“Becoming” Tsunki

The concept of change and transformation in the gender imagery of Shuar ánent

Abstract

As one of the most identity sustaining genres of Shuar songs and singing in Ecuadorian Amazonia, the spiritual ánent songs are infused with spirits, ghosts, animals, and metaphoric beings, rooted in complex myths and personal narratives. They serve as tools for addressing and transforming specific life matters, with the singer aspiring to embody the spirits they invoke. Among these spiritual entities, Tsunki, a potent water spirit, transcending binary gender associations, emerged as a focal point in my explorations on gendered dimensions of Shuar songs and singing. Conversations with Shuar individuals like Raquel Antun, Tiris Taisha, Yampauch Tiwi, and Nujinúa Jimpíkit revealed varying perceptions of Tsunki, oscillating between a female, magical, and erotic spirit to a male figure akin to a god of water and healing. These diverse portrayals caused me to take a closer look at the gender imagery and the transformative elements within the Shuar ánent.

This paper aims to explain how the ánent, as personalized musical and emotional projections of myth, possess the transformative power to construct, deconstruct, and transform identities and societal realities. Drawing on Deleuzian concepts of becoming and multiplicities, as well as Butler's theories on the social construction of gender, the analysis navigates through shifting subject positions of the singer and the human and non-human listeners involved in the ánent-induced transformation, including my own subject position.

Acknowledging the colonial imposition of gender constructs on Indigenous cultures, the paper interweaves discussions on the impact of Christian missions and the coloniality of gender, drawing inspiration from María Lugones' work. Through contextual, analytical, and self-reflective lenses, the research aims to offer a critical view of the construct and deconstruction of gender within Shuar society. The perceived ambiguities surrounding Tsunki's gender also serve as a lens through which to analyze the complexities of coloniality and decoloniality within transcendent Shuar identities.