Blood

   In discussing Amazonian shamanism, Carlos Fausto notes that to many specialists “the most noticeable fact about this myriad of neoshamanic sites and rites is not its profusion but rather the absence of blood and tobacco.” As Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff writes, “Shamans and jaguars are thought to be almost identical, or at least equivalent, in their power, and each in his own sphere of action, but occasionally able to exchange their roles.” The division of all beings between predators and prey typically sees shamans and jaguars sharing predatory roles, even when they are not suspect of being sorcerers. Among the Asurini do Tocantins, people discover that they have been elected to become shamans when they dream about jaguars. Fausto also notes that among the Asurini do Xingu shamans are closely related to spirits who penetrate human bodies and devour them from within. In all these cases, consuming blood is definitive: it is what jaguars, powerful beings, and shamans do. The consumption of tobacco is important not only as a stimulant but also as a means of covering the “stench of blood.” Fausto concludes by defining Amazonian shamanism as “predatory animism.” He explains that the ability to become familiar with other-than-human persons (especially as adopted kin or allies), which permits shamans “to act on the world in order to cure, to fertilize, and to kill,” depends on “predation in warfare and hunting.” Because shamans must be predators in one sense or another, bloodshed (actual or metaphorical) is necessary in every stage of shamanic initiation and performance.