Sopros de vida e destruição: Composição e decomposição de pessoas

Abstract

Reflecting upon an ethnographic experience which took place in Northwestern Amazonia amongst the Yuhupdeh, commonly referred to as the Maku, we intend to approach a more general problem, i.e., the amerindian shamanic healing practices and their relation to the composition/decomposition of individuals. In account of these practices’ wide range, we will focus on two main ethnographic moments: the performing of oral formulas regionally known as “blessings”, and its changing into written formulas.