The Occult Life of Things
 | Pan-pipes thought to be imbued with the soul of the Sun-God Credit: Marcos Guerra, STRI, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute |
Take another look at your car, your fork and knife, your personal digital assistant.
Is it possible that "inanimate objects" have a life of their own? Fernando Santos-Granero, STRI Staff Scientist, is organizer of "The Occult Life of Things," a symposium at the International Congress of Americanists in Seville, Spain on 17 July, 2006. Natives of the Amazon region consider animals, plants and objects as subjectivities that have lives of their own and are essentially social beings.
This "animistTM" vision of the world goes hand in hand with a "perspectivistTM" vision in which all beings and things view 'self' as human and "other" as non-human. The focus of the symposium is an analysis of these occult lives; occult not only in the sense that the lives of things are supernatural, but also because the human essence of things is not normally visible.
The Yanesha of eastern Peru believe that pan pipes are animated by the Sun God, the Creator, explains Santos-Granero. Before playing the pipes, Yanesha men offer fermented manioc drinks, coca leaves or tobacco juice to "raise its spirit." When they play the flute, the life-giving force of the Sun God is broadcast to all nearby beings and things.
The symposium will gather linguists and anthropologists from Europe, South America, and the United States who are specialists on Native Amazonian societies. Participants will address three major aspects of the life of things.
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