Mapping the Complex Nivaklé Spiritual Cosmos
Miguel Chase Sardi’s documentation of Nivaklé mythology, published in the 1970 Suplemento Antropológico by the Universidad Católica Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, reveals a complex indigenous cosmology centered on a threefold soul and an intricate taxonomy of the spiritual self. According to the research, the Nivaklé people—who speak a Mataco-family language and inhabit the Paraguayan Chaco from the left margin of the Pilcomayo River to Mariscal Estigarribia—traditionally recognize three primary souls corresponding to shadow, husk, and egg.
Shadows, Husks, and the Yakinot Taxonomy
According to Chase Sardi’s fieldwork, which spans collections gathered between 1965 and 1968 with translator Alberto Santa Cruz and independently from 1969 onward, all beings possess doubles categorized as spirits, shadows, reflections, or images known as vatajpikl. Indigenous taxonomies recorded in the literature outline distinct classifications overseen by Yakinot, who distinguishes 5 souls: the shaik’u (egg soul) or vatsäök’äöklit (child soul), on which the vatjeche (husk or skin) is considered part of it and not a separate soul; solar shadows (vatajpikl täölha na jinkukla’ay); lunar shadows (vatajpikl täölha na jivekla); water reflections (vatajpikl yishi yinä’öt); and mirror images (vatajpikl yisi novalhjatchi).
Shamanic Retrieval and Secret Songs
The practice of soul retrieval, executed by shamans, is termed nisäök’äöktijla—a term that modernly extends to mean photographing, which explains why older community members avoid the photographer. During sleep, the soul makes escapades, finding temporary reservoirs in locations such as sugar mill chimneys or beneath chapel harmoniums.
Shamanic practice within the culture involves navigating human bodies to combat animal-spirits that consume internal organs and the flesh of the soul. Practitioners must deploy secret songs, or vat’ataklach—where song and spirit function as synonyms—to subdue entities like the father of ostriches, rain spirits, or fish spirits. Failure to master these chants risks leaving the practitioner in a cataleptic state.
Visceral Cognition and Postpartum Taboos
Nivaklé philosophical expression links cognition directly to the stomach. When contemplating a problem, individuals traditionally cover their mouths with a hand while thought originates in the stomach. Cultural practices documented in the anthropological texts also note historical infanticide methods and strict postpartum taboos, including a five-to-six-year nursing period during which women abstain from sexual relations based on the belief that semen decomposes.
The Eternal Village of Yinkä’öp
The eschatological vision of the afterlife is rooted in Yinkä’öp, the Nivaklé paradise representing summer and the season of fructification. Described in the anthropological records as a village free from death, it features continuous day-and-night dancing, unending intoxication, and the perpetual fulfillment of the desire to love.
Worth a look