Seeing, hearing and speaking: morality and sense among the Panará in Central Brazil

Based on the ethnographic example of the Panará, a Gê-group in central Brazil, this paper examines the significance of vision and visibility. For Gê-speaking groups it has been suggested that while hearing and speaking are socially privileged faculties, contributing to the mature status of an indivi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ewart, E
Other Authors: Museum of Ethnography
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Routledge 2008
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Description
Summary:Based on the ethnographic example of the Panará, a Gê-group in central Brazil, this paper examines the significance of vision and visibility. For Gê-speaking groups it has been suggested that while hearing and speaking are socially privileged faculties, contributing to the mature status of an individual, seeing has been considered to be an anti-social faculty and is largely associated with the exercise of negative mystical power. While not wishing to deny the appropriateness of this association, I argue that seeing and being seen, as well as the particular visual qualities of phenomena play an important role in an Amazonian lived world.