A’uwẽ (Xavante) Hunting Calls: A Vocal Repertoire for Ethnozoological Communication and Coordination in the Brazilian Cerrado
Abstract
Group hunting is a productive subsistence activity for many Indigenous peoples with adequate access to territorial and game resources. A’uwẽ (Xavante) group hunts can involve large numbers of individuals coordinating group hunting efforts over large areas. A’uwẽ group hunting and hunting with fire are sophisticated endeavors requiring years of preparation, ample discussion, and post-hunt analysis. Their hunting calls are stylized expressions following established vocal conventions to communicate complex information over long distances between hunters in order to follow, flush, dispatch, and carry game. This discussion is based on recordings provided by the late A’uwẽ elder and leader Tsidowi Wai'adzatse’ in 2006. He wished that the calls be documented so younger individuals will have means to recall them. I address how Indigenous A’uwẽ hunters in the Brazilian cerrado communicate over long distances with hunting calls that encode rich ethnozoological information. After introducing the topic and context, I begin with a presentation of five ethnozoological calls Tsidowi demonstrated, which he considered the complete repertoire of A’uwẽ hunting calls. Following these short descriptions, I discuss some of the vocal qualities observed in the calls (without conducting a full linguistic analysis), the ethnozoological information they encode, and their prospects for continued use into the future within the context of group hunting with fire.
References
Anikin, A., R. Bååth, and T. Persson. 2018. Human Non-Linguistic Vocal Repertoire: Call Types and Their Meaning. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 42:53–80. DOI:10.1007/s10919-017-0267-y.
Aytai, D. 1979. A Linguagem de Assobio Dos Índios Bororo e Karajá. Publicações do Museu Municipal de Paulínia 7:1–23.
Fernández-Llamazares, Á., and D. Lepofsky. 2019. Ethnobiology through Song. Journal of Ethnobiology 39:337–353. DOI:10.2993/0278-0771-39.3.337.
Frisbie, C. J. 1980. Vocables in Navajo Ceremonial Music. Ethnomusicology 24:347–392. DOI:10.2307/851149.
Graham, L. R. 1984. Semanticity and Melody: Parameters of Contrast in Shavante Vocal Expression. Latin American Music Review 5:161–185.
Graham, L. R. 1986. Three Modes of Xavante Vocal Expression: Wailing, Collective Singing, and Political Oratory. In Native South American Discourse, edited by J. Sherzer and G. Urban, pp. 83–118. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, Germany.
Graham, L. R. 1995. Performing Dreams: Discourses of Immortality among the Xavante of Central Brazil. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX.
Heater, E. M. 1995. Early Hunting Horn Calls and Their Transmission: Some New Discoveries. Historic Brass Society Journal 7:123–141.
Hill, K., and K. Hawkes. 1983. Neotropical Hunting among the Aché of Eastern Paraguay. In Adaptive Responses of Native Amazonians, edited by R. B. Hames and W. T. Vickers, pp. 139–188. Academic Press, New York.
Leeuwenberg, F. J., and J. G. Robinson. 2000. Traditional Management of Hunting by a Xavante Community in Central Brazil: The Search for Sustainability. In Hunting for Sustainability in Tropical Forests, edited by J. G. Robinson and E. L. Bennett, pp. 375–394. Columbia University Press, New York.
Maybury-Lewis, D. 1967. Akwẽ-Shavante Society. Clarendon Press, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Milton, K., C. D. Knight, I. Crowe, E. M. Widdowson, A. Whiten, and Q. Bone. 1991. Comparative Aspects of Diet in Amazonian Forest-Dwellers. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 334:253–263. DOI:10.1098/rstb.1991.0114.
Moore, D., and J. Meyer. 2014. The Study of Tone and Related Phenomena in an Amazonian Tone Language: Gavião of Rondônia. Language Documentation 8:24.
Pohl, J. E. 1837. Reise im Innern von Brasilien. Anton Strauss, Vienna, Austria.
Prada, M. 2001. Effects of Fire on the Abundance of Large Mammalian Herbivores in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Mammalia 65:55–61.
Read, A. W. 1961. The Rebel Yell as a Linguistic Problem. American Speech 36:83–92. DOI:10.2307/453841.
Schultz, H. 1953. Vinte e Três Índios Resistem à Civilização. Edições Melhoramentos, São Paulo, Brazil.
Villalobos, M. P. 2002. Efeito de Fogo e Da Caça Na Abundância de Mamíferos Na Reserva Xavante Do Rio Das Mortes, MT, Brasil. Doctoral Dissertation, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Brazil.
Welch, J. R. 2014. Xavante Ritual Hunting: Anthropogenic Fire, Reciprocity, and Collective Landscape Management in the Brazilian Cerrado. Human Ecology 42:47–59. DOI:10.1007/s10745-013-9637-1.
Welch, J. R. 2015. Learning to Hunt by Tending the Fire: Xavante Youth, Ethnoecology, and Ceremony in Central Brazil. Journal of Ethnobiology 35:183–208. DOI:10.2993/0278-0771-35.1.183.
Welch, J. R., E. S. Brondízio, S. S. Hetrick, and C. E. A. Coimbra Jr. 2013. Indigenous Burning as Conservation Practice: Neotropical Savanna Recovery amid Agribusiness Deforestation in Central Brazil. PLOS ONE 8:e81226. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0081226.
Wright, C. C. 2017. Towards an Interdisciplinary Focus on Sound in Ethnobiology Research. Ethnobiology Letters 8:58–60. DOI:10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.788.
Copyright (c) 2020 James R. Welch
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain ownership of the copyright for their content and grant Ethnobiology Letters (the “Journal”) and the Society of Ethnobiology right of first publication. Authors and the Journal agree that Ethnobiology Letters will publish the article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits others to use, distribute, and reproduce the work non-commercially, provided the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal are properly cited.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
For any reuse or redistribution of a work, users must make clear the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
In publishing with Ethnobiology Letters corresponding authors certify that they are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements. They warrant, on behalf of themselves and their co-authors, that the content is original, has not been formally published, is not under consideration, and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights. They further warrant that the material contains no matter that is scandalous, obscene, libelous, or otherwise contrary to the law.
Corresponding authors will be given an opportunity to read and correct edited proofs, but if they fail to return such corrections by the date set by the editors, production and publication may proceed without the authors’ approval of the edited proofs.
