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Interspecific communication in the West Amazon: Music as a form of conversation between plants and humans.


Web link: www.revuec...

Pages: 17

Abstract

In the Western Amazon indigenous peoples, where animist cosmologies are the norm, human-non-human relations are mediated by various forms of communication. In this article, I examine a type of shamanic music specific to the indigenous and Métis communities in Western Amazon called icaro. Based on examples from ethnographic studies, I examine how these shamanic songs are acquired and used to communicate with spirits and to make changes in the material world. Then I convene phytosemiotic in conjunction with recent research on plant communication to show how the shamanic learning process and the acquisition of icaros are interspecifically communicated, within the meaning of which the apprentice intercepts and interprets the plant communication signals inherent in the process of plant communication. Original English publication: “Interspects communication in the Western Amazon: Music as a form of conversation between plants and people”, European Journal of Ecopsychology, vol. 4, 2013, p. 49. 32-43. Translation : Emmanuelle Caccamo & Simon Levesque.