Ethnicity Inc., Shamanism Ltd.:Indigenous Sound Knowlegde, its Commodification, and the Concept of Ontological Synchronicity

Name: Bernd Brabec de Mori , Independent researcher
Biographical note:
Bernd Brabec de Mori received his M.A. (Mag. phil., 2003) and Ph.D. (Dr. phil., 2012) in musicology from the University of Vienna. He has been working for five years in the field among Indigenous People in the Peruvian lowland rainforests. After returning to Europe in 2006, he has been teaching and researching, among other institutions, at the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, at the department for social and cultural anthropology at Philipps-University Marburg, at the centre for systematic musicology of Karl-Franzens-University Graz, at the institute of musicology at the University of Vienna, at the institute of ethnomusicology at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, and as an associate researcher at Yunnan University.

姓名：Bernd Brabec de Mori
簡介：Bernd Brabec de Mori分別在2003年及2012年於維也納大學音樂學系獲得碩士及哲學博士學位。他曾在秘魯低地雨林的原住民生活範圍從事田野工作達五年。 2006年返回歐洲後，他一直在奧地利科學院的影音典藏館（Phonogrammarchiv），馬爾堡菲利普斯大學社會文化人類學系、卡爾法蘭茲大學-格拉茨大學的系統音樂學中心、維也納大學音樂學研究所、格拉茨音樂暨表演藝術大學民族音樂研究所及雲南大學等從事教學
和研究工作

Ethnicity Inc., Shamanism Ltd.: Indigenous Sound Knowledge, its commodification, and the concept of ontological synchronicity

Ten years ago, Jean and John Comaroff, in their influential book “Ethnicity Inc.”, mentioned the enterprise of a Shipibo-Konibo Indigenous “shaman” who offered his services, including professional advertising and customised packages, easily digestible for the international tourist. Since the 1990s, “shamanism” retreats involving the ingestion of the hallucinogenic plant brew “ayawaska” mushroomed in the Western Amazon lowlands, and especially among the Shipibo-Konibo. Besides the plant brew, ritual songs commonly known as “ikaros” form the most prominent feature in this hype: songs invoking the agency of non-human beings for curing and sorcery, and in the current context, for spiritual growth and self-discovery.
In this process, inventions of histories and traditions abound, albeit transmitted as historical and traditional facts to tourists and shaman apprentices. Geometric designs that are said to originate in ayawaska visions and can be read like a musical notation, or ecologically valorised “cosmic vibrations” that influence the perceptions and states of people, are disseminated as Indigenous concepts among those concerned and via internet channels. Tourists and shaman apprentices mediate these concepts by injecting them into an alleged Indigeneity and transporting this compound into the outside world.
Ontologies and modes of existence between indigenous knowledge and such innovative trans-touristic concepts, however, differ considerably. Based on fieldwork between 2001 and 2019, the role of sonic epistemologies, including the sound-guided synchronization of individual speed of life with environmental cycles will be foregrounded in order to highlight difference, analyse change, and propose more integrated ways of interaction – enabling, and not replacing, ontological pluralism.

民族有限、薩滿公司：原住民聲音知識及其商品化，以及本體論同步的概念

十年前，Jean和John Camaroff在他們所出版具有影響力的書《民族有限公司》(Ethnicity Inc.)裡提到，Shipibo-Konibo原住民的薩滿企業，提供了專業的廣告和套裝行程以吸引國際觀光旅遊。從1990年代起，在西方亞馬遜低地，特別是在Shipibo-Konibo地區，薩滿式的退修會行程中，包含吸食由植物釀造的“ayawaska“迷幻藥。此外，通常被稱為”ikaros“的儀式歌曲成為整波狂熱的高潮點：召喚非人類力量介入而進行治療和巫術的一些歌曲，而在現今的文化脈絡中則被運用於精神方面的自我成長和自我探索。
在這個過程中，湧現出大量的歷史與傳統創作物，以歷史和傳統的面向傳遞給觀光客和薩滿學徒。比如傳說中能夠啟動ayawaska幻象、讀起來類似音樂記譜的一些幾何設計，就是因為看見，且能夠以樂譜的方式來閱讀，以及能夠影響人們的認知及狀態、具有生態價值的「宇宙震動」(cosmic vibrations)，在上述的那些考量中透過網路管道，被傳播為原住民的概念。
然而，原生知識中的本體論及存在方式和這些創新的跨旅遊概念，還是有明顯差異。以2001年到2019年間的田野調查為基礎，聲音認識論的角色 -- 包括個體生命速度與環境週期的聲音導引合成 -- 將作為前景來強調其
差異、分析其變化、並提出更具整合性的內部交流方式，期能啟發 -- 並非取代 -- 本體論的多元化。