Mulheres de cera, argila e arumã: Princípios criativos e fabricação material entre os Wayana

Abstract

The Wayana Amerindians, who inhabit the banks of the Paru de Leste river in the north of the state of Pará, conceive of the fabrication of persons, houses, artefacts, patterns, and many other things, as strictly related to the demiurges, since it was the latter who created them in primordial times according to their own technology. As the Wayana stress, they are merely the " experimenters" of these creative principles, which are employed in the elaboration of artefacts for daily or ritual use - these categories possesing differential characteristics as a result of the generative power of the demiurges' technology, but which need to be controlled through human abilities. The article describes creative principles and material fabrication in connection to mythical narratives and cosmology, detailing the mechanisms of the experiments carried out by the Wayana in the production and utilization of beautiful and effective works, which is the aim of every creative process.