Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
at Totobiegosode. While elders said they were rarely sick in the forest and
that they knew how to cure the diseases of
Erami
, there was a pervasive
sense that Totobiegosode were fundamentally alienated from ways to
cure these illnesses of
Cojñone-Gari
.
Such diseases were commonly attributed to the failure to be ashamed
in front of
Dupade
, the Christian God. “
Dupade
,” Siquei told me, “will
give a sickness to anyone who does not have shame of him.” Yet it was
rarely clear what precisely someone did to anger God. Illness narratives
emphasized this sense of fear and alienation that characterized Ayoreo
relationships with illness and health care practitioners. Aasi was infected
by tuberculosis shortly after contact. He died in 2013 of the same chronic
lung infection that killed Ujñari, Emi, Codé, and a handful of other To-
tobiegosode in the previous five years:
the sickness became worse after ten years. It began pushing me to the ground. I
thought I would die. there was no truck to take me to the hospital. I told my wife, “I
am hot and my eyes are swollen. my insides are hot and my eyes are being pushed out.
my breath is very hot.” they took me to the Indian hospital. they gave me injections.
but they were lying because the sickness returned. they let me go but the sickness got
worse. they took me again and it calmed. they tricked me again. they let me go. I
went back to my community. the sickness grabbed me again. I went again to the hos-
pital. they gave me injections, and it got better. but it was a lie. my sickness grabbed
me again; they took me back to the hospital. my wife was angry with me because she
didn't want to endure more days in the hospital. but she said, “It's better we stay more
days so you get better.” but when we were in the hospital they didn't give us enough
food. We had no money and we suffered from hunger, and I said, “Go back. I'll stay
here.” but my wife was stronger than me, and she said, “We will stay.” We were suf-
fering from hunger again. We only ate one piece of bread in the morning and for two
weeks we were like that, with nothing but our hunger. Some days we said, “Let's go
back.” Some days we thought to stay. but still we stayed. I prayed to God because that
is my way. I asked God to change the attitude of the
Cojñone
. It was at night, and we
were desperate. I thought I would die there. that is the story of my sickness. I did not
die because I prayed to God. I asked God to give me strength again. I went to the city
with uaque and he said, “they don't know yet what your sickness is.” I said, I am not
going to be afraid to die. “I am not a child who cries with his sickness or his fear of
death. I am a christian; it is ugly if I cry. If I cry, it appears as though I am a liar, as if I
do not have faith in God.”
After the fourth month of fieldwork, I too was frequently sick, fungus in
my lungs which had been scarred by the fine dust, and infections in the
constant scratches of thorns or insects. One particularly bad infection
