Edópasade Uñane
The weapon carrier is a clan possession of the Chiquenone:
They consider the weapon carrier as their tool. The large armadillo was a weapon carrier in long ago times when animals were human. Since the Chiquenone claimed the large armadillo as a clan possession they follow it’s example.
They say: ‘I’m going to be like the armadillo and carry weapons.’
Ayoré warriors when they worked themselves up to kill long ago would liken themselves to the armadillos, that’s because the armadillo was a weapon carrier in far off times and would dig into the ground to protect himself. They say, it was the Chiquenone clan possession in far off times and that’s why they would liken themselves to it.
They likened themselves to the armadillo as Ayoré weapon carriers, but only those that carried weapons; the common Chiquenone did not do this, because they were not warriors.
Warriors would claim ‘going into battle first’ as their clan possession, attacking the enemy first. Therefore, they would claim it and in that way they would become like the weapon carriers of ancient times.
They would attack a village and not hold anything back as they fought, and because of their weapons, they could kill people after likening themselves to the armadillo. Their opponents (enemies) were – jaguars, non-Ayoreos, and dangerous animals. They were able to kill them, because they made themselves hard to kill by likening themselves to the armadillo.
The Chiquenone were successful in battle, because of following the example of the armadillo.
They also would declare that they were weapon carriers while working themselves into rages to face dangerous animals.
And that’s what they did, they likened themselves to things; our grandfathers likened themselves to many things. And they called themselves by the names of their clan possessions.
And they called themselves by clan possessions that belonged to other clans as well. They would say: “This is my fellow Ayoré’s ‘weapon carrier.’
Their clan possessions were their ‘tools of war’ when they were far away from their camp.
When they had a clan possession they would consider it a tool.
Though the ‘weapon carrier’ was used by the Chiquenone, their fellow Ayoreos used it also. And when they were working up their anger they would liken themselves to their clan possession and they would say: “I liken myself to it right now, and it is my weapon right now.”
They wanted to experience the same thing as their clan possession, so they would say – I’ll be just like it.
And the Ayoreos would also take on their mother’s clan possessions; their sons would liken themselves to their mother’s clan possessions. We would liken ourselves to our mother’s tools and to their clan possessions long ago.
Their tool of war was to do the things the ‘weapon carriers’ did:
They would make use of the clan possessions of the Chiquenone Clan, which included ‘knives’ and ‘things made of iron’. Axes also. That’s because the Chiquenone’s clan possessions are things made of iron; according to our grandfathers, they had many clan possessions.
Their clan possession is also the doubled up ‘pony tail of a man.’ When the Ayoreos would twist their pony tails up long ago it became their clan possession.
The women who lived long ago would call men: the pony-tailed-ones.
Their clan possession was iron, which they could find scattered about the jungle. (Probably things left behind during the *Bolivian-Paraguayan War.) Axes and iron, all of these, could be found in the jungle.
Picanerane Clan Possessions:
The houses and roofs of non-Ayoreos are clan possessions of the Picanerane Clan. According to our grandfathers these were clan possessions of the Picanerane.
They would say: “The Picanerane Clan possessions are those big houses of the non-Ayoré.”
They say that the Picanerane Clan worked on the roofs of houses long ago and so the roofs of houses are their clan possessions.
There are 11 markings that pertain to clans – they mark graves with one’s clan mark called *pajojo.
The ‘bird-feather-headdress’ made from feathers of the *sioti bird is the clan possession of the Picanerane.
When the headdress is worn lower on the forehead (like this), it is the clan possession of the Picanerane.
The *cuquébi bird is the clan possession of the Picanerane.
(Oidábiade explains to me, Maxine Morarie, the significance of the cuquébi bird. He says: Let’s say your daughter Patricia was an Ayoré girl and she wanted an Ayoré man, then I would say: ‘He’s Noemia’s husband.’ Then I would complain to Patricia’s parents, and then one day Patricia would give up. We would call Patricia, Cuquébi. The cuguébi bird flits around so we say it is a flirt. When a little child talks and talks and tires his mother out, she says: ‘Stop chattering, Flirty bird.’ But if the child keeps it up, she says: ‘You little flirty bird!’)
Our clan possession is the *coyidé bird and it says ‘coyi-coyi-coyi;’ that’s its cry.
I don’t know the clan possessions of all the clans because I’ve forgotten.
‘Death,’ which we all experience, is one of the Jnuriminone clan possessions. But I don’t know the other Jnuriminone clan possessions.
If someone’s wife dies, her husband might say of her, ‘I can just see that wife of mine, she was like the perfectly formed house that non-Ayoreos live in.’ What he wants to show is how much he loved his wife, and that’s why he uses the most beautiful of his clan possessions to describe her.
*The Chaco War (1928-1935) was the result of a territory dispute between Bolivia and Paraguay. Both landlocked countries sought for an expansion of territory in an effort to gain better access to the Paraguay River . This river runs through a stretch of territory between Bolivia and Paraguay known as the Chaco Boreal.
Oidábiade – Campo Loro, Paraguay – 1988.
Transcribed and translated to English by: Maxine Morarie.
