the quality and force of individual
ayipie
was a matter of
constant concern: was it coming or going, near or far, expanding or di-
minishing, strong or weak?
The relationship between radio and
ayipie
was an ambivalent one.
Certainly,
ayipie
figured prominently as a subject of radio conversations.
The newly transformed
ayipie
was an ideal type that was routinely in-
voked. Like Jochade, Ayoreo people often explicitly used the figure of this
reconstituted soul matter to articulate the moral imperative of Christian
conversion:
Our sins were a big problem for us before. that was our entire life before in the forest.
No one was careful for their own life. we always became angry at other people. we
