CARIBISKE SJÆLEANLIGGENDER - efter Fock

Resumé

Peter Riviére: Carib Soul Matters - Since

Fock

When it appeared in 1963 Niels Fock’s

Waiwai marked the beginning of a new age in

the ethnography of the peoples of Guiana.

This study will examine how far what Fock

reported concerning Waiwai ideas about the

soul is to be found among other Caribspeaking

peoples of the region. After a

summary of the Waiwai material, the notions

of four other cases (Trio, Maroni River

Caribs, Pemon and Kapon, and Yekuana) are

looked at in tum. Each case exhibits both

similarities and differences, but overall there

is a high degree of convergence. In every

case there is the idea of a soul(s) that goes, at

death, to an etemal resting place and of

another soul(s) that remains on earth, often to

haunt the living. A point that the Trio

material raises is the importance of the name

as the bridge between the soul and body of

the living person. This theme is not well

developed in other works although it is

hinted at by Fock himself with regard to the

Waiwai. Elsewhere in Amazonia, however,

the notion of the name as a vital component

of the person or as an aspect of the soul has

been frequently recorded. Two examples are

adduced and it is suggested that this subject

requires further exploration among the

Carib-speaking peoples Guiana.