Baniwa religious life was traditionally based on the great mythological and ritual cycles related to the first ancestors and symbolized by the sacred flutes and trumpets, on the central importance of shamanism (pajés and chanters, or chant-owners) and on a rich variety of dance rituals, called pudali, associated with the seasonal cycles and the maturation of forest fruits.

The initiation rituals are celebrated during the time of the first rains and the maturation of certain forest fruits, when there is a group of boys between ten and thirteen years of age who are considered ready to be instructed about the nature of the world. It is absolutely prohibited for the women and uninitiated to see the sacred flutes and trumpets, under pain of death by poison.

The ritual is celebrated in three phases: in the first, called wakapethakan, or "we whip", the “owner of the ritual” (who is responsible for the organization of all the preparations and is the owner of the house where the ritual will take place) sends the men to the forest to gather fruits and orders the women to make manioc beer, caxiri. When all is ready, on the appointed day, the men go down to the port where the sacred flutes and trumpets are hidden, paint themselves black with carbon, and wait for the calling. An elder, the chant-owner of the ritual, stays together with the initiates who are blindfolded, at the door of the ritual house and, with a ritual staff in hand, he calls out to the ancestors of the sib, represented by the flutes and trumpets, three times, and each time, the men respond by blowing the flutes. On the third calling, the men march in procession up from the port playing the flutes and trumpets in unison, parading in front of the house until finally they stop and place the instruments on the ground. At that moment, the elder removes the blindfolds and shows the boys the instruments, explaining their significance, the prohibitions against speaking about them, and how they are to stay in seclusion for one month (these days, two weeks), until they are ready to come out of the ritual house. From that moment on, the boys stay in seclusion, fasting on forest fruits, learning the myths, and – most importantly – learning how to make all kinds of basketry.

In the final phase, the owner of the ritual invites the elder chanter and two companions to perform the most important part of the initiation ritual – chanting over pepper and salt, called Kalidzamai. For one whole night, the elders chant, while the men play the instruments and drink caxiri, recreating – in their thought – the voyages of Amaru throughout the world with the instruments while Nhiãperikuli and the men pursued them. With these chants, the elders blow protective smoke over the pepper and salt, which will later be served to the initiates on a piece of manioc bread. Having finished the chants, as the sun is rising, the elders present the sacralized pepper to the owner of the ritual and he calls the initiates to stand in front of him in order to hear their counsel on how to live in the world after they have left the initiation house. After giving the counsel, the elder takes his ritual whip and strikes the boys three times on their chests.

Having completed the phase of seclusion, the final phase of coming out of the house, wamathuitakaruina, begins, that is, the integration of the initiates into adult life. The initiates are painted all in red (a color symbolizing happiness) by their mothers, and ornamented with feather crowns and heron down. Carrying the manioc sifters that they have made during their seclusion, they form a line and, at a signal, they come out of the house as the men sing. They come out and go back in three times and, on the third time, each of them presents his manioc sifter to a girl, chosen to be the initiate’s partner, called a kamarara, "like a wife". At that time, the ritual ends, in the midst of much festival and happiness, for a new generation of adults has been produced.

The initiation rituals for girls happen soon after their first menstruation. The organization of the ritual is like that for the boys; girls, however, generally are initiated individually since menstrual cycles begin at different times. First, their hair is cut short, “like the boys” and they are not shown the sacred instruments. During the period of seclusion, the girl learns how to make manioc scrapers (which involves the extremely detailed task of fixing pieces of quartz in geometric patterns onto a board cut and prepared by the men), various kinds of ceramics (painted plates especially), the woven materials for making manioc bread; besides everything about how to take care of gardens, cooking, etc. After the pepper is prepared, the girl – ornamented and painted like the boys – is instructed to stand inside a manioc bread basket, while another basket, ornamented with heron feathers, is placed upside down over her head, symbolizing her status as the maker of manioc bread, the daily sustenance of the community. She receives the sacralized pepper, and then receives from her aunt or grandmother and the elder chanter the specific instructions for girls on how to live in the world. Finally, she, like the boys, is whipped three times on the chest.

Another important ritual celebrated by the Indians of the region is the pudali (or dabukuri in língua geral), principally during the times of the ripening of forest fruits, but also on other occasions such as the piracema, when fish migrate upriver in great numbers to spawn. These are occasions when kin and affines get together to drink caxiri (either manioc beer or fruits such as pupunha) and dance. On these happy occasions, whatever conflicts that exist among affines, for example, can be settled.

There is a great variety of types of pudali: Mawakuápan, a dance with whistles called mawaku, made of pieces of sugarcane; Wethiriápan, celebrated when the ingá fruit ripens; Heemápana, when the participants drink the psychoactive caapi (Banisteriopsis sp) and dance with rattles; Aaliapan, dance of the jaburú; Kapetheápan, dance with whips, which is the festival of Kuwai, also called Kuwaiápan celebrated at the beginning of the rains; Wanaapan, dance of the ambaúba treetrunks; and Kuliriápan, the dance of the surubi fish – perhaps the most famous of the Baniwa pudali, when surubi flutes are made in great quantities. The flutes are made of paxiúba, with basketwork in the form of the surubí fish, painted brown and white, and ornamented with heron feathers. Even today, several communities of the upper Aiari make this kind of flute and celebrate this dance. It is the flute and dance which most distinguish the Baniwa from other peoples of the region.

Besides these dances, the Baniwa – at least those of the upper Aiari until the beginning of the 20^th Century – had masked dances, called hiwidaropathi, representing various spirits and animals. Koch-Grünberg photographed these dances among the communities of the upper Aiari in 1903, as well as various instruments (flutes) and ornaments (acangataras, bracelets, ankle rattles), which are no longer made.

In relation to shamanism, there are two main categories of shamans: the chant-owners (malikai-iminali) and the pajés (maliiri). The pajés can be chant-owners and vice versa, but there are differences in the training, cures, and knowledge that each dominates. The pajés "suck out” (extract by suction pathogenic objects from their patients), while the chant-owners “blow”, or, as they say, "pray" (sing or recite formulas with tobacco on herbs and medicinal plants to be consumed by the patients). Only the pajés use rattles with their songs and dances and the sacred hallucinogenic powder pariká in their cures, which puts them into a state of transe. For the chant-owners, tobacco and a gourd of water are the principal instruments. Both the pajés and the chant-owners have extensive knowldge of medicinal plants used in cures.

A great part of the power of the pajés lies in their extensive knowledge and understanding of mythology and cosmology, as well as the detailed and systematic understanding of the multiple sources of sicknesses and their cures. Through their role as mediator between the sick and the spirits and deities of the Baniwa pantheon, the pajés cure, counsel, and guide the people, thus performing one of the most vital servives for the continued health and well-being of the community. It is believed that true pajés can transform into various powerful animals, notably the jaguar, and into the divinities themselves. Normally, the pajés perform their cures in groups of two or three, with a leader guiding the songs and ritual actions.

The chant-owners, in turn, mainly use chants, accompanied by tobacco-blowing over medicinal plants. They are mainly elders who chant or recite these formulas in order to perform various tasks: protection against sicknesses, cure and alleviating pain, or even calling animals for hunting and fishing, or to make gardens grow, among other activities. The more knowledgeable elders also know how to perform the special chants called Kalidzamai, sung during the rites of passage (birth, initiation and death). These chants represent a highly specialized and esoteric knowledge of the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the cosmos and classes of being. It is the most sacred and powerful of all activities known by the chant-owners.

In the 1950s and 60s, serious religious conflicts erupted in Baniwa communities as the result of evangelization by Protestant and Catholic missionaries, which introduced a previously inexistant tension between religious specialists. Protestant communities, especially, lost all of their pajés, along with the flute cults and the Kalidzamai chanters. Only the chant-owners of lesser importance continued with their knowledge and practice without persecution. The intolerance of the protestant missionaries provoked a spiritual crisis among the chant-owners, many of whom claimed that a “sickness” made them forget their art. Several more radical pastors, moreover, waged campaigns against the pajés of the Aiari river, the only place in Baniwa territory where shamanism is still practiced. Today, the institution is in decline, with only a half-dozen pajés in all Baniwa territory in Brazil.

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