::01

The ritual and economic cycles converge on the dry season. Agriculture as a whole, cultivated during the rainy season of the year, not only serves the purposes of daily alimentation when there is no large-scale hunting. Although the explicit preference is for manioc, almost everything the Arara additionally plant - potato, yam, maize and fruits such as pineapple, banana, etc. - serves towards fabrication of a fermented drink, taken to be the necessary counter-gift for the game from hunts taking place as soon as the rains cease and the forest is once again sufficiently dry for the hunters to follow the animal trails and prints. The exchange of game meat for fermented drinks always demands elaborate ritual preparation, in which the residential groups express their collective character: one group hunts, the other fabricates drink as a return for the meat it will receive. This pattern is observable throughout the entire dry season in the Laranjal village: one group leaving on a long hunting trip, another busy harvesting its swiddens for everything that can be transformed into drink.

From the point of view of the symbolism associated with the economic rhythms, meat and drink make up an integral part of a system whose main axis is the native doctrine concerning the circulation of a vital substance called ekuru. Passing from the blood of killed animals to the earth, and from here to the liquids that nourish and stimulate the growth of plants, this vital substance is the main object of desire - not only of human beings, but also all the beings who inhabit the world: in effect, the object of a generalized predation in the world. Humans seek to acquire the vital substance ekuru through the death of animals during the hunt and the transformation of plants into a fermented drink called piktu - a primordial source for acquiring these vital substances for humans.

	::02

On the other hand, the circulation of ekuru takes place among the living through the exchange of meat for drink; this primarily takes place during the rites that follow the return of the hunters. As a result, the rites are the mode through which the native doctrine of a circulation of vital substance transforms into a principle conjoining the various subgroups in a schema of reciprocity and mutual dependence. Economic activities (hunting and agriculture), principles of social structuration (the division of subgroups) and native perceptions concerning the functioning of the world acquire consistency in the ritual practices associated with exchanges of meat and drink. Closely associated with these native conceptions, shamanism also has its place here.

As an institution, Arara shamanism is dispersed, diffused and generalized among the men. Acting as healers and agents for mediating with powerful metaphysical beings, all the men are initiated and practice at least some part of the shamanic techniques and arts. They are also responsible - or at least those who enjoy a slightly greater prestige - for ensuring, in liaison with metaphysical beings, the conditions for the hunts and rites that in turn ensure the circulation of game meat and drinks among the various subgroups.

Among the symbolic conditions of the hunt, there is a rite reserved for the shamans who, deep in the forest, direct magic formulas at the metaphysical entities that control the animal species (the oto) in order to request offspring to be raised by humans. The capture of animals to be raised is thus thought to be a product of a shaman's intercession with the oto who control that particular species. On the other hand, the request for offspring to raise as pets prohibits the hunting of animals of that species for the man involved in the magical rite. However, the prohibition assumed by one shaman is not extended to any other man: as they travel through the forest, others may kill the animals without qualms.

On the other hand, the music played by the Arara during the dry season's long festival cycles are also intimately related to native representations of hunt conditions and practices. The long trumpets perform melodic pieces renowned for their relationship with the main hunted animal species. Played in groups or formal partnerships, the trumpets announce the death of the animals to their spiritual protectors while at the same time they serve as a pretext for the hunters' return to the village, after their almost invariably lengthy sojourn in the forest. It is through the sequence of music played in the village that the hunters accompany the progress of the ritual stages preparing their arrival, where they almost always simulate an aggressive invasion of the village, dissolved by the offer of piktu to the hunters who entered in a wild raid. The ritual series of music then continues, no longer with the musical instruments associated with the relations with animals and their guardians, but with sets of vocal music, which are true ceremonial dialogues sung to establish relations between human beings, between those who hunted and those responsible for offering drink to those bringing game.

Through their overall symbolism, the prominent rites associated with the collective hunting trips are also an efficient mechanism through which ethical and moral values become manifest, concretized and serve toward constituting a native idea of their collectivity. An intricate network of values and principles of interaction related to good conduct, kindness, solidarity and generosity finds its primary medium of expression in the rites.