Achuar
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
The Achuar Dream Practices: A View of Reality and Understanding
The article “The Achuar Dream Practices” written by Marilyn Schlitz, Ph.D. & Frank Pascoe, Ph.D, is based on the results of a detailed study of the Achuar people’s dream sharing practices. This research field was conducted in the Amazon from 1997-2003. The purpose of this study was to create a detail description of the Achuar view of reality through a greater understanding of their dream-sharing practices experience with the dominant Western perspective towards dreaming. In this article, researchers describe the name “Achuar” as the people of the lowlands. The Achuar people are known to practice dream-sharing as a way of determining and or shaping their waking activities. They gather in a village in small groups before sunrise. They shared a teal-like fusion called wayus and begin sharing their dreams. They call this practice “Wayusa” which signifies that individuals dream not only for themselves but also for the community as a whole. There are different kinds of dreams. For instance, a kunktuknar dream announces a successful hunt. While a mesekraprar dream foretells of illness, conflict, and unfortunate events. Also a karamprar dream is sent by guiding spirits, to transmit important messages to the tribe. During the research study it was seen that five teenage Achuar boys were recruited to keep dream-diary journals for 12 months. In exchange for their collaboration, they were given scholarship to go to Indigenous University. The findings of this field study was that in the Achuar perspective, many dreams predict an outcome or relate to the future walking life circumstances in some way. When the field researchers talked to the president of the Achuar community,Santiago Kawarim. He told them that there are two types of dreams, the dreams made out from normal sleep, and the dreams created through hallucinogenic plants. He also says that both types of dreams possess a type of “energy”, which is accesses by the dreamer through the experience of the dream. In order for Achuar people to create vision dreams they consume ayahuasca, maikua and tabbaco, which are examples of plant-spirit medicines or hallucinogens. At the end it is up to the Achuar dream and his-her interaction with the community to understand when to encourage the normal dream energy when its promise is positive and when to amend or remedy the dream energy when it is of a negative nature.
Reference:
Schlitz, Marilyn, and Frank Pascoe,
2005 The Achuar Dream Practices:Mystic Mountain:Center for Healing Arts. March 24, 2015.
http://www.mysticalcompany.com/Achuar.php
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I am originally from Guayaquil, Ecuador. I have lived there almost my whole life and about 5 years ago, my family and I decided to move to the United States for a better education. Therefore, I consider myself to be a truly Ecuadorian. I was raised in the Ecuadorian culture, and I still apply now in my everyday life. There are many indigenous groups in Ecuador. And I have had the chance to see many. Of course their beliefs and their traditions are different but are definitely worth learning. Thankfully, I had the chance to research about the Achuar group from Ecuador. I believe that they have very strong beliefs. And I am sure that some of those beliefs were passed on in generations and probably spread around Ecuador and many other countries. Which we could be sharing some of those beliefs. For instance they believe that dreams are important because they are in some way giving a message. In my culture, i believe that dreams are sometimes created through experiences that happened during the day or during our life. Therefore, we believe that when we tell our dreams, if they were sad or scary, we can alleviate ourselves by telling it to someone else. If they were good dreams, then they would make us happy, and it is better to keep it to ourselves. Which in this case it kinda has some similarities with the Achuar's beliefs, but it also has some differences. I respect both, and I believe that everyone has their own right to believe on what they make them feel good or happy. Tradition and costumes are a great part of a person's life and I believe that they are unique, and so interesting to learn about.
ReplyDeleteAwesome!!! Thank you so much for your very reflexive comment, and for your responsible work in class Jocelyn. I am a bit puzzled by the way you are all posting your references. Are these web sites? Because they do look consistent, but I am not sure if you are missing the URL, if it's a web site, or where are those sources from? Just keep that in mind before the final presentation, so you guys can fix it if needed. Great job, again Jocelyn!!!
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