Aspects of Paiter Suruí oral art

Abstract

This text introduces a brief explanation about the intricate relation between music and narrative, speech and chant, voice and myth, which together are part of the poetical art of the Paiter Suruí, an indigenous people from Rondônia (Amazonia). Part of the cultural heritage of the Paiter Suruí people can be found at the Arampiã Archive that has recordings collected by anthropologist Betty Mindlin, who has been working with the Paiter for more than twenty years. These documents are like “oral-books” of stories of Paiter Suruí life from the past and present. The musicality comes from the Tupi-Mondé language that is rich in onomatopoeias and ideophones, and has exclamations with verbal functions that imitate animals of the forest. The Suruí music shows us that myth is composed not only of fabulous stories, but also by reality. Both are presented through archaic words and metaphorical meanings.