Matthew Millsaps

LBST 2102
Mini-Paper
04/06/2017
Piaroa Cleansing Ceremony

There are many indigenous cultures still left in this great world. Even here in the United

States of America there are still tribes and such that have values and rituals that run centuries

long and each tribe has their own rituals they deem to be very important. The definition of a

ritual is a religious ceremony that have a series of events performed in an order that is usually set

by tradition. The Piaroa Indian tribe, along with their peaceful actions, take pride in their

cleansing ceremonies and see them necessary to rid themselves of wrong doings.

The indigenous Piaroa Indians call the Amazon rainforest in Venezuela home. The tribe

itself is a very peaceful tribe and actually believe the consequences of murder is a terrible death

of oneself. They live in tribes near the Orinoco River and they use other rivers and tributaries

near them as means of transportation. They are very group oriented individuals and prefer to see

the success of the entire tribe than to see ones success be greater. With this type of mindset, and

being custom to multifamily living conditions, this helps them remain a very peaceful

civilization regardless of the chaos that may be around them.

The Piaroa tribe have special ceremonial rituals that they do every year. Each ceremony

has a purpose and that is to cleanse. According to indiancultures.com, In one of their more

important ceremonies, the Cleansing Ceremony, they use masks and costumes and completely

conceal their identities. They take turns calling out deeds that they have committed throughout

the year, whether good or bad, and they are either forgiven or dismissed. During this ritual,

certain members dress up in costumes and masks. This is done to somewhat symbolically hide

their identities. Once dressed, the ceremony begins and individuals call out the things they have
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done wrong over the past year. This can be anything from smaller acts of kindness to larger acts

of wrong doings, such as infidelity. I could see this ritual being considered a combination of an

ideological ritual and therapeutic ritual for their community. According to the readings of Types

of Rituals, a therapeutic ritual is a way to change the state of health or well being and an

ideological ritual seeks to change behaviors or moods for the sake of the community as a whole.

Even though they are not asking to be saved when participating in the Cleansing Ceremony, they

are in a sense asking the community as a whole for forgiveness or dismissal of their wrong

doings and taking ownership of their personal wrong doings.

As interesting as the ceremony is itself, so are the costumes and masks that they use. The

Piaroa natives prepare for this ceremony months in advance and the men of the tribe create the

masks and costumes that will be used in the ceremony. According to Bojs, During the

preparation of the masked rite the members of the local group under the direction of religious

leaders and under ritual circumstances prepare the ritual accessories. Women and girls are

forbidden to see the preparations (350). It later goes on explain why women and girls are

forbidden to see the preparations because they want them to be in the unknown as far as whom is

wearing the costumes. Indiancultures.com states, The Piaroa make their costumes, masks, and

figures with natural fibers, reeds, bark, and vegetable dyes found in the rain forest. The faces of

the masks are formed with beeswax, then painted using dyes. These same masks hold multiple

purposes as well. Piaroa natives use these masks during the wartime dance, which is also a yearly

cleansing ceremony, and during the initiation process of young men in the tribe.

Along with the cleansing ceremony, Shamans also play a vital role in the belief system of

the Piaroa tribe. In reference to the Esposito readings, a shaman is a medium between the human

and supernatural world. According to peaceful societies, Their communities, in fact, are almost
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completely peaceful, but they still face the threatened violence of their mythic past. In order to

control that violence, the shaman chants every night and blows his words into water and honey

which, consumed the next morning by adults and children, will keep them safe for another day.

The local shaman, being revered and trusted among the native Piaroa people, just do not heal and

protect individuals and perform spirit flights. The local shaman also is the organizer for the

ceremonies and rituals. He is the one to organize events such as initiation and all of the masked

cleansing rituals. One of the reasons that this duty is placed on the local shaman is because they

are considered wise in the sense of traditions and myths of the culture. It is their duty to keep

mythical traditions, such as a wartime dance, from going extinct.

Each indigenous culture has their own versions of mythical ideology that require or

advise them to perform rituals. Its so easy to claim something as weird just because it is

unknown. Just as the local Piaroa Indians perform their ceremonies, I as a Christian, perform

ceremonies that may appear weird or different to them. It is so neat that the diversity of the world

allows us to explore other options and opinions on how the world or religion is viewed.
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Works Cited

Boglr, Lajos. "Creative Process in Ritual Art: Piaroa Indians, Venezuela." Google Books. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2017. <https://books.google.com/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=qPKB1hqZV1cC&oi=fnd&pg=PA347&dq=piaroa%2Bindians
%2Bceremony&ots=47Vu-
iEBki&sig=V40e5X8wOyhSMwTycjrGQ7zYUc0#v=onepage&q=piaroa%20indians
%20ceremony&f=false>.

Esposito. "Religion and Globalization." (n.d.). Print.

Katsanos, Tina. Types of Rituals. N.p. Print.

"Piaroa Indians." Indian Cultures by Hands Around the World. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.indian-cultures.com/cultures/piaroa-indians/>.

"Piaroa." Peaceful Societies. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

<https://cas.uab.edu/peacefulsocieties/societies/Piaroa/>.