Wai-Wai people

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The Wai-wai (or Waiwai) are an ethnic group of Guyana and northern Brazil.

The Wai-wai in Guyana live in the far south of the country, near the headwaters of the Essequibo River.

The Umana Yana in Georgetown, Guyana, takes its name from the Wai-Wai for "meeting place".

There are approximately 200 Wai-wai in Guyana and 2000 in Brazil. In Brazil, they mostly reside in Terra Indígena Wai-wai, Terra Indígena Trombetas-Mapuera and Terra Indígena Nhamundá-Mapuera.

Contents 1 Shamanism 2 Notes 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Shamanism

The yaskomo of the Waiwai (called also medicine man or shaman in the literature) is believed to be able to perform a soul flight. The soul flight can serve several functions:

• healing
• flying to the sky to consult cosmological beings (the moon or the brother of the moon) to get a name for a new-born baby
• flying to the cave of peccaries' mountains to ask the father of peccaries for abundance of game
• flying deep down in a river, to achieve the help of other beings.

Thus, a yaskomo is believed to be able to reach sky, erth, water, in short, every element.^[1]

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Fock 1963: 16

[edit] References

• Fock, Niels (1963). Waiwai. Religion and society of an Amazonian tribe, Nationalmuseets skrifter, Etnografisk Række (Ethnographical series), VIII. Copenhagen: The National Museum of Denmark. 

[edit] External links

• Mongabay.com Guyana — Geography.
• Native American Indian Cultures — the Wai Wai Indians.
• General table of the Indigenous peoples in Brazil.