Intelligence in Nature - Jeremy Narby [13]
He spoke Spanish fluently and appeared to have thought about these questions before. I asked if he could explain the difference between the âspiritâ of an individual plant and its âmother.â He remained silent for an instant, then replied: âRight. A tree has a soul like a human being does. The Christian world considers that humans have souls. It is the same with a tree. It is material and it also has a soul or a spirit which may present itself to you in your dreams in the form of a person. And taken together, trees have their mother, meaning to say mother of the forest, and mother of the species. This is what we call tana-ashi, mother of an ecosystem so to speak. For example, in a place where there are a lot of irapay palms, that is where the mother of irapay lies. It is like a general soul. That is the difference between the mother and the soul of each tree.â
The second specialist, Akushti Butuna Karijuna, represented the Kichwa people. He had a round face, short hair, and piercing dark eyes. I asked him to compare Western science and indigenous knowledge. âBueno,â he said. âWe speak on the basis of our visions, whereas scientists do not believe in visions. Instead they go and study. That is why it is a little different.â
I asked whether he saw a difference between knowledge acquired from vision and knowledge acquired from study. âI see some gringos saying things somewhat similar to what we see in our visions,â he replied. âIt is on the same level. But for example, regarding the creation of humans, I do not know, gringos have another knowledge which they were brought up on. Our knowledge is different. We get it from the animals, for example from the birds. The bird of the Kichwa people is the yellow-fronted parrot. It is from this bird that we originated and multiplied.â
Amazonian people commonly believe that plants and animals are related to humans, and that nature metamorphoses and undergoes constant transformation.
I asked the third specialist, Usi Kamarambi, why, in his opinion, gringos have difficulty understanding that plants contain spirits. He had a joyful, ageless face. âBecause they just do not know,â he replied. âThatâs why. We Kandoshi people believe that plants, trees, all have spirit.â
I asked if he thought the gringosâ problem is lack of knowledge. âLack of knowledge to understand nature,â he said, agreeing. âLack of know-how about how to see visions, what to drink, how to do it.â
He spoke basic Spanish with a thick, throaty accent. He went on to say that Kandoshi people use ayahuasca, datura (toé) and tobacco to attain visions that allow them to understand nature. He said he had used these plants himself and had spoken with the âmothersâ of plants, in particular with the âowner of daturaâ (el dueño de toé). I asked whether he had also spoken with the âowner of animals,â the entity said to represent the âownersâ of all species.
âI did not speak with the owner of animals, no. I could only see her. I could see where all the animals exist, many kinds of different animals. And there was their owner, the mother of animals.â He used the concepts of âownerâ and âmotherâ interchangeably.
âWhat did she look like?â I asked.
âHer body was covered in feathers, feathers of animals, birds, and her feet were like a personâs, and so were her fingers, but she had very long nails.â
He described the owner of animals as a hybrid being, as do many indigenous people around the world.
A large green parrot screeched and squawked from a nearby palm tree, interrupting the conversation. Once it had quieted down, I steered the conversation toward the subject of intelligence in nature. I asked the specialists if they thought animals think.
Akushti Butuna Karijuna, the Kichwa specialist, said, âWe see animals, they have thought. Ants, for example, prepare their supplies, stock their food, go fetch it, and bring it back to the right