ABSTRACT
This article intends to address the accusations of witchcraft, as well as the techniques used in alleged bewitching, in a large village of the Ticuna ethnic group, that identify themselves as Magüta (Alto Solimões, Brazil). The figure of the shaman, yuücü, will be explored in his ambiguity, which can imply both healing and death. Then, having as reference a particular moment of crisis experienced in the ethnographic context, which is a series of deaths by hanging that occurred in a short period, the objective is to outline a web of relationships composed of different agents in attempt to find the author of the spell. Here comes a “new” bewitching technique that was supposedly being practiced through an exogenous object, the São Cipriano magic book. Finally, the aim is to reflect on the context in which such accusations of witchcraft are made and their implications for contemporary Ticuna.
KEYWORDS :
Amazonia; cosmology; sorcery; shamanism