1. Introduction

'This article is dedicated, with love, respect and gratitude, to my uncle Annando Sanchez Valles (26/1211939-29/11120 (0).The Shipibo (official denomination: Shipibo-Konibo) comprise about45,000 individuals mainly dwelling on the shores of the Ucayali river and its tributaries in eastern Peru, in the Upper Amazonian rainforest. They are the biggest and only fluvial group of the Panolinguistic family. The Shipibo are well known because of their fine artwork, manifesting itself especially in elaborate pattern designs(called kene or kewe) applied to textiles, ceramics and carved wooden items. Since around 1965, much research has been done among them, in different disciplines like archaeology, anthropology, or linguistics. Ethnomedical research has been extensively conducted on the group, mainly regarding the medical or "shamanic" use of plants, most prominently the hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca (called nishi or oni inthe Shipibo language).'Unlike many authors, I neither intend to present here elements of an alleged "original Shipibo culture" nor do I wish to show how the Shipibo adapt themselves to the allegedly "modem"The fieldwork (2001-2007) that forms the basis of this paper was undertaken with the help of the University of Vienna (three travel grants), the British Centre in Pucallpa, theAustrian Academy of Sciences ("DOe" programme) and the Austrian Association for Parapsychology. I wish to thank Christian Huber for essentially contributing with his linguistic expertise, Brooo lIlius and Laida Mori Silvano de Brabec for their help.2 To mention only a few of the most influential authors, ef. Lathrap (1970,1976) or Myers(2004 [12002]) on archaeology; from Girard (1958) to Roe (1982) or lllius (1987, 1999) on anthropology; Faust (1990 [11973]) or Valenzuela (2003) on linguistics; from Baer (1971) to Toumon (2002) on ethnomedicine and ethnobotany; and from Karsten (1955) to Jervis (forthcoming) on ayahuasca use among the Shipibo. For a Pan-Amazonian overview anddetailed information about the preparation, use and effects of ayahuasca see Labate & Araujo(2004).in: Jahrbuch des Phonogrammarchivs der Österreichischen Akademieder Wissenschaften [Yearbook of the Phonogrammarchiv at theAustrian Academy of Sciences] Vol. 2: 169-192 (edited by Gerda Lechleitner and Christian Liebl).170Western globalising culture. Instead I will overthrow the necessary presuppositions for both of the mentioned perspectives: firstly, that there was a somehow "stable" way of life among the indigenous people before Western influence (this presupposition being a legacy from the 19'h century), and secondly, that the only way to survive for indigenous people is to passively adapt to the market, to capitalism and globalisation (this one being a much more "modern" and almost irresistible dogma).I think that many indigenous people, and the Shipibo in a very representative way, have some great advantages compared to Western society due to their ecological understanding of the world' and its inherent flexibility and innovative potential. This flexibility also extends to the conceptualisation and structuring of time. In Western understanding, the past seems "solidified": the common everyday interpretation of time assumes an objective past which had actually happened, and a historical process determined by intersubjective interpretations of remnants of this past in the present. One "true past"is envisioned, and the cause why we cannot penetrate the shroud of mist which blurs its sharpness is only our lack of evidence and a latent insufficiency in research methods or remembrance (which may be overcome one day). In this way, a historical inevitability of the present and somehow also of the future is created.

In Shipibo society, on the other hand, it seems that the necessity for "one true past" is not felt, but almost any past may be projected from the present. This constructive process, I shall argue, is not defined by analysing remnants (which are actually rare in both material and intangible forms), but by reflecting and re-creating the present. Maybe the past is left as open as the future.In this context, two indigenous methods seem feasible in improving, or manipulating, the present situation of an individual, a family or the Shipibo as a group identity: (i) specialists in magic, sorcery, and medicine (who call themselves medicos) may manipulate the relations between humans and non-humans, therefore effecting a shift in reality3 "Ecological understanding" refers to a multi-natural cosmos with possibilities of interspecies communication (perspectivism) as fannulated by Viveiros de Castro (1997) and others. Here, "ecological" defines the network character of communication rather than a romantic life embedded in nature as suggested by political "ecology" in industrialised countries.171(healing and witchcraft), or (ii), Shipibo protagonists in representing"their culture" may tell new narratives about the past, about their traditions, histories, and ancient knowledge which actually affect their and their kins people's positioning and performance at the market of popularity among tourists and researchers.In order to investigate these issues, I will first introduce the topic of musical healing as I observed it among the Shipibo compared to how it is represented in most academic and popular literature, extrapolating some differences. The following brief glimpse into some political and social changes during the last few decades among the Shipibo may help to understand how these differences emerged, and will also elucidate the role of the two methods of shaping present reality I mentioned above: magic and narration. Finally, I will show that in Shipibo grammar there are indications to be found that these two methods are not as different from each other as it may seem at the first glance.

2. The everyday magic of music

Among the Shipibo, as with most neighbouring indigenous groups, music is an important issue, especially when it comes to magic occurring. There is some evidence' that before the rubber boom (ca. 18701920),songs and theatrical performance were the most important aspects of curing rituals. At that time, such rituals may have included many processes which are rare these days. It appears, for example, that possession into animals played a much bigger role, and vocal music was the preferred mode of communication with these animals. Singing was also the only possibility for the animals or spirits who took possession of the performer to express themselves or to transmit their message to the human listeners.'4 er. Gow (1994: 109) for the Vine, or my own more recent studies with Kakataibo andlskobakebo in Brabec de Mori (forthcoming a, forthcoming c).5 Today, exclusively vocal music and some percussion (like lhe shapaja, a bundle of leaves )are attested to be used in magical performance. lIlius (I 987: 126. 157) argues that among the Shipibo of former times also the musical bowl Olloronari served for communication between healer and non-humans. This instrument is not used anymore. In Shipibo terminology and understanding, there is no clear distinction between magical and non-magical songs. More precisely, any music performance involves some contingent magical power, for one should not sing carelessly. IlIius (1997: 216) explains that Shipibo do not sing during everyday activities (there are no working songs, for example) lest they would involuntarily attract the attention of non-humans. Music is considered the spirits' language and therefore priori magically potent. Songs performed at drinking parties or for courtship, for instance, also carry a certain degree of magical power:a man, for example, may sing in order to have his desired girl falling love with him. A woman may sing to address her secret lover's potential understanding that she would like to flee with him to another village. As illustrated by these examples, numerous songs - however "secular" they may be - are thought to cast effects upon persons sung to. This understanding of effect is coded in metaphoric language. In song lyrics, for example, people are referred to as certain animals.This ascription of animal identities to human persons is not descriptive hut prescriptive: the male singer who tries to seduce a girl, would, for example, name her bantaish. The bantaish is a beautiful small bird, an din the code of Shipibo song lyrics it is used to address a young, good looking and marriageable person (whose sex is usually the opposite of the singer's sex). Mentioning bantaish in this context does not describe the girl's behaviour but actually prescribes it: the singer defines her ideal reaction for the near future through meaningful naming'Furthermore, there are "semi-medical" songs, intended for "curing"somebody to become a good hunter or a better artist, or for "curing"people (who are e.g. lazy, or too playful with partners) to behave more acceptably in social terms. The core idea of effectiveness in these songs is the same: a precise ascription of non-human identities to the targeted person.

Finally, and still apart from what Westerners would understand as "medical", there is evidence' of past activities that could6 A more extensive analysis of Shipibo song lyrics and inherent coding of behaviour will be available in Brabec de Mori (forthcoming c).7 Scc the mentions of mochai or similar terms by Cardenas Timoteo (1989: 125), Diaz Castaneda (1923, cited in Toumon 2002: 182) or Izaguirrc (1922-1929, cited in Wistr and Robinson 1969: 483), among a few others.173also be coined as "religious". The machoi ritual, which is not performed anymore, is almost unknown in anthropological studies about Shipibo history and seems to have comprised a collective worshipping of the suo, the "curing" of sun or moon in cases of eclipse, and in certain situations, the summoning of delicately powerful animal-human transient beings called the simpiba janiba. The machoi songs were the heart of this ritual, performed by rather large groups of singers.

3. Medical songs and "Ayahuasca Shamanism" in today's healing rituals, the importance of music is obvious, because songs are performed in almost any case where healing occurs.However, these songs can only be sung efficiently by specialised healers (mMicas). These healers used to occupy an ambivalent position in Shipibo social life as they were respected as healers and at the same time feared as sorcerers (this has changed, as will be shown later). The most discrete application of medical songs is whistling (kaxanti) in order to "charge" a carrier substance (usually a cigar, a pipe, a perfume, or any remedy to be administered to a patient) with a song's power. Therefore, the medica holds the object or substance close to his' mouth while he whistles the melody. The mMica does not pronounce the song's lyrics but he must think the proper verses(cf. Olsen 1996: 259f. on the Warao haG songs). Afterwards, the "charged" object or substance is smoked, applied, or ingested, and with that, the magical song's power should unfold and cause the intended effects. This "charging", kaxanti, is most often used during daytime and without many ritual preparations. It can, however, also be& I have recorded eleven mocltai songs and described three categories, or purposes, of mochai singing: (i) adoration to the rising sun, or "healing" sun or moon during eclipse; (ii) ar eligious ceremony of collective prayer which is not primarily directed to the sun, but rathe rto meeting with powerful beings like the inko and their counterparts, the simpibo jonibo; and (iii) the application of mochai songs within curing rituals in order to perform especially difficult tasks of curing.

I use male forms when referring to the healers, because in my survey, 93% of healers were males. Females also embark on important duties in Western Amazonian medical systems, but they are rarely involved as mtidicas who cure by singing and contacting non-human beings effected through loud singing (including pronounced lyrics) towards the object, but such "publicly" pronounced magical songs are almost exclusively performed during night-time and within the context ofayawaska rituals.Besides "charging" an object or substance, directed singing towards a patient (or victim) is another option, most often performed during ayahuasca sessions. The nightly ritual commences with the healer (medico) ingesting the drug. Thereafter, he waits until the drug takes effect and then starts singing. In Shipibo contexts, usuallysongs from three categories are used, defined by their musical form: bewti (derived from artistic songs with a specific descending melodic model in two sections), mashti (derived from round-dance music sungat drinking parties, with a strict repetition section and a consequent four-beat rhythm) and ikaro (imported from Kichwa-, Kukama- andSpanish-speaking settlers, together with the use of ayahuasca, with different melodic and rhythmic features; ikaro songs are exclusively performed in ayahuasca sessions). The musical form can vary with each new song; which form is chosen, depends on the individual singer. Some medicos may sing more ikaro-type songs, others may sing mainly bewti, for example. In any case, a medico will directly sing to the patients and listeners (who did not ingest the drug), sometimes for up to six hours in succession, until all the healing is done, or until the drug's effects (pae) fade out. If more than one medica is present, they may sing their songs one after another, or in unison, or they may sing simultaneously in polyphony.A third possibility for the application of music in healing rituals is the setting most common when Westerners take part in the session:not only the medico(s) ingest ayahuasca, but also the participants,or patients. In such cases, the healer usually leads the voice in thesame way as described above, but sometimes participants may start humming, whistling or trying to follow the healer's song in unison. Sometimes "advanced students" may sing along or perform their own songs simultaneously to the healer's song - thus, the ayahuasca drinking Westerners take over the position of another medica presenting the ritual. Most importantly, as all participants suffer the effects of ayahuasca, the music is considered an auditory Ariadne's thread for guiding the visionary experience rather than a tool for actually communicating with non-humans.

The common term used in literature to refer to similar structures of healing rituals is "Ayahuasca shamanism",In all ttu'ee cases, a medica whistles or sings determined musical sequences chosen in order to obtain certain results or effects. There is no obvious or linear relationship between musical form (bewti,mashti, or ikaro), melodic line, rhythm or dynamics and the medica's intention, (e.g. summoning allies, calling upon divine forces, scaring away negative influences, cleaning diseased parts of the body, or fighting enemy healers or sorcerers). Instead, every healer has learned a certain repertoire of melodies. These melodies, or tunes, can betaken from songs outside the curing context. They can likewise be learned or adopted from a teacher (usually a family member: father, grandfather or uncle), or, finally, they may be made up by the medica himself. Consequently, every single medica uses a different repertoire of melodies. The singing style differs also from one individual to the other. Some sing in very high-pitched registers, for example, some prefer intense nasalisation, some sing fairly fast tempi, and so on, whileothers do not. Despite this apparent freedom, some generalisations in singing style can be undertaken: high-pitched falsetto singing, for example, indicates that the singer is in contact with powerful divine beings that are thought to perform in very high pitches themselves, and is therefore especially appreciated by patients. Some singers apply voice masking (cf. Olsen 1996: 159ff.) depending on the entities they are in contact with, falsetto singing being but one of the available masks. In such cases, a non-human entity seems to lend its voice to the singer. Despite the masking, we - the audience - can exclusively perceive the "untranslated song" produced by the singer, because he still uses a human (Shipibo style) melody and rhythm and in most cases pronounces human (Shipibo) language in his lyrics. In both, the thought lyrics in koxonti performance for "charging" objects and the pronounced lyrics when directly addressing patients, the main feature is still the naming of corresponding non-human identities or qualities that are ascribed to the patient. For a proper, effective performance, a direct connection and active communication between medica and non-human entities is necessary. This is indicated by the masked voice, with the singer imitating the singing style of the corresponding non-humans. Only the medica can perceive their singing (cf. Brabecde Mori 2007). The song as performed by the medica appears as a"bodily-exterior manifestation of [oo.] knowledge and power" (Gow2001: 144).

4. The emergence of the "Aesthetic Therapy"

The song categories and performance modalities described above "secular", "semi-medical" and "medical" - represent precise art and certain craftsmanship. The singers have to memorise melodies and common text phrases from their teachers or other singers in their community. In order to sing for curing, they also have to accomplish long retreats and fasting, thus apprehending how to contact non human beings. When they conclude their year-long training period, they should be able to contact these non-humans at will and sing along with them in order to cure (or to inflict suffering).In academic literature, however, Shipibo songs have not yet been analysed in broad comparative studies, but have often been presented in fragments and sometimes out of contexts. Translations have frequently been undertaken in spite of their translators lacking the necessary, profound understanding of metaphors and codes." In many cases, such analysis has been integrated in an alleged "Shipibo cosmology" (as if this existed in the singular). In the following, I am going to show how differently the function of music has been interpreted by other scholars, in order to underline how powerfully the respective researcher's understanding of history intervenes with the interpretation of actual practice - and consequently, how it can create practice.10 1 want to exclude here the work by lIlius (1987,1997,1999), which stands out positively. Illius has translated and analysed not only a broad collection of"shamanic" songs, but also a dialogue about singing and a series of songs not related to curing (see Illius 1999: 208ff.).

To begin with, the visual kene patterns have caught many visitors' eyes more than the songs, perhaps due to the predominance of visual perception in Western life. Various scholars have tried to interpret, compare and understand the meaning of the elaborate designs which Shipibo women produce on ceramics or textiles, and which men used to carve onto wooden items. Early ethnologists applied Kulturkreislehre, inherited from the 19'th century, or an understanding of trans-cultural diffusion in general. Tessmann (1928) disrespectfully points out that the Shipibo would only imitate an artistic style invented before by "higher civilisations", and would therefore not understand anything of their own artwork's meaning. During the 20" century, the designs were constantly subject to interpretations, and seldom was it seriously considered that they could actually be "only" I'art paur I'art - so called Naturvolker were not supposed to produce art without function. Angelika Gebhart-Sayer (1986) also clings to the idea that an assumed original meaning had long been lost, and only a few "shamans"(Schamanen) would still know how to interpret these ancient codes.Based on these fictitious codes, she tries to find a connection between these designs, the intake of ayahuasca, and the performance of curing songs; her hypothesis becomes clear from the title: "una terapiaestetica". With this "aesthetic therapy", Gebhart-Sayer assumes that"shamans" could perform certain songs dedicated to obtaining certain visions of kene designs during their ayahuasca experience. Vice versa, when looking at painted or embroidered designs, they could singc orresponding melodies, reproducing the hidden code from the design patterns. These "singable designs" or "song patterns" would, as Gebhart Sayer argues, play an important role in healing sessions: in his vision, the healer would perceive the patient's body covered by (otherwise invisible) "body patterns". An ill person's "body patterns"would appear distorted. The healer would then sing the proper song in order to summon the corresponding patterns that would subsequentlya ppear on the patient's body. This would result in healing.Surprisingly, this hypothesis, which was found to be a speculativeEuropean idea and therefore lacks any evidence in past or recent178practice among Shipibo people (Brabec de Mori & Mori Silvano deBrabec 2009a, 2009b), could later be observed as a practice in the field and entered into ethnographic reports, e.g. by Martin (2005) or Rittner (2007). These authors present healers who actually do cover their patients with embroidered textiles before singing corresponding "pattern songs" while they are under the influence of ayahuasca. In their reports, "shamans" drink ayahuasca together with their (Western) patients. Thus they employ a healing technique they readily explain, based on "healing patterns", "design songs" and "visions of sung designs" during ayahuasca influence. This practice can be observed mainly in the Shipibo village of San Francisco de Yarinacocha near the regional capital ofPucallpa, where most tourists and inexperienced researchers reach out to meet Shipibo people for the first time.The main differences of this musical healing technique to whatI exposed beforehand are the predominance of the visual with the kene designs, the indubitably higher importance of ayahuasca intake (including patients), and the disappearance of animal or other non-human identities ascribed to human addressees. By the way, as Gebhart-Sayer (1987: 275) argues, lyrics seem to be rather irrelevant for her "pattern songs". In order to understand how such strikingly different interpretations may have emerged, I will now sum up some relevant processes of change in the Shipibo's representations of their own lived world during the last few decades.

5. The invention of tradition

Around 1950, the Shipibo did not by any means try to represent anything especially "indigenous" in their daily lives. On the contrary, they usually sought a way of living in the best position available between their own customs and the growingly dominant fluvial mestizo (or peruana) society. Since then, however, some changes in national and international, Caballero (2008) analyses a similar process among a Mexican indigenous population.During the Mexican Revolution, the author argues, this group did not present any "Indian" identity, and their interpretation of their own past was then almost contrary to their historical narrative as told after the indigenismo movement. Relations have led to a re-indigenisation of most Peruvian rainforest groups, the chief causes being: (i) the missionary-linguistic labourso f the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL, active in Yarinacocha near Pucallpa between 1947 and 2002) with its conservative ideology, active among most indigenous groups; (ii) the land reform of the Sistema Nacional de Movilizacion Social (SINAMOS) project under the left-wing government of General Velasco in the early1970s, granting communal land titles exclusively to native villages(comunidades nativas); (iii) the growing interest of anthropologists in native Amazonians, and therefore a confrontation with questions the new to the people, regarding "traditions", "myths", or "knowledge of the elders"; and finally, (iv) since the 1960s, but massively since about 1990, a steadily growing invasion of "individual tourists","eeo-tourists", "spiritual seekers", "ethnomedical tourists" and "white shamans" (Rose 1992) that spread over Shipibo territory, though being concentrated in San Francisco de Yarinacocha. The immense interest especially in the Shipibo from both anthropologists and tourists can be explained by combining the following parameters: relatively easy geographic accessibility, the "traditional" use of a hallucinogenic drug, and elaborate native artwork (the kene patterns), aesthetically appealing also to uneducated Westerners.

Regarding ayahuasca, a crucial event for fostering this interest was the publication of the popular book The Yage Letters by Burroughs & Ginsberg in 1963. Moreover, famous books byCastaneda (1968) and Hamer (1972, 1973) drew many experience seekers towards "indigenous drugs", into the Peruvian rainforests and therefore to the Shipibo people."All these tendencies helped to shift the indigenous people's social position in positive ways compared to the fluvial mestizo population, who were almost entirely ignored. This favourable position was, however, only available for people and villages who declared themselves "indigenous" and showed this, by representingt heir "nativity" in vernacular language use (for the SIL), in communal12 For further details about this process, see Brabec de Mori & Mori Sill/ana de Brabec(2009b), and Brabec de Mori (forthcoming b).180labour economies (for obtaining SINAMOS' land titles), in being very knowledgeable about indigenous items (for anthropologists), and in practising preferably "mystic" or "spiritual", even "primitive", at any rate spectacular and impressing events for the tourists - in short: the more "indigenous", the better.In a series of publications, my wife and I have contributed toe mpirically showing which elements of today's "Shipibo culture"(which is a singular) may be traced in the past and in histories of various sub-groups of fluvial Pano (which is a plural) in the Ucayali valley, and which elements can be understood as individual creations(which is a plural) that are nowadays presented as "the original tradition of the Shipibo" (which is a singular). It appears that there are many items changing, being lost, and being created, although meanwhile, an illusion of "the original tradition of the Shipibo" is maintained by natives, missionaries, GOs, researchers, and tourists in a surprisingly consistent mutual agreement. Everybody wins, if the "tradition" is as modern as possible, but still reaches into the past via "grandparents who already sang like this", "authentic or original traditions of our people", "elements of a millennial culture", and similar renderings. Such terminology is excessively used by the indigenous people themselves. Especially in San Francisco de Yarinacocha, asort of unofficial "school" has emerged, where people make moneywith the visitors: they are (male) "chamalles", (female) "ar/esanas",(male) "ar/is/as", (male or female) or, in the mostpromising cases, a combination of all." Sec Brabec de Mori & Mori Silvano de Brabec (2009a, 2009b), and Brabec de Mori(forthcoming b).

The Shipibo ayahuasca-using specialists were mostly male, 93% in my survey. Only in recent years, some "gender mainstreaming" has been taking place (probably triggered by tourists' preferences), and female ayahuasqueras are emerging (d Jervis, forthcoming; see also <httpJ/www.tcmpleofthewayoflight.org> (2011112010». All specialists working in an indigenous context identify themselves as mMicos (using thisSpanish loan-word instead of vemacular terms like yobe or meraya). If, on the other hand, they call themselves chomanes, this is a fairly secure indicator that they aim towards working with Western visitors. Further on, the distinction between artesanas and arf;Sfasis very interesting (er. Brabcc de Mori & Mori Si1vano de Brabec 2009a): female ar/esal1asproduce "handicraft". a medium·size embroidered sheet sold at around USD 35, while malearristas produce "art" paintings sold at around USD 350 each (prices from 2008). althoughaverage investments in labour, material and creativity tlml out to be fairly similar. This181Items in process of change include but are not exhausted by thefollowing list:(i) Medical or magical songs outside the ayawaska complex, likethose including theatrical performances and possession by animals,were altogether dismissed among Shipibo; drinking and courtshipsongs are nowadays exclusively performed at presentations for payingtourists.(ii) The ayawaska ritual complex was quickly adapted: what wasonce marginal and feared by natives who were not medicos themselvesgot most interest from visitors (and therefore gifts and money), and sothis ritual was re-located in the very centre of "Shipibo culture". Notonly the medico(s) would drink the brew, but all present, includingvisitors. Collective hallucinatory experience was declared to be the"traditional" way for Shipibo to apply indigenous medicine.(iii) The kene designs were adapted to market strategies andtherefore simplified in complexity and standardised (cf. Lathrap 1976,Mori Silvano de Brabec 2010, and see the illustrations at the end).Researchers' questions about possible meanings of the designs werereflected by the natives, and many Shipibo started to give creativeanswers to such questions (Brabec de Mori & Mori Silvano de Brabec2009b: 112-114).(iv) The songs performed during ayawaska sessions were connectedto the complex of ken" designs answering Gebhart-Sayer's questions.Herlinda Agustin in San Francisco de Yarinacocha worked withGebhart-Sayer and is now the most prominent protagonist for "healingpatterns", "song pattems", and even "woven songs" (Martin 2005).(v) This combined multimedia package was thus declared amillennial tradition and explained as "the ancient tradition of theShipibo" (which is a singular, again): in other words, the (adapted)ayawaska drinking session, the (aesthetically renewed) kene art, andthe (never existing) songs which would evoke designs, or designswhich would encode songs, are said to have ever been there.distinction between "art" and "handicmft" is a recent Western import (before around 1995.art painters were absent among Shipibo) and sheds a doubtful shade on assumed genderequality in Western society.182 183

6. The structuring of time'Long ago, my grandfather went into the forest'(from Faust 1990 [11973]: 45 ["Mucho antes, mi abuelo se ha ido 31 montc"]. my glosses) In example (2), we face a case of "mythical" past where -ni is used together with narrative markers (here: nete benalianronki). In most indigenous Amazonian societies, "tradition", "originality","authenticity", "history", and similar terms cannot be expressed in the vernacular language. There are many indications that the structuring of time in indigenous Amazonian languages does not necessarily follow a linear or even a circular idea of a progressing time. Gow(2001), for example, dedicated a whole book to explaining how the Yine people use narrative structures ("myths") for obliterating time(in a Levi-Straussian sense) and for constructing flexible histories. Among the Yine as well as among the Shipibo, a "mythical" nal Tationis defined by the use of certain discursive and grammatical forms (see IIlius 1999: 126-164), altogether related to aspects of remote evidentiality (Valenzuela 2003: 37-42). In Shipibo, a tense for indicating "mythical" or "remote" past has been claimed to be found in the case of verbs with the marker -ni. Action had obviously occurred a long, "remote" time before the speech, because your essence was pierced (I have) loosened it at all sides. In Shipibo, however, the so-called "remote" or "mythical" past can be described more accurately as a remote (or extra-experiential) non future. That is, it covers not only events reported as having taken place long before the actual time of speech but extends also to events or states that are contemporaneous with the time of speech while taking place or obtaining at a level beyond ordinary everyday perception.

Consider the example of a curing song, where Isakani 'pierced' does not refer to an event of a remote, mythical past but to one having taken place only shortly before the time of speech:In this example xama refers to an aspect of the patient's body that is not directly perceivable. This aspect of the body is now in a vulnerable state because it was recently "pierced" by sorcery. That is, the use of- ni here does not indicate remoteness in time but rather remoteness from everyday experience. Finally, bo-ni-bo-kan' takes away' again refers to an event that is not accessible to ordinary everyday perception. That event, however, is not at all located in the past but taking place at the time of speech. When the world was new, our ancestors lived just suffering while the anaconda takes away his/her soul. According to Mori Silvano de Brabec (pers. comm., November 20 I0), the use of -ni as an indicator for contemporaneous remoteness is limited to speeches or songs of medicos during ritual performance.

In any case, the extra-experiential aspect which applies to both "mythical" and "magical" speech (narration or song) leads to the conclusion that both are not fixed. It appears that the use of remote non-future in Shipibo language allows for the possibilities of duplication, transformation, and bifurcation, in short, for altering the respective contents depending on the speaker's subject position. Considering these thoughts, Shipibo discourse about the past ("tradition", "originality", and so on) necessarily includes the possibility of change, in the same way as the present ("this world","the patient's illness", and so on) allows for change or manipulation in the course of the medicos' actions for healing or sorcery.

7. Conclusions

In the first part of this paper I undertook a survey of the constructive power of song in different settings, like ("secular") drinking songs or love songs, ("semi-medical") songs for power or certain cultural16 In many medicos' songs -n; is used without the completive aspect marker -kef-que. In everyday discourse, however, both suffixes are almost always used in combination. The occurrence of the remote non-future (exclusively in medicos' speech) has to be carefully distinguished by context from the ending -n-; (occurring also in everyday discourse), which is a succession of the translator suffix -n and the modifier suffix -i indicating intention ('inorder to'), effects, and medical or magical songs performed with or without the intake of ayahuasca. This was compared to a more popular interpretation of Shipibo musical healing, the "aesthetic therapy" that involves the kene designs. Then I analysed how a "tribal" identity and a collective "tradition" could emerge during the 20'" century among the Shipibo. Finally, the function of the suffix -ni in Shipibo language was investigated. The results show that past and present are not asclearly distinguished as e.g. in European languages. Both the song as a magical process based on resources which are located in an extra experiential present (like a parallel world or "stratum of reality") and the narative as a constructive process based on resources located in the past are capable of manipulating a subject's position (e.g. social or economic) and condition (e.g. psychological or physical) during the present situation and consequently for the future.The idea of a flexible past that allows for different and changing histories is perfectly suitable to a structuring of time that does not apriori separate past from present.

A past that is present (although in any case extra-experiential) does not contradict everyday experiences of e.g. people (or the world as such) growing old(er), but simply incorporates a past that is as fixed as the future into the concept of time. The immanent presence of past as well as future is therefore not felt directly, but located in distant though real regions. Within these remote "strata of reality", time and space - past, present, future, here, and there - are not separate. This is well known in many descriptions of "shamanic" cosmologies-" These remote regions can only be visited and accessed by trained specialists (the medicos), and any manipulation of those regions and the resulting transformations or effects on everyday life can only be performed by singing or by formalised telling of narratives.On the other hand, the historical inevitability of the commonWestern interpretation of time is not compatible with this model of fixed past. Therefore, a conflict emerges when interpreting processes.

An"orthodox" Western understanding of most processes of change makes the indigenous people appear very passive, likewise reacting to the intrusive force of the globalising world. However, a deeper understanding of the indigenous structuring of time reveals that their role is much more active. In some situations, as has been shown in this paper, they are far ahead instead, with Westerners struggling to react to their innovations, like anthropologists (including me) perpetually investigating and asking them stupid questions in order to finally find out about their "real" past - while many Shipibo make great fun of us. The Shipibo protagonists who nowadays perform songs that can be transformed into designs and vice versa are of course inventing this from scrap (or more precisely, anthropologist Gebhart-Sayer invented it). However, in view of their current practice and their attributing anew meaning to the flexible dimension of "remote past" by declaring that thus was "the original tradition of the Shipibo", this idea is actually transforming into reality. Visitors can nowadays observe this practice, although still almost exclusively in San Francisco de Yarinacocha. However, I suppose the practice will spread further among Shipihoin the near future, simply because it sells fairly well. The structuring of time and distance in Shipibo understanding allows for complete freedom in maintaining, transmitting, creating and changing of"tradition", in the same way as a present situation can be manipulated magically by specialist medicos through proper singing. History is in the making.

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Bernd Brabec de Mori is a researcher in cultural anthropology and musicology and teaches ethnomusicology at the University of Innsbruck.

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VIDEO: 'The Songs The Plants Taught Us'

Anthropologist and entheogenic researcher, Dr Luis Eduardo Luna, documents an ayahuasca ceremony in the Peruvian Andes.

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