CHANTING

Chanting: translation

A large proportion of theritualrepertoire andperformanceof shamans in many cultures involves chanting. Both as ritualists leading ceremonies for their communities and as healers conductinghealingrituals, shamans may use repetitive phonemes, intelligible phrases, or epic poems. These are sometimes combined with other forms of rhythmic repetition, such asdrumming(perhaps intended primarily to induce and maintainalteredorshamanicstates of consciousness) but may take place alone and form the central creative ortransformativeact of shamans. Guilherme Werlang’s discussion (and accompanying recorded extract) of theAmazonianMarubo people’s “myth-chants” is a rich evocation of the “musicalaspect of Marubo myth . . . or the mythical aspect of Marubo music.” He demonstrates that myth and music, words and rhythm, message and melody are inseparable. The shaman chants words and notes that both, at once, mean and achieve the same transformative result: world-creation and people-creation. In this case, and in many others, chantingmediatesbetween a particular moment of performance and both past, creative times and recurrent, cyclical re-creation.