Creating a Continuity between Self and Other: First‐Person Narration in an Amazonian Ritual Context

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Abstract
This article argues that culturally specific genres of first‐person narration as they are found within social life offer a privileged window on a dimension of the self: the extent to which in certain circumstances self and other have fixed boundaries or can become merged. My focus is a ritual genre of first‐person narration sung by the Kayabi, a Tupi‐Guarani‐speaking people of central Brazil. In this genre, the experiences of past generations become incorporated into the lives of contemporary narrators. How this incorporation is facilitated as well as its importance in the context of Kayabi views on human development are discussed.