Rapé Manchineri

Manchinery Tribe

The Manchineri are a tribe that lives mainly in Brazilian territory, in the Mamoadate Indigenous Land and in the Cauchal Guanabara Indigenous Land.The Manchineri share with the Piro, from the Peruvian Amazon, the Aruak language (of the Maipure branch) and much of their social and cosmological system.Among the Manchineri, the basic family is made up of the grandfather, grandmother, children and grandchildren. When they do not all live in the same house, they occupy nearby residences, on the same land. However, each couple has a separate plantation.

Manchinery and Shamanism

The word used by the Manchiney to designate the shaman is “Karrunhoti”.“There was a Karrunhotí. I went alone to kill to drink “cipó”. I only went with the person who was going to heal. He tied a hammock to the tree and drank. The next day the person was fine. He was just like Tuxau [the political leader], It was more than the Tuxau. I knew other things different from the Tuxau. He would put up the hammock and start singing, and when the time came he would say “come here.” someone who was sick, what he could get out of it, what he couldn’t. He could suck. The next day he was fine. (Charuto, son of a famous Manchineri shaman, Ananías Batista).A sign that the subject can begin to acquire the techniques of shamanism is the encounter with supernatural beings, who teach shaman apprentices, such as the “Caboclinho del Mato”, mainly during ayahuasca sessions.According to cosmology, the “Caboclinho del Mato” is a small man who lives in the mountains. He was an Indian who was delighted by removing the grass so much. He was transported to the spiritual world with his physical body, without passing through death. He is also the one who manages, for example, how much can be hunted.The acquisition of the power of a Karrunhotí, before being conquered, is transmitted to the person as a physical or spiritual being. The Karrunhoti training process is a means by which the body and mind are prepared to perceive and receive knowledge.

Cosmology Manchinery

For the Manchineri, the “other worlds” mix with this one, without distinguishing clear barriers. They manifest according to the state of consciousness in which the individual is. Although these alterations do not necessarily involve the use of hallucinogenic substances, the increase in this state comes with the use of ayahuasca, quite common among the Manchineri.At the beginning of time, the people of the “cipó” (lianas) were transformed into enchanted beings, as they were taken alive to heaven. These beings help the shaman in his tasks. But in order to go to heaven it is necessary to abstain from the world of hunting. Initiation as a shaman turns the subject into a bad hunter, because he can converse with animals and recognize relatives in them, which makes it difficult to kill them.According to mythology, ayahuasca was discovered in the following way: a shaman finds a being in the mountains, the “cipó” who, before identifying himself as such, claims to be a female person. The “cipó” tells the shaman how he should proceed to prepare it and what he should mix it with – with leaves and spices – so that the effect is complete.According to the Manchineri, the incorporation of salt into the diet (the result of contact with non-indigenous people) represents the end of the ability to transform human beings into diverse beings. Nowadays, men no longer transform into animals because they have salt in their bodies. Salt, when it emerges, breaks what was previously a continuity between sweet and bitter.