The Sound Frontier of Wixaritari Ritual Experts: Liminality, Rain Control, and Protection From Rain

Abstract

The sound frontier is a state of the senses. It is the ability to perceive a physical presence of sounds circulating in space and time: actions, emotions, and behaviors. In pursuit of analogies of ancestral history and ceremonial practice, Wixaritari ritual experts from Tierra Azul use the word ‘enierika to refer to vision-acoustics and nierika to speak of acoustic-visions at the liminal, divine intersticesof hearing. The rebirth of life is about gaining agency to set and control the duration of rainfall, and master the cycles of darkness-light. As a result of cosmopolitics, the divine iconicity of sound figures into rural land borders, the defense of cosmogonic territory, and the handling of ancestral disagreements.