Head-Shrinkers Versus Shrinks: Jivaroan Dream Analysis Philippe Descola Man, New Series, Vol. 24, No. 3. (Sep., 1989), pp. 439-450. Stable URL: hip:flinks jstor-orgisietsici-0025-1496%28 1989002923 424959 A3G3C4303AHVSIDA IED 0,CO%SB2-B Man is cunently published by Rayal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland ‘Your se of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of ISTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use, available at htipsfwww.jstor.orglabouttems.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part that ualess you have oblained prior peemission, you may not download aa catire issue ofa journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use cootent in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commectcial use. Please contact the publisher regavdling any fusther use ofthis wark. Publisher contact information may be obtained at up./forwow jstor.org/jaurnalsai html. 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For more information regarding ISTOR, please contact support @jstor.org, hupstvwo jstor orgy Fri Dee 1:09:34:44 2006HEAD-SHRINKERS VERSUS SHRINKS: JIVAROAN DREAM ANALYSIS Puntiee Descoxa Laborative &'Anthaopotoie Sail, Pars ‘The tildes beoween myth sod dram have long beun urdencoced by antuopologss and prychoane,chough nether ave been ae w grec om the extence of mole user camson toodh dns, Th aie stars at fam he des propounded by ura andropoloy, tat des ‘work farm of ezolge” nua thot pated by mya tong che asigy benween myth sed rears hasten rom sr common ue af ceri types oferta roca, he than er ney ‘St apmboe concene Thenugh an snages ef the enczamuncy ofthe Jorsan Ackust of che Uppee ‘Amazon ci shown dur die metaphoric wneroteation af dca depends Ls onan amu Yoccom af ‘he dreambooic srt, dus on grammar combining ecard referent codes naman, to te one endenced by de souctral arly of meth. Myth and dream have always echoed eaci other, either spontaneously, wherever mythic chougke has survived, or self-consciously, in the debate that oppases the unconscious ofthe myth to the mythology of te unconscious. The respective postions ‘of a psychoanalyst and an anthropologist may serve to illustzate the cwo poles ofthis hoary confrontation: the former considers nyt a collective dreams (Alraham 1909), the latter suggests interpreting dreams according to the methods of srvceuralist myth analysis (Kuper 1979}. Ireerievably flawed by the assimilarion of ‘prelogical mentality’ to infantile hough procesies, the Freadian ambition of eransposing dream eheory to the analysis of myths is scoffed at by contemporary anthropologists. Paradoxically, however, most anthropologists ate equally reluctant to entertain the converse proposi~ ion: indeed, when not simply ignored, Kuper’ paper has been ceticised, ix particular for having confused the structure of ércams with that ofthe linguistic mechanisms of their nanation (Tedlock 1987, 27). Nevertheless, Kuper'sthesisdeserves consideration: “dhe reasoning ofthe unconscious and the logic of mythical ought are both aot only rigorous but also similar i kind [my emphasis, perbaps revealing deep and significant featares of human mental processes’ (Kuper 1979: 661). Kuper endeavoured to shore up this hypothesis by creating dreams hike myths, as modes of argument ip which a problem is resolved through & series of rule-governed. transformations of an initial dream situadion. Applied to dream narratives as told co Georges Devereux (1969) by Pins indian, this technique relied on cwo basic devices (permutation and inversion} to show how the dreams progresied chrough a chain of elated propositions towards a logical solution, or suppression, of the original emotional confit. In this aricle [wish to explore some of the implications of Kuper’s approsch while adopting a stance rather distinct from his: instead of trying to olate the cules of Man (N 8) 24, 13948040 PHILIPPE BESCOLA ransformation that organise the internal seructure af drearn, [will acempe to elvcidate the structucal rules hat govern a particular syseer.of rear interpretation in this instance that of an Amazonian people, the Jivaroan Achuar of Ecuador. lf the structural analysis ‘of myth and che Jivaroan anslysis of dreams can be shown to operate in identical manner, this fact may be taken, i(scem (0 me, a8 an indication chat the elds to which, hese analyses apply are sulficiently homologous for distinct culuual systems 10 ap- prehend them by means of che same intellectual procedures. Dreaming in fvarsancatare Observers af Jivaroan societies have repeatedly emphasised the importance of dreams in the shaping of daily life and their close connexion with the visionary experience induced by the absorption of powerful hallucinogens. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century, one of the ist accurate reports on che Jivaro neatly stresed the poineby tating chat ‘they have neither idals nor worship, know noching ofthe existence ‘of God, and have only an clemencary paganism fed by the delusions of dreams’ (Diego ‘Vacs, in Jimenez de la Espada 1965: 246, my translation). The religious dimension of