DIALECTICS OF EVIL: POLITICS AND RELIGION IN AN AMAZON MESTIZO COM-
MUNITY
Matti Kamppinen
INTRODUCTION: THE PHENOMENOLOGI-
CAL PROBLEM AND DIALOGICAL METHOD
Michael Taussig has constructed the
prevalence of evil in the South American
folklore as a sign of alienation [1]. Alienation
has resulted from a change in the mode of
production and the emergence of commodity
fetishism. He proposes that the devil (an
individual evil being) mediates the process in
which the peasant mode of production is
transformed into a capitalistic one; the devil
expresses the workers' sense of bewilderment
and of being threatened.
In this essay I discuss the dialectics of evil in
San Rafael, a Mestizo community in the
Peruvian Amazon. In San Rafael, the peasant
mode of production prevails (at least more so
than in Taussig's examples), but other
confrontations (which probably echo the up-
coming changes in the mode of production)
seem to feed and shape a rich folklore of evil.
The confrontation between the people and the
health care system, on the one hand, and amid
different religious sects, on the other hand, are
mediated by symbols of evil. These distinct
contradictions are not totally separated from
each other. The distribution of evil constituted
by the catolicos sees evil as a matter of fact, as
an intrahuman affair, which causes illness not
curable in health centers, originates in envy and
which is likely to stay within bearable limits if
people interact in terms of economic justice.
Matti Kamppinen is an anthropologist at the Department of
Cultural Studies, University of Turku; Turku; Finland.
Dialectical Anthropology, 13:143-155 (1989)
9 Kluwer Academic Publishers. - Printed in the Netherlands.
Moreover, evil is tied up with the traditional
knowledge o f inflicting and curing illnesses and
the Golden Past, both of which are used (or get
used) in the constitution of cultural identity and
class struggle. The evangeIistas, on the other
hand, divide the world up into the Manichean
good and evil, and the potential means for
building cultural identity are located on the evil
side. Thus the distinct ways of conceptualizing
the evil affect the constitution and the actual
possibilities of political liberation.
The anthropological method employed here is
an eclectic mixture of phenomenology and
cognitive anthropology [2]. It is the life-world
and the bestowing of meaning that I purport to
explicate: how is evil, illness and political
liberation constituted by cognitive actors? The
extensive quotation of native viewpoints
deserves a digression. Historically, the science
of anthropology was extracted from the writing
of "unscientific" travelogues by suppressing the
anecdotes and subjective elements. They are
replaced by "objective description and explana-
tion," a literary genre employed in scientific
textbooks. The dichotomization between science
and travelogues did not profit anthropology that
much, since anecdotes and individual ex-
periences are sometimes so telling. (The situa-
tion had been analogous in cognitive ethnology,
where the primatologists have been obliged to
support their most interesting statements with
anecdotes [3].) Fortunately, the positions of
science and the "rest of the culture" are starting
to change. Recent reflections on anthropology
[4] suggest that the anthropologist is no longer
telling the master narrative about the
anthropological Other, the exotic culture. The
challenge involves two principal moments,
144

undermining the myth of participant observation distance, so that vision can 'again' take up what
presences -but this time on ego's terms. [7]
and grounding the possibilities of dialogical
anthropology. The solutions I suggest here are
Relating to the second part of the
rather responses than definitive answers.
Malinowskian myth, Crapanzano [8] has
The myth of participant observation, accord-
suggested that even though the anthropologist
ing to James Clifford [5], was launched by
apparently acknowledges the provisional nature
Bronislaw Malinowski and it has been the major
of his/her interpretation, he/she assumes that
paradigm in social and cultural anthropology
there exists a final reading, the master narrative.
ever since. Its tenets are, first, that for every
The hermeneutics of reading cultures as texts
spatially bounded community there is the
has joined forces with the global naive
culture, a functionally unified whole that exists
scientification of life and has forgotten the in-
in time, and second, that the anthropologist is
principle incompleteness and provisionality of
able, by virtue of his eduction and knowledge, to
interpretations. The ground for postmodem
discover it and the truth about it. On the more
critique is that there exists no master narrative.
general level, these assumptions amount to a
How about science, the old master narrative? A
naive version of scientific realism. The critique
fruitful approach here is to presume that some of
levelled against the first part of this view holds
the most interesting narratives are told by
that the cultures are largely i n v e n t e d rather than
scientific enterprises even though there are other
found, that the "culture" as well as their
narratives as well. To presuppose, as Clifford
"representations" in the anthropological
does at times, that all "culture" is invented right
textbooks, result from the confrontation of
there on the spot, is to suppose that the Other
anthropologists and the Other. The confrontation
has no views at all. And this, if any, is a
is shaped by p o w e r relations which stem from
totalizing view.
the history of colonialism, and which are usually
Dialogical anthropology is an attempt to do
expressed in a way that hides them in scientific
anthropology that is responsive to the above
jargon. I, for one, have concluded some previous
critique. Tedlock [9] notes that the traditional,
studies by congratulating myself for uniting
apparently dialogical form of anthropology has
"systematic power' and "the use of emic
actually boiled down to the situation where the
concepts" in representing the Other. It seems
Other is allowed to say hardly anything at all,
that in anthropology, I am dealing with power,
beyond uttering few untranslatable "native
no matter what. Why is that? In Tyler's [6]
terms." He continues that
words, every act of r e p r e s e n t a t i o n is also an act
of re-pression. T h e interconnection of representa- There's a kind of apartheid here; it's as if
tion and repression has its roots in the history of anthropologists would not allow the natives to be
the mind and in the history of "representing" the articulate between the same two covers where they
mind. The most analyzed mental act in the themselveswere trying to be articulate. [10]
Husseflian phenomenology (and in cognitive
science), for example, has always been the The "apartheid" Tedlock writes about stems
representation, whose Heideggerian from the repressive character of representation.
connotations are spelled out by Levin as fol- Levin has analyzed the roots and consequences
lows: of "anthropological apartheid" in Heideggerian
terms as follows:
It is important [...] to bear in mind the inherently
aversive and aggressive character of re-presentation. [Re-presentation]results in a rec~vrocal subjugation, for
As the prefix itself informs us, re-presentation is the more we oppose the visible, the more we object to
repetition: a process of delaying, or deferring, that its own way of presencing, and insist on viewing it
which visibly presences. It is a way of positing at a through eyes of anxiety, or eyes that are defensive and
 145

therefore hostile, the more the visible will negatively due to witchcraft are usually treated by means of
conform to that set-up, that enframing - and it will give special power songs, known by traditional
us very little of itself. [ 11 ]
healers (medicos, vegetalistos, curanderos).
Power songs are known also by the evil witches
The present essay purports to be, if not a
solution, at least a conscious response to the
(brujos), and therefore evil and knowledge are
intricately tied together: evil requires knowledge
problems raised by participant observation and
and knowledge is easily used for evil purposes.
dialogical anthropology. The Other speaks,
Here I trace the distribution of the practical
argues and articulates: not anonymously, but
knowledge of witchcraft, on the one hand, and
individually named, where it had been
of evil, on the other hand. Knowledge is un-
(politically) convenient, like any other author I
evenly distributed among various communities.
cite. At times I quote for the sake of illustration,
The native Indians have the most powerful
at times to introduce a new argument. I purport
variety of knowledge and theirs is linked to
to let the life-world of the Other open itself. The
commercialization and consequently some of the
brand of phenomenology employed here has
urban specialists are greedy money makers.
been called'ethnomethodology' [12],'sociology
The native Indians possess the most powerful
of knowledge' [ 13] and 'heterophenomenology'
power songs and theirs is the most dangerous
[14].
witchcraft. This is evident from the statements
To a large extent, the topic of this study was
of both specialists and non-specialists.
created during the process of discussion. I did
Specialism emphasize that the native languages,
not have any "deep" theories backing my
in which the power songs are sung, are things of
questions except some systematized, common-
the past, incomprehensible and therefore
sense cognitive psychology. The dialogical form
dangerous for most of the people, whereas the
in some passages results from this background.
non-specialists lump tribal life, dangerous
People, when construed and treated
witchcraft, distant places and savage life style all
"heterophenomenologically", as cognitive
together.
systems, engage in dialogue. Various metaphors,
especially those pertaining to boundaries (both
conceptual, individual and social boundaries)
PAST AND POWER
give structure to the dialogues and accounts.
Metaphor analysis is the central phenomenologi-
I begin with a specialist's account, which is
cal technique I use in the interpretations.
structured by the models "there was more
The dialogical method is not taken as far as it
knowledge in the past" and "there used to be
could be. The people of San Rafael have not
more powerful healers and witches." Further-
seen my interpretations of their interpretations.
more, in the past, the medical doctors used to
For the time being, the interpretations I propose
know how to cure. Since illnesses are curable by
are an attempt to tell an interesting narrative that
relatively few remedies, to prescribe too many
"sheds a strong, partial light." [15]
remedies is a sign of ignorance. Don Pablo, a
full-time healer, explains how knowledge,
witchcraft and medicine have changed during
DISTRIBUTION OF EVIL
his lifetime:
Evil (ma/) plays a central role in the everyday God has not placed any illnesses on earth, they are all
life of San Rafael's catholic majority. It is from demons. And the medicos try to fight them.
involved in witchcraft (mal de gente, brujeria, Sometimes we don't know the remedy and the victim
hechiceria) which, in turn, causes numerous has to die. And for this mason the medicos vegetalistos
illnesses, some of which are incurable. Illnesses and the doctors have studied the remedies of all
illnesses. And the vegetalistos study to care illnesses
146
which are not curable by injections. I have studied the
illnesses and none is from God. The demons have been
here ever since the time when all the illnesses were
invented. If you don't know the right remedy for some
illness, you won't cure. You may take a remedy, hut it's
not its remedy (no es su remedio). If it's the right
remedy,you have to take it only once mad the evil is
extracted. Earlier the things were worse. Nowadays
there are not that many brujos since they have been
killing each other. Today's brujo is the demon. Earlier
the brujos were persons who killed children and adults
and each other, those who knew more killing those who
knew less. Most of the brujos are dead now. Earlier the
medicos were also more powerful, they knew more.
Nowadays it may haFpen that you get ill mad no one
knows to cure you. To be exact, the medicos who really
know, don't exist anymore. Earlier there were such
men. I have seen some old medicos (medicos antiguos).
Earlier the doctors were also vegetalistos, they knew
what was wrong with the patient. They wrote only one
recipe that was enough to cure. But it's not so anymore.
They don't know the illnesses. I believe in doctors since
I have seen some of the old doctors. They took you to
hospital but only for a couple of days and you were
cured. But now you are sticked with how many
injections but you won't get any better. Nowadays the
doctors write you a recipe although they don't know
what's wrong with you. Earlier the doctors knew and
they prescribed a remedy that was going to cure you.
Now you are prescribed something for pain but the pain
won't calm down. (TKU 87/215) [16]
Don Pablo's view of the value of the past is in
a nice contrast with the view prevalent in
affluent societies. According to Lakoff &
Johnson [17] the metaphors "future is up" and
"up is good" entail the proposition that "future is
good," which at least in our society has
grounded naive technological optimism. Don
Pablo's view that at least the medical doctors
have turned unskilled in caring (if not in curing)
could, perhaps, be confirmed by the aged and
poor people of our society.
Even though the quality of medicine has
worsened, there has been the legitimate
medicine and it was once possessed by the
Huitotos. One of the meters o f the amount of the
power and knowledge of the healer is the
physical closeness he/she needs in treating the
patient. They are conversely related to each
other: the more powerful the healer, the less
he/she needs to touch the patient.
The native group of Huitotos has received the legitimate
medicine. They know lots of things other natives don't
know. Theirs is the proper medicine. It has more
validity. They have more power, more studies than other
people. All the tribes have different methods of doing
their medicine, or curing. For example, the Huitotos
don't suck the ill person. They extract the evil only by
touching with the hand. All the others suck, but the
Huitotos have studied it in another form, I saw a medico
long time ago, when I didn't cure yet, who was very
skillful. He only looked at the patient in order to know
what was wrong with him; he didn't take the pulse. He
extracted the evil without touching the patient. He
always cured in public. (TKU 87/218)
NATIVES AND URBAN HAZARDS BEYOND
BOUNDARIES
The central model that shapes the views of
non-specialists is "witchcraft is where the
natives are."
Witchcraft exists, especially in #aces far away from
cities, especially by the Ucayali river, where there are
native tribes. Also on the Napo river. (TKU 87/200)
The most witchcraft you encounter in the native regions,
but also in the cities it exists. The people in Pucallpa,
the Cashibo Indians are very nice unless you refuse to
give them something they ask for. Up from Pucallpa
there are those Chamas, who have big canoes. They do
harm as follows: ff you don't eat or drink what you are
given they harm you. (TKU 87/202)
The remote places where witchcraft flourishes
are far from urban culture, and the natives are
seen as savage people just as the Mestizo
peasants are seen as uncivilized barbarians by
the city-dwellers of central Iquitos and by la
gente de la costa. The immense Brazilian jungle
on the other side of the border is pictured as the
homeland of witchcraft. The model "they are
envious savages, we are civilized" grounds the
following stories that express and constitute the
attitude towards the native Indians:
The witchcraft of the Indians (la brujeria de los indios)
is more powerful. Indians are not modem, not civilized.
They know but don't understand (saben pero no
entienden). They harm each other (hacen dano entre

cUts). In Brazil the Indians have various way of doing
harm. Here in Peru, not so much. 0"KU 87/192)
Here we have no witchcraft. We live [a] tranquil life,
we are not envious. Here, if someone needs a service or
food, he is given. He who has, gives. (TKU 87/202)
In the upper river [Napo] there is more witchcraft
than here. I was once there and saw. You could not
touch any garden of plantain or sugar cane because
there were so many evil people. Here we are on good
terms with our friends and neighbors but in the upper
river people are different (/a genre pot arriba son otra
clase). (TKU 87/135)
In the first quotation, Pablo Lachuma draws
an interesting distinction between knowing
(saber) and understanding (entender). At first
sight knowing pertains to practical know-how,
whereas understanding is related to contempla-
tive modes of cognition backed by theoretical
models. This interpretation goes well with the
other characterizations of natives, since
witchcraft is first and foremost a question of
doing (singing the power songs and making the
concoctions) and the natives know how to do it.
On the other hand, the natives are less educated,
less familiar with the urban culture than the
Mestizo peasants and thus they do not
"understand."
From the viewpoint of San Rafael, there is
witchcraft also in Iquitos, although it is an urban
area. The boundary that separates the known and
controllable environment of the village from the
remote native areas is similarly constituted as
the one that separates city from country. Yet
what there is on the other side of the boundary is
different in each case. The reason for the
existence of witchcraft in Iquitos is different
from the reason it has in the remote areas. In
Iquitos there are so many people that, almost by
necessity, there are some envious individuals
among them. In remote areas, it exists because
of the natives.
The quality of witchcraft, healers and witches
is remarkably worse in Iquitos than in peasantry
villages (caserios) or, not to mention, among
natives. In Iquitos, witchcraft has become
commercialized, and there is a considerable
number of people living by witchcraft. But the
quantitative accumulation has not amounted to
147
qualitative progress. The model "some urban
healers are fake or malevolent" is behind the
following accounts:
[Do you think that the medicos in Iquitos He to their
patients?] Yes. There was a man who was treated by a
medico for four years without any progress. I think that
if a medico knows to cure he will do it faster. This
medico didn't know to cure and professed curing only to
gain economic profits. [A] medico who really knows,
knows also which illnesses he can cure and how long it
takes. I know only this one case since I have not very
much to do with them. (TKU 87/208)
You see, there are medicos who both do harm and
then cure the very same evils they have caused. It's a
way of earning money. There are basically two types of
medicos, those who bewitch and those who cure. [...] In
Iquitos there are people who live by witchcraft. I have a
friend in Iquitos.He is a great medico, has a lot of
clients and he lives on it. In Iquitos it's usual to attract
women by means of witchcraft, and to revenge so that
the woman becomes a prostitute. In Iquitos there is
more witchcraft than anywhere else, and this is one
difference between city and countryside. My friend is
good medico. I know also many cheaterswho firstdo
harm and then cure it. They are like doctors: plain
consultation costs you 100 int/~. (TKU 87/213)
Another, quite curious proposition is that "my
family has never encountered witchcraft,"
although the informant's brother, father or
grandfather has been harmed by iL What makes
this proposition interesting is that on the other
occasions brothers, fathers and grandfathers
were reckoned as family members.
[How about witchcraft?] I don't know these
things.Never have seen. My family has never encoun-
tered witchcraft, but other people, s~rangers do
encounter witchcraft. [Has your family encountered
witchcraft?] No. Not my sons. Only my father died of
witchcraft which was made by his own cousin. It was
because my father had all he needed in his house and he
worked hard with my mother. He was done harm and
could not work anymore. His arms dried and he never
worked again. He died. His cousin killed him, because
the cousin didn't get the land he had wanted from my
father. He died because he dried. That's what I saw.
(TKU 87/203)
They say that witchcraft exists, but my family has not
encountered it. My grandfather was took to hospital
because stomach c a n c e r was suspected. Analysis took
15 days but nothing was found. When pain worsened
148
second time he went to curandero, who said it was
witchcraft. But he was not able to cure it since it was
done with a native language he did not understand. My
grandfather died. [...] My brother developed odd
symptoms like spasms and high fever. He was took to
[a] health center where he got an injection. He died
there at the age of 22 years and we thought it was
witchcraft since pharmacy had made it worse. We had
not attended curandero since he lived far away. (TKU
87/126)
The family is an entity surrounded by a
boundary that separates it from the evil of the
outside world. If this is accepted as a basic and
unquestionable proposition, then the occasional
cases where one's family members do encounter
witchcraft have to be categorized. The inflicted
members become non-members for the time
being, i.e. until the researcher is gone with
his/her intrusive questions. The following
dialogue between me and Maria Pena is perhaps
the most telling:
There is very little witchcraft here. No one from our
family has encountered witchcraft. There is more by the
upper river. They say that among the natives there is
more of it. [How about evil spirits? Do brujos use
them?] Yes, they use their evil spirits. [Do you know...]
No! [...the symptoms of brujeria?] No mister, we have
never been done harm, never. [What are....9] No mister,
we have never been done harm. (TKU 87/204)
ORIGINS OF EVIL
The origins of evil are envy and vengeance,
which may emerge for various reasons and have
different expressions in different forms of evil,
as Don Pablo says:
I have studied these things a lot and I am continuing
still. I have studied the questions of witchcraft and I
have found out [... ] that all the evil comes from human
envy. (TKU 87/218)
The particular nuances of envy are multiple.
The victim who is envied or revenged may
possess a commodity that is valuable, e.g. an
out-board motor, fine clothes or radio. The
victim may also be envied because he or she has
a daughter who is wanted by somebody and the
victim does not give his or her approval. The
envier may be either a common man or woman
or a witch. Sometimes the victim is portrayed as
having no other role than possessing some
commodity.
Perhaps the most widely distributed
witchcraft story I encountered was the one in
which the victim has some commodity other
persons do not have. The possession of some
extra goods is usually not enough to explain
envy, but the difference in wealth is accom-
panied by some other, more psychological or
social difference. The victim has some property
that makes him/her different from the others:
being exceptionally laborious, cooperative or
exceptionally alone (i.e. a stranger) is an
earmark of a potential victim:
Witchcraft originates in envy, which springs from
offenses between neighbors. Brujos alone cause
witchcraft, too. Sometimes the one and the same brujo
can offer to treat the projectile he has shot himself.
Brujo harms us for many reasons. It may be because we
have money and t'me house, or because we have [a]
beautiful daughter, or because we are laborious and
cooperative. (TKU 87/'210)
Let us put it this way. You arrive at a village as a total
stranger. You don't know anyone. You have something
which the brujos don't have and you won't give it to
them; therefore they harm you. They put a spell on you
(te chontean). They harm your feet or you get wounds
or something that eat your flesh and finally the bones.
Or you become such that you cannot speak or hear.
ffKU 87/200)
Ascribing the origin of envy to a difference is
cognitively more than useful, since the ex post
facto explanations (such as the stories
reproduced in this study) are bound to pick out
some difference that demarcates the victim from
the others.
A very common reason for envy and venge-
ance is a dispute in the matter of love. The
following story by Fidel Tapullima also tells
how the medical doctors were unable to cure the
patient and, moreover, were unable to recognize
the real reason for sudden recovery:
There was a girl whom I loved but who only pretended

to love me in order to get my money. So I left her, but
she went to a brujo to make me mad. So I went mad and
for 15 days I didn't know nothing. I was taken to
hospital where they said I had gone mad. They scanned
my head with a radiographer but didn't f'md any illness.
My cousin brought a medico to see me who treated me
for all night. He said I was done harm and he could cure
me even though they had not found any illness in the
hospital. The medico took 50 thousand soles and in
three days I was fine. The doctors in hospital believed
that they had cured me, but it was the medico. O'KU
87/201)
Here the victim goes mad because of greed.
Such a course of events is quite usual, i.e. that a
dispute in personal relationship eventuates in
temporary madness. What is distinctive in Fidel
TapuUima's case is that he was working for the
oil company PetroPeru, and was relatively well
paid. More serious consequences are possible,
too. The untimely death of Maria Perez's cousin
is explained once and for all by the medico who
was, obviously, consulted too late. The
symptoms in this case are perhaps the most
typical since the earmark of witchcraft, sharp
pain, is present and the rapid escalation of the
victim's condition signals the presence of strong
witchcraft. The medical doctor consulted is
described in an extreme way, too. After having
examined the vomiting girl he tells that "no tiene
nada":
I had a cousin who was in love and about to get married.
Ten days before her wedding she died. She was washing
clothes down there by the fiver when suddenly she
began to vomit. She had pain in stomach and here at
home she vomited blood. We took her to a doctor who
said that there was nothing wrong with her. He
examined her. When we came back, her brother said
that there was a medico nearby whom we should see.
This medico knew the question of medicine and plant
remedies. He said that my cousin was bewitched, that
there was another girl who also loved the boy my cousin
was about to marry, and that's why she had been
harmed. My cousin died. She was 17 years old. The
morning she began to vomit she had only headache,
nothing else. (TKU 87/205)
Another possibility is that the victim works
exceptionally hard without possessing any
particular outstanding valuable, i.e. the victims
149
are different in this respect. In the following
story the victim is pictured as an innocent and
dutifully working couple, who, at first sight, are
bewitched without any apparent reason. But
after I had repeated the question, a particular
reason is provided. In this story by Anita Florez,
a specific reason (love affair) is provided in
addition to the general motivation (her parents
worked very hard):
My mother and father worked very hard and they
worked together, they cultivated our garden. One day
my father got fever, vomiting and diarrhea. His body
began to dry and he turned very weak and pale. One day
at 7 pm I lifted up his mosquito net mad there he was
lying all dead. I went to tell my brothers who were in a
joint project (minga) and were drinking seriously. I told
also my cousins. Two months later my mother died. She
cried loudly and kicked the air. We l~eated her with
camphor in order to calm her down but she cried mad
cried. She vomited violently and had diarrhea. She died
crying. My uncles came to see what was happening and
they said that someone had done harm to my father and
mother because they had worked so hard. They used to
work also on Saturdays and Sundays, My mother
always worked together with my father and we had
enough of everything. They were killed because they
worked so hard. We children were left alone. My
brother and me we were separated and I don't know
where he is. [Why all this happened?] There was a man
called Panduro from upper Napo whose daughter was in
love with my brother but who did not approve my
brother. Four days before my father got the lethal fever
this Panduro visited our house and drank aguardiente
with my father. My uncles said that it was this Panduro
who killed my parents. (TKU 87/140)
Sudden changes in fishing or hunting luck,
although they would not involve any deaths, are
due to envy via witchcraft. In the following story
by Wilwer Arrevalo, the carrier mechanism,
little bone projectiles, is specified. The identifica-
tion of projectiles (near to the kitchen) is quite
surprising, since the place where they were
found is a type of place where they are usually
found anyway. The story is exceptional also in
the sense that it relates only the change of luck,
without any accompanying illness, as my
(contextually extremely stupid) question and the
following answer (full of bewilderment) make
dear:
150
My brother used to be a very good fisherman. Others
envied him. When he went to hunt, he always caught
many animals. If he went fishing, he was always lucky.
Suddenly his luck changed. He got nothing. It was envy,
working through the little bones (huesitos) of fish and
animals. He found these things all over in his kitchen.
[...] My brother attended another brujo who knew more
than the one who had harmed him. Now he is free. [Did
he visit hospital?] He didn't go to hospital since he had
only bad luck in fishing and hunting. He didn't have any
pains. (TKU 87/191)
From the viewpoint o f the specialist who is
supposed to cure the victim o f envy, it is
extremely important that the intelligible reason
(la razon) o f witchcraft is known, for otherwise
the evil cannot be extracted. The difficulties in
identifying the reasons vary from case to case,
according to D o n Pablo. I f an animal is used as
an instrument in inflicting harm, the reason is
relatively easy to find out, since the animal can
be called for and communicated with. I f there
are monetary transactions involved, the diag-
nosis is more difficult, but e v e n in this case the
healer is capable o f obtaining the information
needed from the spirit o f the envier:
The evil of animals is easier to cure than the evil of
people, for you can call the animal by name and it will
tell you what and why it has done. The evil of people
comes in so many forms that it's difficult to cure. It's
the most dangerous of all illness, because the person
pays money in order that harm be done. In the trance
(mareacion) you ask the spirit of the person why she has
done harm, what is the motive. After the curandero has
come to know the motive he can extract the evil. (TKU
87/218)
Since the extraction o f evil is not possible if
the reason is unknown, it is necessary that e v e r y
illness has its reason. Moreover, Don Pablo
argues that there is no "futile" witchcraft. That
is, no person is bewitched if he/she has not said
or done anything that can count as a difference
sufficient for envy. Since every living being
does something all the time it is living, no one is
totally protected from witchcraft:
No one animal bewitches you for no reason. There is
always a reason, for example, that you have done or said
something. If you have not said or done anything, then
witchcraft won't hurt you. O'KU 87/218)
CATOLICOS AND EVANGELISTAS: CON-
STITUTION OF EVIL
The model c o n c e m i n g the origin and distribu-
tion o f evil presented thus far has been that o f
the Catholic majority. But the village o f San
Rafael is religiously heterogenous. The starting
point is the division between the catolicos and
the others. T h e others are grouped under the
name evangelistas, which includes the Baptist,
Adventist, Pentecostal, M o r m o n and Jehova
sects and the cruzistas or the hermanos, which
refers to the sect los hermanos de la cruz.
Pablo L a c h u m a is a 27 year old peasant living
in San Rafael. He is a m e m b e r o f the Pentecostal
church, i.e. from the viewpoint o f the catolicos
he is an evangelisto. B y asking about the
presence/absence o f witchcraft in his church I
elicited the earmark o f the evangelistas, the
abstinence from alcohol, and also an important
redefinition o f the relationship between people
and witchcraft:
[In your Pentecostal church, is there witchcraft?] I am a
converted Christian, three years by now. I have changed
my attitudes mad manners. Earlier I liked to drink
alcohol. The Bible says that witchcraft exists. But it
does not enter us Christians. If I were like other
mundane people, then witchcraft would hurt me. (TKU
871192)
B y the time o f his conversion he had under-
gone an illness whose symptoms could have
been interpreted as signs o f witchcraft. Yet the
illness episode took place shortly after he had
converted, and the course o f events was inter-
preted by the model that postulated a dialogue
between him and God:
At that time I was occupied with witchcraft in general,
although I had been converted. When I went home one
night, I got a terrible fever. For a month I was very sick.
They said that it was witchcraft but it was not. I was
taken to hospital and was applied many many injections
but they didn't help. It was God who was disciplining

me. I knew that if I would not confess to the church that
very night I would die. So I went and confessed my evil
thoughts and talks and immediately I got well again.
(TKU 87/192)
Some aspects of witchcraft, like curative
plants and practical know-how in healing are
also given novel interpretations. Although
witchcraft as such is condemned, its utilizable
parts are adopted after reinterpretations. Slight
"contradictions" are bound to arise since the
spirits and powers of curative plants come
simultaneously from the Devil, on the one hand,
and from the God, on the other hand. It is not
clear either, whether all plants have spirits.
Healers, although they work with "diabolic"
plants, obtain their power from God in expelling
evil spirits:
If I have strong pain, I will not go to hospital, not to
brujo, but pray to God for help. I used to use plant
remedies before I was converted, but not anymore.
Some plants are curative, some plants have spirits and
brujos study those. Plant spirits are diabolic. Especially
ayahuasca and toe accompany witchcraft. Some plants
which are used in households to cure children are only
curative, for example hierba santa. The spirits of these
plants are powers. They don't contain spirits, but
powers that are placed by God. They don't have spirits
since they don't move, in contrast to us who have flesh
and spirit. Ayahuasca and toe contain spirits which are
from the devil. Their spirits are purely evil and brujos
call them. [...] A person who dies without being
converted turns to an evil spirit. Bible says that there are
many evil spirits. Evil spirits want to kill people. They
cause illnesses like pain and fever. Medicos curanderos
cure these illnesses. They don't collaborate with Devil.
In my church there are curanderos whose power stems
from God. (TKU 87/192)
The origins of witchcraft, envy, is also given a
new interpretation. In the average catholic story,
every human being is liable to envy, and God
has no role in the intrahuman affairs of envy and
vengeance. In the Catholic story, envy is also
justified now and then, because those who have
more property than others should share what
they have. On Pablo Lachuma's view, private
poverty is untouchable:
[Is there envy in your church?] Well brother, yes,
151
because of the Devil. Envy is from the Devil. In our
church there are Christians who are not real, who only
go to church. Devil will enter their hearts, and that's
why envy exists. Real Christian's heart is full of love.
Envy works as follows: if you have money and I don't
have, I want it. Money is a diabolic thing. Also if I want
someone else's woman. As a Christian I don't want the
things that belong to you. (TKU 87/192)
Maria Perez is a member of the Evangelic
church, located in the adjacent village
Sinchicuy. We were talking about witchcraft and
illnesses in general when I introduced the topic
of illnesses of God. Immediately Maria Perez
addressed me a question to which I gave an
untrue answer -- for experimental reasons:
[How about illnesses of God? What are they like?] Do
you believe that God exists? [Yes.] If you don't submit
to God's will, he will punish you by means of illnesses.
Illnesses are punishments for sins. Such an illness is
something in the body, or lack of money. But if you live
according to his will, he will protect you against all
illnesses. Do you believe that God exists? [Yes.] If I
have something to worry about, I turn to our Lord and
he helps me. I live tranquil life. Poor but tranquil. Lord
cures also witchcraft. Before, I didn't believe. (TKU
87/205)
The untruth of my answer was perhaps so
transparent that she had to repeat the inquiry.
Anyway, she had a sound reason to believe in
God. Her children had been healed by means of
prayers in the Evangelic church:
One day there were two pastors who came to me. My
two daughters were very ill. One of them was all
yellow, and although I had taken her to many doctors
and hospitals, nothing had helped. So these pastors
asked me whether I wanted to submit to God's will who
is Jehova and pray for help. I said yes. We prayed for
three weeks in the church and my daughters got more
tranquil. They were healed with the pure prayers. For
this, I believe that our Lord exists. (TKU 87/205)
The evangelic models of witchcraft do not
deny the existence of witchcraft but attribute its
origin in the Devil. Moreover, God is seen as
capable and willing to intervene in illnesses.
152
COMMUNISM, CHRISTIANITY AND NATIVISM
The earmark of evangelistas from the catholic
viewpoint is their life- style. Yet there are more
profound causes and implications of being
different. The difference of evangelistas relates
directly to the conditions of living and the
problems of rural development. A teacher
(henceforth referred to as that) from San Rafael
commented on the multiplication of religious
sects:
The most harmful consequence is that the community
cannot unite itself. Surely we are brothers although we
are Catolicos and they are evangelistas, but they do not
mix with others, only with selected persons. In sum: the
religious sects pose a difficulty for the progress of the
village. (TKU 87/120)
Both evangelistas and catolicos recognize that
the differences are only relative, i.e. they share
the basic Christian ontology. Pablo Lachuma
believes the other to believe in the same
Christian God but to have different, almost
funny customs ("that Saturday is Sunday"):
It doesn't matter to which sect you belong since the
words catolico and pentecostal are only names. I don't
drink alcohol since it is forbidden in the Bible to get
drunk. I can take a glass or two or smoke one cigarette
but no more. If I refuse to drink, it is because I respect
the law of God, not because of some religion. Religions
are names only. There are lots of religions in the world.
They are done by institutions. For example, the
adventistas believe that Saturday is Sunday. They
believe in the same God but they have this custom.
Catolicos and pentecostales have their Sunday on
Sunday. (TKU 87/195)
A director in the Peasant Union (Casa
Campesina) and devout Catolico (henceforth
referred to as animador) also believes that the
different sects have one goal and belief in Christ.
But he proceeds with a conclusion that the only
religious sect that helps the peasants in organiz-
ing themselves against exploitation is the
catholic church:
The sects have arrived here one by one: pentecostales,
evangelistas, adventistas del septimo dia, jehovas, etc.
They have their own ways of working. Each of them
believes in Christ, and their goals are the same, but their
modes are different. But, after the analysis we can say
that the only religious sect that supports peasants and
the poor class is the secta catolico. The catholic church
does very good work in uniting and organizing the
peasants. The other sects don't do anything to unify the
peasants. They try to prevent organization. (TKU
87/120)
The animador had an example of how the
evangelistas react to the unification of peasants:
Some time ago I was in a village on the Nape river in
order to found a committee of the rice producers. There
was a man, a pastor, who said that it could not be done
since it's all communism. I asked him "Are you a good
Christian?" He answered "Sure, we have our church, we
pray and we are all like brothers." Well, they had prayed
and cried so much that they had forgotten to organize
themselves. A good Christian is the one who organizes,
who tries to make the world a better place. You see, I
am also an animador cristiano, a catolico. A good
Christian works for equality, for peace and brotherhood.
I follow the path of Christ and try to organize the poor,
since Christ fought and died for the poor. I try to fight
the injustice and organize the community. So I said to
the pastor "You are the first to commit injustice. You
should not only pray, but also work: work and pray.
And the committees were founded. The other sects are
paralyzing the communities. They bring too much
praying, too many songs. They make the peasants and
the poor even worse. They say that the poor will get
justice when they die but no, it's not so. They make us
forget to organize ourselves, and we stay exploited and
marginal. I am an animador cristiano catolico, and here
we think that a catolico is a man of action, a man of
fight, a man who studies. In all these things the catolico
should inspire others. (TKU 871120)
On the more personal level, the animador
explained why evangelistas do not like
catolicos:
I don't have a contradiction with the other sects, the
evangelistas or the pentecostales. But they have a
contradiction with me because I'm an animador
cristriano and I drink, get borracho and dance. (TKU
87/120)
The question of organizing the peasant
community emerges as the crux of the
dichotomy between catolicos and evangelistas.

For the animador the Christ provides an ex-
ample of the class struggle:
I think that Christ was a f'me revolutionist, the first
revolutionist on earth. [...] Christ the revolutionist is an
example for us. A communist, for me, is a man who
organizes and fights the injustices. Those who know
Christ know the communist. And those who preach in
churches are communists. Those who claim to follow
the path of Christ are commtmists. (I'KU 87/120)
The ultimate reason for the dichotomy
between catolicos and evangelistas is explicitly
spelled out by the teacher - the evangelistas are
from the United States:
It was 20 years ago when they talked about the Cuban
revolution. They spoke of ctnnrnunism as an incurable
disease, as the only real threat. The one who even
pronounced the word was thereby marginal. We were
told that the Cubans were not humans, they did not have
God. And many people here did hope that this disease
would never enter here. In this situation many religious
sects were formed, for example the hermanos de la
cruz. Communism, for me, has existed for many many
years, since our fathers, our native groups have lived
together ever since. What happened in Cuba or in Soviet
Union is not unfamiliar for us, since we, too, have
known hunger for a long time. We must work in order
to have clothes, and we are ready to fight with Christ
backing us. Well, the religious sects like mormones say
that collaboration is for bad. Where are they from?
From the United States. Like the evangelistas. They
have white boats and they travel to villages where they
form their groups against the organizations of the
village. They never help the peasants. They are against
us. (TKU 87/120)
Pablo Lachuma's conversion story refers to
"brothers" who are from the United States:
Proper Christians are not involved in witchcraft, as I
have been told by brothers from the United States and
Norway. (TKU 87/192)
The animador summarizes the vested interests
involved in the religious confrontation:
The misioneros are another problem. How can they
make their living if they don't get any salary, as they tell
us when we ask them. They say always that they don't
get any salary. But if you go to their communities, their
153
churches are very high, their houses are fancy, they
have fine cars, they have seen the bright side of life,
they have money. The pastors have motor boats and all
that, and if they are not paid, how come that they have
all these things? How can they have clean shirt and free
shoes if they are not paid a salary? We peasants here
work hard, we don't have fine clothes since we don't
have money. The members of these churches give
certain proportion of what they have - be it a kot kot
[his impressions of what 'chicken' is in Finnish] or a pig
- to the church. I think that's exploitation. Furthermore,
the evangelistas usually give clothes and shoes to the
poor communities. And there is a possible way of
analyzing this: the religious sects which thus give
clothes and shoes to the poor think that they help the
peasants, but a peasant who has received his shirts and
shoes will expect more and spend his days in praying
for more. And when he prays and cries for all day, he
will forget his organization. [...] The pastors of these
churches speak beautifully, they entangle their listeners'
hearts. And if you go to Iquitos and look what their
churches are like, they are the most beautiful. Both of
mormones, pentacostales and jehovas. But you may ask
why they have not buik their churches of cheaper
materials and given the money to the communities. Not
to buy clothes but to help in organizing and educating
the peasants. The people like us won't enter those
churches. They preach that we are all equal at the sight
of Jesus but no. The pentecostales try to marginalize us.
They accuse us of communism. I have a friend who told
me that most of the religious sects are not from here
(son extranjeras) but they come from the United States.
And United States had always treated us as if we were
marginal people. I think that there is a clear strategy
here: these men come into commonities in order to
prevent the organization of peasants. (TKU 87/121)
The self-organization of peasants is directly
related to the revival of the Amazonian tradi-
tional medicine. Reategui [17] proposes a
solution in which the villagers themselves
participate in the planning and implementation
of health services. A major emphasis is laid on
the revitalization and utilization of traditional
medicine, including vegetalismo, the art of
inflicting and curing witchcraft. Imposed
western style health services are seen as
threatening cultural and economic independence.
Especially primary health care should be
implemented on a communal and traditional
basis. Reategui's ultimate ground is the follow-
ing:
154
We believe that neither health nor human life can or
should be subjected to the commercial exchange where
the poor and marginal people are always bound to pay
for the services and where the health workers [...] are
propagandists for the industrial and technological
machinery which is not always for health [but supports]
the enterprises in industrial countries. [18]
The tone of voice is clear. The self-organiza-
tion of the peasant communities is required for a
more just economic situation. The process
involves an ideological moment of which the
traditional medicine could play a part. The role
of traditional medicine is interesting from the
theoretical viewpoint, too. Hardly anyone
(besides medicos) knows what the traditional
medicine is about and it is doubtful whether
there even exists such a compact and clearly
bounded entity. Yet the value of the system of
knowledge, which is seen as a system at least by
the outside exploiters, the Western elite, is high,
since it provides a justification for claiming
liberation and economic justice. Shortly said, it
provided cultural identity.
PAST AND POWER REVISITED
Political views are made of boundaries. The
"nativist" view of the teacher and the animador
sets a boundary around the village which
discriminates the outside-bom items from the
inside-born items. The catholic religion, al-
though it was brought from Europe, has been in
the Mestizo possession ever since there have
been Mestizos. Furthermore, it is filled with
indigenous ideas conceming evil spirits, plant
spirits and spirited animals. Communism is also
an inside-born item, although its official origin
in the writing of Marx, Engels and Lenin was
acknowledged by these men. The teacher uses
an interesting expression when speaking about
"our father, our native groups" who have been
communists ever since. This acknowledgement
or constitution of the Indian origins in this
positive sense jibes nicely with the model of
Indian witchcraft. The most dangerous illness,
the most profound knowledge, as well as the
ideal societal form comes from the native
Indians, who are partly the ancestors of the
Mestizo people. Traditional medicine plays a
part of this politically conscious glorifying of
the mythical past which, in turn, is used in
maintaining "the" cultural identity.
The central question in the studies of cultural
identity had been "Are we dealing here with an
invented or a natural, authentic identity?" [19].
The question has become out-dated, due to the
unprecedented traditional metamorphosis of our
time that has rendered all identities more or less
invented [20]. Imagine a situation in which a
committee would investigate whether the
Mestizos of San Rafael are natives enough to
have more land or to retain their ancestral
political institutions? Or whether their eth-
nomedicine should be archived as a part of the
UNESCO project for safeguarding authentic
folklore? Imagine that.
NOTES
1. Michael Taussig, The Devil and Commodity Fetishism
in South America (Chapel Hill: The University of
North Carolina Press, 1980).
2. Cf. Tran Duc Than, Phenomenology and Dialectical
Materialism (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1986); Seppo Sajama
& Matti Kamppinen, A Historical Introduction to
Phenomenology (London: Croom Helm, 1987); Matti
Kamppinen, "Homo Religious Intelligens: An Outline
for a Cognitivist Theory of Religious Behavior,"
Temenos, vol. 24 (1988), in press.
3. Daniel Dennett, "Intentional Systems in Cognitive
Ethology," The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 3
(1983), pp. 343-355.
4. Cf. Marc Auge, The Anthropological Circle
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982);
James Clifford & George Marcus (eds.), Writing
Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1986); George Marcus & Michael Fischer,
Anthropology as Cultural Critique (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1986); James Clifford, The
Predicament of Culture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1988); Clifford Geertz, Works and
Lives (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988).
5. James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988), p.
29.
6. Stephen Tyler, "On 'Writing-Up/Off" as 'Speaking-

For'," Journal of Anthropological Research, vol. 43
(1987), pp. 338-342.
7. David Levin, The Opening of Vision (New York:
Routledge, 1988), pp. 66-67.
8. Vincent Crapanzano, "Hermes' Dilemma: The
Masking of Subversion in Ethnographic Description,"
in James Clifford & George Marcus (eds.),op.cit., pp.
51-76.
9. Dennis Tedlock, "Questions Concerning Dialogical
Anthropology," Journal of Anthropological Research,
vo143. (1987), pp. 325-337.
10. Ibid., p. 326.
11. David Levin, op. tit., pp. 67.
12. Harold Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology
(Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1967).
13. Peter Berger & Thomas Luckmann, The Social
Construction of Reality (Harmondsworth: Penguin
Books, 1967).
14. Daniel Dennett, "How to Study Consciousness
155
Empirically or: Nothing Comes to Mind,": Synthese,
vol. 53 (1982), pp. 159-180.
15. James Clifford, "Introduction: Partial Truths," in
James Clifford & George Marcus (eds.), op. cit., pp.
21.
16. The Signum TKU/XXX refers to the materials stored
in the Tradition Archives at the Institute of Folklore
and Comparative Religion, University of Turku,
SF-20500 Turku, Finland. The materials used here
were recorded by me during the year 1987.
17. George Lakoff & Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live
By (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1980).
18. Ulysses Reategui, Medicina Tradicional (Pucallpa:
Federacion de Comunidades Nativas del Ucayaly,
1983). See also Jaime Regan, Hacia la Tierra sin
Mal: Estudio de la Religion del Pueblo en la
Amazonia 1 & 2 (Iquitos: Ceta, 1983).
19. Lauri Honko, "Studies on Tradition and Cultural
Identity," Arv: Scandinavian Yearbook of Folklore,
vol. 40 (1988), pp. 7-26.
20. Cf. the report on the Mashpee trial in Clifford, 1988
(see note 5).