Kami Yamaki Urihipë,
Our Forest-Land
For the Yanomami, urihi, the forest-land,
is not a mere inert space for economic exploration
(of what we call 'nature'). It is a living entity,
part of a complex cosmological dynamic of exchanges
between humans and non-humans. As such, it today
finds itself threatened by the reckless predation
of whites. In the view of the leader Davi Kopenawa
Yanomami:
"The forest-land will only
die if it is destroyed by whites. Then, the creeks
will disappear, the land will crumble, the trees
will dry and the stones of the mountains will
shatter under the heat. The xapiripë spirits
who live in the mountain ranges and play in the
forest will eventually flee. Their fathers, the
shamans, will not be able to summon them to protect
us. The forest-land will become dry and empty.
The shamans will no longer be able to deter the
smoke-epidemics and the malefic beings who make
us ill. And so everyone will die."
|