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The Kalapalo classify their public rituals into two
general types: egitsu (or, as it is more widely known,
kwarup, a term from the neighboring Kamaiura and described
in page Parque Indígena do Xingu, only in Portuguese
version) and undufe. The word egitsu refers to events
that involve the participating of guests from other
Upper Xingu settlements. Included in this category are
the egitsu proper, a ritual that commemorates deceased
hereditary leaders (anetau); the ipoñe,
or boys’ ear-piercing ritual; the women’s
Yamurikumalu (or Yamurikumã in the Kamayura language)
and men’s kagutu rituals; the katugakugu (referring
to an object made of latex from a small rubber tree),
which involves a ritual ball game; tawkaga, involving
instruments of the same name; and, finally, ifagaka
(more commonly known by the Kamayura term yawari), the
spear-throwing ceremony. All these events entail the
repeated performance of music in the host community
over a considerable period of time prior to the performance
in which visitors participate. In addition, because
egitsu rituals include athletic competition between
guests and hosts, for several months prior to the appearance
of the guests, the hosts practice their skills, just
as the guests themselves are doing in their own settlements.
In general, wrestling seems to be a way of temporarily
diminishing, in a symbolic form, the social distance
between people of different villages.
Among the rituals called undufe are performances
that involve only the members of a particular settlement.
These include the Kana undufegï, “Fishes’
undufe”; Eke undufegï, “Snakes’
undufe”; Fugey oto, “Arrow master ritual”;
Agë, the manioc ritual held at the height of the
harvest when the Pleiades become visible; Afugagï
and others that involve the manufacture and use of masks
associated with the itseke, the powerful beings who
are the “masters” of the music; Kafugukuegï,
“Howler monkey ritual”; Afasa, “Forest
cannibal ritual”; Zhakwikatu, Kwambï, and
Piju, “Powerful aquatic beings”; and Atugua,
“Whirlwind undufe”.
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