Ethnopoetic Treatment to Tukano Narratives of the Ye’pârã-Oyé põ’ra Clan of the Upper Rio Negro

This research sheds light upon and discusses anthropological linguistic matters related to the publishing process of the narrative contained in volume six of the “Narradores indígenas do Rio Negro” (“Indigenous Narrators of the Rio Negro”) collection. This series of ontological Amazonian narratives was first translated into Portuguese and published to disseminate indigenous traditional knowledge. However, important aspects of the oral texts were lost in the subsequent written version. Focusing on the Tukanoan version of myth, this project aims at restoring the formal elements of the performance, thus drawing on Ethnopoetics’ methods. Essentially, the narrative was divided into sets of lines, verses, stanzas, scenes, and acts. In order to do so, the ethnopoetic treatment relied on the typical features of oral tellings and mythic narratives. This procedure made explicit the maintenance of oral structures even after the modifications imposed by the publishing process, endorsing the primary assumption on the existence of an inextricable link between content and form, which is responsible for the effect of the narrative. Additionally, the ethnopoetic treatment allowed for non-speakers of Tukano to understand the narrative in terms of its performance aspects. A presentation on this matter will consist of some narrative fragments disposed in units which illustrate the Ethnopoetics’ phenomena.
HYMES, D. “Language, Memory, and Selective Performance”. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 98, No. 390 (Oct. - Dec., 1985), pp. 391- 434.

MAIA, M; MAIA, T. Ĩ sâ Yẽkɨsɨmia Masîke': O conhecimento dos nossos antepassados. Uma narrativa Oyé. Iauaretê-São Gabriel da Cachoeira: FOIRN, 2004.