Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
a single interpretation for us all. One of the few explicit explanations I
heard of how Echoi was lost came in the form of a song, sung to me by
Yoteuoi in Arocojnadi when I asked a question about that place:
It is the fault of the shaman Upoide that the
Cojñone
arrived to those important places
like echoi. satan told the shaman that he should make a road to cause problems for
his people. That shaman was angry at Uejnai, who was more powerful than he was,
and whom he could not defeat. he knew Uejnai was too strong. so he went to heaven
to bring back something cold to hit Uejnai with, something cold to calm him. But he
didn't kill him. so his spirit (
ujopie
) went running. That shaman couldn't do anything,
so he had to go far away to make problems for his people. he sent his spirit (
ujopie
) to
the edge of the earth (
Jnupe'ureo
) to see, and from there he called to the ants that were
working to make roads. That shaman did that to make a road and bring the
Cojñone
into his territory and against his people. All of this has already happened and there is
no way to get that land back because the
Cojñone
made a big road there. That shaman
was a Guidaigosi. That shaman had a song. his spirit went to the ants. When he speaks
of the ants, he is referring to the
Cojñone
. The spirit of the shaman makes the
Cojñone
and the ants the same. he told the
Cojñone
to make the road to that good place. They
first passed a place called piogoto. Before, those places were for all of us. This shaman
had a song:
I am going far, to the land of Earth's End
I spoke with the warriors and I took out their righteous anger to fight
I went and brought back cold water lilies
I used them to hit my enemies
But I could not overcome their will
I went and I spoke with the ants under the Earth
And I sent them here
I went and we ate up the forest
I drive them to all corners of the world
I drive them to all corners of the world
It was this shaman's fault that we had so many problems before, that the people split
up. This is the trunk of all histories (
cuchade erode udi
). It tells about
yocuneone togode
,
our dead lands. do you understand?
I said I did but now I am not so sure. I cannot understand why Ayoreo-
speaking people never returned to Echoi, why it was abandoned so
abruptly, so completely, why this ambivalence they held so lightly still
seemed paralyzing. The memories of its significance were not told to
outside researchers but neither were they passed on to younger genera-
tions of Ayoreo, even within the same family. I struggled to reconcile
