Paper short abstract:

Winter is the time of powerful others: the Greedy Anaconda, the Great Armadillo and the Aru, a mythic people who travel extensively and today manifest as manioc garden frogs. These persons, of cosmic proportions, affect the weather and processes that inform the reproduction of Warekena society.

Paper long abstract:

The onset of winter is accompanied by a fine drizzle, a steady cool breeze and a dense fog which opaquely obscures the surface of the Xie river´s waters and the surrounding forest. This is known as ´the time of Aru´. Emerging with these rains, aru is the name of a particular species of frog that occupies newly planted manioc gardens. In the past, however, the Aru were people. The Aru came from far away, always journeying up-river with (and creating) the season´s wind and rain and travelling extensively. A few months later, at the height of winter, thunderous roars and lightning accompany the Great Armadillo as he digs at the river´s banks, causing erosion and reducing the land surface for the region´s terrestrial inhabitants. The Great Celestial Anaconda that occupies the summer night sky now descends to become the deep and fast-flowing river that floods the forest. In this incarnation, the snake is responsible for diminishing the fish population, which he greedily consumes, much to the chagrin of the Xié River dwelling population who are left wanting. The adverse weather and the emergence of powerful others leads Warekena to retire to their communities. In relative confinement and unable to work, they are prone to sasiara - a state of lassitude, and an idiom that conveys both sickness and sadness. This experience is part of a process. This paper explores how the cosmic and climatic transformations of winter are synchronized to cycles of human reproduction; cycles that have always relied on others.