Weaning and the rendering of substances nourishing: food shamanism amongst the Warekena of northwestern Brazil

The paper explores the nurturing and nourishing practices of a small group of Amerindians, the Xié river dwelling Brazilian Warekena, and focuses on the gradually expanding diet of infants, babies and toddlers. Unlike other instances of food shamanism, the rituals surrounding infant feeding, and in particular during weaning, are topics that have received little attention. This paper provides ethnographic detail of the Warekena's infant feeding practices and offers an alternative perspective on food shamanism: one that is based on the Warekena's own insistence on mediating vital processes, through attention-directing practices, such as when eating. In particular, the paper seeks to throw light on food preparation, the ritualised consumption of foods, including the prior bathing of infants and the blessing of new foods introduced in the infant's diet. Working within animic relationality, the focus here is on the mediation of foodstuffs and of the vital processes of the body itself, so as to promote the cosmological and bodily balance that engenders the good health of infants.