I Foresee My Life is a study of the ritual performances of the Kayabi, a Brazilian indigenous people, during the 1990s. Kayabi rituals are distinct in that they center on the autobiographical narratives of living people. Suzanne Oakdale discusses these autobiographical performances in the context of shamanic cures, mortuary rites, and political oratory. In each ritual, leaders describe how some of the dramatic environmental, economic, and political changes taking place in the Amazon have affected them. For example, the Kayabi have moved from a heavily colonized area to a reservation and as a result have had to address different facets of Indian identity, new forms of commodity consumption, residence patterns, and leadership.

 

As they narrate their lives in these rituals, leaders also give other participants ways to address some of the pressing issues in their own lives. Special emphasis is given to the emotional effects of narrative performances and how these accounts move people to identify with others, compel them to act in appropriate ways, or assuage their grief over a lost loved one. Oakdale analyzes autobiographical performances using insights from studies on ritual, life history, and linguistic anthropology to better understand Kayabi notions of self and person and the role these narrative expressions play in their social life. Richly textured with eyewitness accounts and indigenous voices, I Foresee My Life demonstrates the enduring power of indigenous performances today

“I Foresee My Life is a valuable contribution to South American ethnology, and builds nicely on classic works by Charles Wagley, Robert Murphy, Hélène Clastres, Pierre Clastres, Waud Kracke Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, and other major ‘Tupinologists.’ The author’s focus on shamanic and other ritual performances as autobiographical narration has the advantages of demonstrating how individual experiences are placed into social circulation, and of capturing the historical specificity of ritual events.”—Jonathan D. Hill, Biography

“Oakdale successfully shows how the human potential for creative transformation is deeply embedded in language, and how interpersonal identifications take place in ritual events.”—Laura Rival, Times Literary Supplement