Wayapí – An Amazonian indigenous people. Alan Campbell’s ethnography is particularly interested in the Wayapí’s use of the term payé, which, though roughly cognate with piya (a term for shamans elsewhere in the region), acts as a verb or adjective rather than a noun. That is, there are no “shamans” among the Wayapí, but anyone can access, utilize, and be affected by powers that can be called “shamanistic.” Similarly, any person (human or other-than-human in this animist community) can be “very shamanistic” or only “slightly shamanistic.”
SOURCE:
Historical Dictionary of Shamanism by Graham Harvey and Robert J. Wallis 2007
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