A Content Analysis of Mehinaku Dreams

Abstract

Despite the growth of psychological anthropology, dreams remain relatively neglected in the ethnographic descriptions of non-Western peoples. We have a number of systematic examinations of dreams, including those from Australia (Schneider and Sharp 1969), Africa (LeVine 1966), and India (Gray and Kalsched 1971), but many ethnographic regions are virtually unknown territory in terms of dream research. In no case do we have a database that is as scientifically compiled as that of Hall and his collaborators, who have analyzed more than 10,000 American dreams (Hall 1951; Hall and Van de Castle 1966). The purpose of this chapter is to extend the base of evidence on which cross-cultural dream research rests by providing descriptions of the manifest content of 385 dreams collected among the Mehinaku Indians, an Arawakan-speaking people of Central Brazil. Although a number of researchers have effectively utilized dreams as a method of research among South American Indian cultures (see, e.g., Kracke 1978, 1979, and chapter 9 of this volume), I am aware of few published collections of dreams from the peoples of this area.