icaro
{{Short description|Amazonian ritual song}}
{{multiple issues|{{more citations needed|date=April 2016}}
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File:Don Solón Tello ikareando a niño - Foto Jaime Torres Romero, Archivo Centro Takiwasi.jpg
Icaro ({{langx|qu|ikaro}}) is a South American indigenous and mestizo colloquialism for magic song.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/witchdoctorsappr0000maxw|title=Witch doctor's apprentice : hunting for medicinal plants in the Amazon|last=Nicole.|first=Maxwell|date=1990-01-01|publisher=MJF Books|isbn=1567313035|oclc=42683849|url-access=registration}} Today, this term is commonly used to describe the medicine songs performed in vegetal ceremonies, especially by shamans in ayahuasca ceremonies.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HltJMMq1_60C&pg=PA220|title=Ency of Shamanism|last=Pratt|first=Christina|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|year=2007|pages=220|isbn=9781404210400}}{{cite book|title=Vegetalismo (Stockholm Studies in Comparative Religion)|last=Luna|first=Luis Eduardo|publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell Internat|year=1986|isbn=91-22-00819-5|authorlink=Luis Eduardo Luna}}
Each Amazonian ethnic group has a specific term for this type of generic magical song: for example, eshuva for the Huachipaire people,{{Cite web |title=Eshuva, Harákmbut sung prayers of Peru's Huachipaire people - intangible heritage - Culture Sector - UNESCO |url=http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/USL/eshuva-harakmbut-sung-prayers-of-perus-huachipaire-people-00531 |access-date=2016-01-18 |website=www.unesco.org}} meye for the Piaroa,{{Cite journal |last1=Rodd |first1=Robin |last2=Sumabila |first2=Arelis |date=2011-03-28 |title=Yopo, Ethnicity and Social Change: A Comparative Analysis of Piaroa and Cuiva Yopo Use |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02791072.2011.566499 |journal=Journal of Psychoactive Drugs |language=en |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=36–45 |doi=10.1080/02791072.2011.566499 |issn=0279-1072|url-access=subscription }} mariri for the Kokama,{{Cite book |last=Brabec de Mori |first=Bernd |url=https://www.academia.edu/5327195 |title=The internationalization of Ayahuasca |publisher=LIT-Verlag |year=2011 |isbn=978-3-643-90148-4 |editor-last=Jungaberle |editor-first=Hendrik |publication-place=Zurich |page=34 |chapter=Tracing Hallucinations: Contributing to a Critical Ethnohistory of Ayahuasca Usage in the Peruvian Amazon |editor-last2=Labate |editor-first2=Beatriz C.}} or rao bewá for the Shipibo.{{Cite journal |last1=Favaron |first1=Pedro |last2=Bensho |first2=Chonon |date=2022-07-01 |title=Rao bewa: los cantos medicinales del pueblo shipibo-konibo |url=https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/lthc/article/view/102082 |journal=Literatura: Teoría, historia, crítica |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=139–165 |doi=10.15446/lthc.v24n2.102082 |issn=2256-5450|doi-access=free }}
Etymology
The word icaro is believed to derive from the Quechua verb ikaray, which means "to blow smoke in order to heal".{{cite book|last=Haule|first=John Ryan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VkYLhAKQMR8C&pg=PA47|title=Jung in the 21st Century: Synchronicity and science|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2011|isbn=9780203833605|pages=47–48}}{{Better source needed|date=December 2020}}
In healing ceremonies
= Medicine songs =
File:Pwanchir Pitu, Shaman et chef spirituel du peuple Achuar.jpg
Icaro is most commonly used to describe the medicine songs used by shamans in healing ceremonies, such as with the psychedelic brew ayahuasca. Traditionally, these songs can be performed by whistling, singing with the voice or vocables, or playing an instrument such as the didgeridoo or flute.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}
Traditionally, icaros may come to a shaman during a ceremony, be passed down from previous lineages of healers, or come to a shaman during a 'dieta' where plant spirits are believed to teach icaros to the shaman directly. The singing or whistling of icaros is sometimes accompanied by a chakapa, a rattle of bundled leaves.{{cite book
| last = Beyer
| first = Stephan V.
| title = Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon
| publisher = University of New Mexico Press
| date = 2009
| location = Albuquerque
| language = English
| isbn = 978-0-8263-4729-9
| quote = some songs, such as calling in the spirit of ayahuasca at the start of a ceremony, are performed without rhythmic accompaniment, while healings are all performed with the shacapa. }} Due to the complexity of certain performance techniques, it may take many years to learn certain icaros, and experienced shamans may be able to recite hundreds of them.{{cite web|url=http://sciencenotes.ucsc.edu/2011/pages/ayahuasca/ayahuasca.html|title=Meet Mother Ayahuasca|last=Rozendal|first=Keith|accessdate=21 August 2012}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{cite magazine|url=https://www.elmundomagico.org/wp-content/themes/elmundomagico/docs/ICAROS.pdf|magazine=Sacred Hoop|year=2010|issue=68|first=Francesco|last=Sammarco|title=Icaros{{--}}Magical songs of the Amazon}}
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Category:Shamanism of the Americas