This project has been collaboratively designed with knowledge holders of the Cashinahua People of Peruvian Amazonia to document the production and use of ritual paraphernalia associated with celebrations aimed at multiplying human and other than human life. It will focus on four rituals: Kachanawa, Nixpo Pima, and two different types of Txidim: Txidim Inu Tsaun (Sitting Jaguar Txidim) and Txidim Duabu (Puma’s Txidim). Kachanawa are annual celebrations performed to promote an abundance of fish, animals, garden products, and human babies. Nixpo Pima is a rite of passage that marks the transition from childhood into adulthood for boys and girls.
The two types of Txidim the Cashinahua knowledge holders have chosen to document involve celebration cycles that serve to create social cohesion between the moieties (separate kinship and ritual groups to which all individuals are assigned) and promote the reproduction of the group, as well as to cultivate good relations with the environment and its other-than-human inhabitants.
The Cashinahua gradual immersion into Peru’s market economy and formal education system have seen the erosion of cultural practices and these rituals are now seldom practiced. This project stems from current Cashinahua knowledge holders’ desire to record and perpetuate their knowledge and practices for future generations as well as for wider humanity.
Primary Applicant:
Giancarlo Rolando
Co-Applicants:
Eliane Camargo
Evan Killick
Location of Research:
Purus Province, Ucayali, Peru
Host Institution:
University of Sussex
Top Banner Image: Purús River. (Photo: Giancarlo Rolando)