Ash salts and bodily affects: Witoto environmental knowledge as sexual education

Abstract

This letter addresses the indigenous discourse on a set of plant species used by the Witoto Indians of Northwest Amazonia to extract ash or vegetable salt, obtained from the combustion of the tissues of vegetable species, filtering of the ashes, and desiccation of the resulting brine. It aims to demonstrate how the study of the human condition is carried out through a reading of natural entities. The method employed is the indexical analysis of a discourse uttered by the elder Enokakuiodo in the Witoto language from 1995 to 1998, in a verbal genre called rafue, one of several genres of the 'language of the yard of coca'. The species used to extract ash salt are conceived of as coming from the body of the Creator and as an image of the human body. The rafue of salt performs, in words and gestures, a narrative of human affects and capacities by reading ecological, biological, cultural and linguistic indices from a set of plant species. This discourse on plant species is a discourse on the control and management of bodily affects and capacities, represented as ash salts, that are lessons about sexual development which the Creator left for humanity as a guide-a 'sexual education'.

Variability and Functionalities of Salts Used in Traditional African Food Preparations

“…Common edible salt, a natural evaporite which can be obtained from sea, underground ore or natural brine, and containing at least 97% of sodium chloride (NaCl), is the main salt used in food preparations, with the only objective to improve the taste of foods [1][2][3][4]. Out of that, other specific salts which have been reported to be used in food preparations are Lakes' deposits [5][6][7][8][9][10][11], plant-based ashes [12][13][14][15][16][17], their filtrates [12,[18][19][20][21][22] and evaporites of these filtrates [17,[23][24][25][26]. Their chemical composition shows that they are mixture of salts and thus, made of cations and anions, major cation being generally sodium or potassium whereas major anions are generally carbonates, bicarbonates, sulfates and chlorides [9,10,13,16,19,21,24,[26][27][28][29].…”

Enriching indigenous knowledge scholarship via collaborative methodologies: beyond the high tide's few hours

“…There have been markedly few studies that have examined how collaborations among scientists and local experts have affected scholarship (Thomas 2009, Andrae-Marobela et al 2012, Echeverri and Román-Jitdutjaaño 2013, which is especially notable given the growth of science and technology studies' focus on the politics of knowledge. This differs from the growing literature that describes the collaborative method itself (e.g., Butler 2004, Shackeroff and Campbell 2007, Allen et al 2009, Lowe et al 2009, Lyver et al 2009, Mullins 2011, McGinty 2012.…”

Focus on biodiversity, health and wellbeing

“…Two important papers [16,17] focused on indigenous knowledge of biodiversity in the Amazon region and provide an essential epistemological contrast to the other papers of the Focus Issue-reminding us that not all human societies conceptualize themselves as separate from nature, or as the most important species in the ecosystem. Zent [16] discusses 15 years of research with the Jotï communities of the Venezuelan Amazon and finds that these people have an intimate and horizontal understanding of, and relationship with, other beings and elements of their ecosystem.…”

“…Zent finds that the Jotï have a highly developed sense of interdependence of all living thingswhich confers rights and duties on all parts. Echeverri and Román-Jitdutjaaño [17] explore the knowledge of the Witotu peoples in North West Amazon and their use of plant species to create ash salts and guide spiritual and sexual education. Both papers were used for an important perspective on indigenous knowledge and biodiversity in the region [18] contrasting the Occidental or Western view of biodiversity and its 'service' to human health, with the significantly more complex and, arguably less arrogant view, of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon.…”