Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
whom they established a series of contacts in 1958 at a drilling rig abut-
ting Cerro León.
34
Violence as Antihistory
Ayoreo groups could not defend their ancestral territories in the face of
such a massive invasion. Unknown diseases came from the metal and
clothing of the
Cojñone
. As early as the late 1920s, measles, influenza,
and smallpox devastated Ayoreo camps. Ayoreo
Daijnane
shamans could
not cure their people and were blamed for the epidemics. In response,
northern Ayoreo groups decided to massacre all shamans around this
time:
When they killed the shamans I still lived with the direquednejnaigosode. I was about
14 or 15 years old. I think that in each group and in the old camps there were leaders of
the shamans. Because there were shamans in my village I will say some of their names:
Ujnohihai, Jochabiadacode. When the people killed all the shamans all the people from
all the groups gathered together. That was because there was no longer anybody to
make another person sick. everyone was calm. some said that the shamans were the
ones who cured people who were sick, and others said, “I am against the shamans
because they were the ones who were killing all the Ayoreo people.”
35
Simijáné told me about this time in the following story:
The people said they were going to find all the shamans and kill them. Ajnisidai was
frightened because he knew that he was a shaman. The son of Ajnisidai told his father
that other Ayoreo bands had already killed all of their shamans. The Jnupedogosode
and Uechaemitogosode had also. All of the direquednejnaigosode Ayoreo were going
to kill all of the shamans. The people were searching for Ajnisidai to kill him. he knew
that there were warriors coming to kill him. so his family dug a grave for him to enter
and die in. he told a woman named diguere to dig him a grave. But before he entered
the grave he had something to tell. he said, “I'll get into the grave. But I'm going to put
on my
ayoi
[ jaguar headdress], and my
cobia
[vulture feather collar] will go with me to
the grave.” he said, “I'm going to finish telling what I have to say and then I'll go to the
grave. I'm going to tell about the time I shot a white man with an arrow. But I'm going
to enter the grave.” he hadn't tied his hair up when he was telling the story. . . . But he
tied it up [as if for war] when he was ready for the hole. he was angry, already thinking
about the earth that is black as if it were burnt. he was angry with the overturned soil
of the grave. The sickness of the black earth had grasped him, it had grasped his eyes.
Then, he began to paint himself. he painted his entire body, his shoulders, his stomach.
