CAMPBELL, ALAN T.

Anthropologist (then at Edinburgh University) whose bookGetting to Know Waiwai(1995) is a reflexive ethnography of theWayapíofAmazonia. Campbell struggles to find ways to convey the wide range of meanings of the termpayé(a cognate ofpiya), which functions as a verb or adjective rather than a noun. That is, people (humans andother-than-human persons) canperformshamanistic activities or be in a shamanistic state. He notes that some people and states can be “very shamanistic” and others “only slightly shamanistic” and sums up theambiguityof “payépeople” by saying that it is “all very well to be the villagedoctor; but it’s not much of a role or an office to be the village killer.”