Manaus-Day 3

Our last day in Manaus we traveled, in the little blue boat here in the picture, from the ship to an indigenous village probably ten miles up the Rio Negro from Manaus.

After a very fast forty-rive minute trip upriver,  we had to disembark across this very rickety pier because of the low water.  From there we had a fifteen minute walk to get to the village. 

We were hosted by the community in this grand lodge.

According to our tour guide, this community is a made up of several indigenous families that separated from their tribe further up the river in a reservation.   Outsiders are not allowed in the reservation.  The village had discovered that a significant way for them to support themselves was by hosting tour groups to whom they display some of their distinctive customs and rituals.   (There were other Semester at Sea groups that spent the night in the jungle outside the village, hosted by the villagers.   There was also a large group of German tourists there at the same time as us.

This isf the village chief.

 

He explained the various dances and songs they performed for us. Most notable was the welcoming ritual that he said under normal circumstances would last up to twenty-four hours.   Visitors would themselves participate in the dancing and so, of course, they invited us at one point to join their circle where we all tried, with greater or lesser degrees of success, to imitate their steps.  Another song and dance, performed only by men, was part of a ritual remembrance of a particular aspect of their mythology.   At first, apparently, the Creator God had only created a few people.  After awhile those people needed others with whom to mate.  So, they petitioned, in song and dance, for the Creator God to make some new families.  (Barry thought this was particular interesting.  After all, and oft noted "weakness" of the Biblical creation story is the obvious omission of any explanation for where the Cain and Abel got wives.  At least these indigenous Brazilians had the sense to recognize the problem in their version!)

Barry was able to interview the chief a bit further, with the help of our guide, about some of their beliefs.  They belief in a single high God, the Creator, who they call the Great Grandfather.  The "first world" or spirit world is inhabited by lesser gods or spirits and ancestors.  We live in the "second world."   I asked about contact with the spirits in the first world and the chief explained that on the first day of the year (July 1) there is a special ceremony that involves the use of very special herbal tea.   On that day, people from the second world may actually experience the first one, communing with the spirits.  Or, spirits may dwell temporarily that day In the ordinary world with us.  That must be some good tea!

These pictures show the rattles around the chiefs ankle and the paintings on one of the legs of the male dancers.

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This is Barry with the chief and his niece who was Barry's dance partner in the welcoming dance.

Along the way to the village we passed some boys fishing. They had caught a beautiful peacock bass.

It was a very interesting, if superficial, introduction to the world of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon.  Barry has commented a number of times that he wishes that Semester at Sea had deeper affiliations with colleges and universities in the ports we visit.  Scholars there might have been able to give us a better knowledge and experience of indigenous reality that the tour guides.

Both two and from the village we passed under this incredible bridge that has recently connected Manaus to the other side of the Rio Negro.

We are now in the last week of classes.  We arrive in Dominca on Saturday and leave their Sunday night.   Monday and Tuesday next week are final exams.