The Power of Words: Linguistic Reflections on Shipibo-Konibo Ethnography

Abstract

Although studies of Amazonian linguistics are increasingly abundant, scholars rarely reflect on the understanding of language from the perspective of the native nations of the region. Although it is clear that the Amazonian peoples did not develop a conceptual theory as such, this article proposes that it is possible to trace ancestral conceptions of the word through the interpretation of some medicinal practices and ancestral narratives. Words, from an indigenous perspective, have a vibratory and performative power that can materialise the named, annulling the "metaphysical" distance between signifier and signified.  In this way, it is possible to outline, at least tentatively, an "Amazonian theory of language" based on their own ancestral knowledge.