Journal of Ethnobiology
December 1, 2024
Lewis Daly, Glenn H. Shepard
8 citations
In Indigenous Amazonian societies such as the Makushi of Guyana and the Matsigenka of Peru, certain plants are regarded as 'plant persons' with subjectivity, especially those used for healing, harming, seducing, or protecting. The authors examine how chemosensory properties like bitterness, causticity, taste, odor, and texture shape interactions with plants, particularly toxic and medicinal species. Makushi shamanic plants called bina 'charms' have animacy entangled with phytochemical components and preparation methods. Matsigenka knowledge of bamboo species reveals interpenetration of tactile and chemical perceptions with ecological cycles. These examples show plant animacy expressed through sensorial and ecosemiotic processes that defy Western dualisms of mind/body, nature/culture, and subject/object.
Journal of Ethnobiology
September 22, 2024
James Andrew Whitaker, Vikram Tamboli, Lewis Daly et al.
8 citations
Among Indigenous peoples in the Guianas, including the Makushi, Pemon, and Karinya, certain plants are regarded as animate, agentive beings—plant persons—that can act independently or in concert with humans. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and archival records, the article describes how these plants exert agency in contexts of subsistence, shamanism, assault sorcery, and romantic attraction, as well as within extractive frontiers such as mining, forestry, and plantation agriculture. The authors argue that these botanical agencies shape relationships between humans and plants, raising questions about how plant persons are positioned across different practices and how they interact with shamans, sorcerers, hunters, gardeners, and miners.
Medical anthropology
February 17, 2025
Lewis Daly
2 citations
Among the Makushi people of Amazonian Guyana, a traditional system of communal work called mayu, grounded in an ethic of helping each other out, serves as a form of self-help distinct from Western self-care. Mayu is a convivial event accompanied by feasting, drinking, and celebration of social relationships, and it extends beyond humans to include the agency of nonhuman beings. Shamanism and plant-charms are integral in mediating these generative relations of shared selfhood.
Folklore
October 2, 2025
James Andrew Whitaker, Lewis Daly
Pathogenic projectiles called waawî among the Makushi people of Guyana are ambiguous entities that are both objects and beings. Fabricated by shamans as embodiments of spirit-helpers, these magical darts exist beyond conventional distinctions between nature and culture. Similar pathogenic objects are also used by other-than-human owners and masters, as well as certain stars. The article argues that these Makushi shamanic concepts challenge familiar dualisms such as material/immaterial, body/spirit, and subject/object, offering new insights into debates about animism in Amazonia.