The Desana Indians

1
The Desana Indians

• Rituals

2
Map

• The Desana live in the South American Amazon
  rainforest.
• Accustomed to river travel
• Experts in canoe building

3
A Typical Home

• Maloca means house in the Desana language.
• Interior of house divided in complex manner
• Believe that house symbolizes natural world

4
Desana Crafts

• Hand-make
• Musical instruments, like drums and this FLUTE
• Childrens toys
• elaborate womens earrings

5
Symbolic Necklace

• Everyday objects, like this necklace, carry rich
  meaning for the Desana.

6
The Desana Universe

• World fixed quantity of energy that flows b/t
  all creatures.
• Every birth a death
• Every death a birth
• Energy of world remains complete

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From Tuesdays with Morrie
When they hunt food, the Desana know that the
animals they kill will leave a hole in the
spiritual well. But that hole will be filled,
they believe, by the souls of the Desana hunters
when they die. Were there no men dying, there
would be no birds or fish being born. I like
this idea. Morrie likes it, too. The closer he
gets to good-bye, the more he seems to feel we
are all creatures in the same forest. What we
take, we must replenish. (p. 141, emphasis
mine).
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Works Consulted

• Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. New York
  Doubleday, 1997.
• http//misincol.faithweb.com/comunidades/desano.ht
  m
• http//www.uwgb.edu/galta/mrr/Backup/LECTURES/DESA
  NA.HTM