The western margin of the Amazon basin near the modern-day border between Ecuador and Peru is an area of notable
linguistic and ethnic diversity, but the indigenous cultures also show considerable similarities, thanks to a long history of
contact and mutual influence. One of the cultural traits of the area is a genre of “magic” songs used to ensure success in all
kinds of activities, but especially romantic pursuits, hunting (for men), and gardening (for women). These songs are distinguished
musically from other song types, the lyrics are rich in imagery and metaphor (especially relating to birds and animals) and
allusions to mythology, and they use a lexicon that includes both archaisms and innovative loanwords from neighbouring languages.
This paper focuses on the magic songs (called anɨn or anen) of the Aguaruna or Awajún, an
indigenous group of north Peru. I describe the formal and poetic properties of these songs and their significance within the
context of Aguaruna oral tradition and traditional culture, and then ask what these songs can tell us about the social and
linguistic history of the region.
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Cited by
Cited by 4 other publications
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
2022. The Amazon Basin: Linguistic Areas and Language Contact. In The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 232 ff.
Epps, Patience
2021. Diversifying multilingualism: Languages and lects in Amazonia. International Journal of Bilingualism 25:4 ► pp. 901 ff.
Swanson, Tod D & Jarrad Reddekop
2022. Feeling with the Land:Llakichinaand the Emotional Life of Relatedness in Amazonian Kichwa Thinking. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 90:4 ► pp. 954 ff.
[no author supplied]
2022. Linguistic Areas. In The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 187 ff.
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