Comparative American Ethnoliterature

Comparative American Ethnoliterature: The "Challenge" MotifAuthor(s): Enrique Ballon-Aguirre and Jose Ballon-AguirreSource: Poetics Today, Vol. 16, No. 1, Loci of Enunciation and Imaginary Constructions: TheCase of (Latin) America, II (Spring, 1995), pp. 29-51Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1773222Accessed: 12/04/2010 09:40

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Comparative American Ethnoliterature: The "Challenge" Motif

Enrique Ballon-Aguirre Languages and Literatures, Arizona State

and Jose Ballon-Aguirre Spanish and Latin American Literature, Ohio Wesleyan

Abstract This essay describes the discursive organization of the "challenge," a motif previously studied by A. J. Greimas as a recit. Here, the narrative unit examined is an Andean ethnoliterary motif. An analysis of the objects in this text allows us to establish the difference between re6nimos, tecnemas, and zoemas.

The objects of culture produced in the Americas are frequently studied by using three norms to "apprehend" them: (1) a temporal one, such as a specific moment in history or prehistory; (2) a spatial one, such as an area delineated by the borders of a country or by an ethnic group; and (3) an academic one, such as the disciplinary boundaries of a given institutionalized field of knowledge. These three criteria, regardless of how tenuously they may be employed, reveal an important commonality: they all originate in a confining cognitive point of view which tends to resist any perspectives beyond the given spatial, temporal, or academic zones. For instance, when one mentions "Latin America" or "Latin American" culture, one is usually referring ex-

clusively to cultural phenomena observed south of the Rio Grande

(see Instituto 1990: 19) in societies where the prevalent dialects are those of the Romance languages. Thus, large populations in Haiti, in Quebec province, and in the American Southwest are automati-

Poetics Today 16:1 (Spring 1995). Copyright ? 1995 by The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics. CCC 0333-5372/95/$2.50.

30 Poetics Today 16:1

cally excluded. Such an approach inhibits research in linguistics and in comparative mythology at the continental level and diffuses the

parameters of analytical coherence. Thus an effort should be made to

depart from traditional literary history and criticism, where analogi- cal and intuitive principles are applied without offering the reader a

regulatory frame of reference within which to evaluate the results. For instance, in current historical periodizations and genre differentia- tions, only the official literary production of Latin American Spanish- speaking communities is considered. This approach marginalizes, or

simply ignores, literary works in ancestral languages and the diglossic literature produced by societies that are defined by their multilingual- ism and pluriculturalism.

A healthy reaction against this analytical fragmentation is repre- sented by the interdisciplinary studies of the Centro de Investiga- ciones sobre Mexico, America Central y los Andes (CERMACA). Al-

though devoted to only three areas, these interdisciplinary studies nevertheless break through the territorial and academic confinement which seems to prevail in current analytical discourse. Nathan Wachtel (1988: 50) describes the Center's guidelines as follows:

1) Not to recognize disciplinary boundaries and to promote cooperation among sociologists, anthropologists, and archaeologists; 2) not to recognize geographical boundaries by developing teamwork projects with experts on the Andes, Mesoamerica, and, if possible, Western Europe (mainly Mediter- ranean Europe, southern France, Italy, Spain); 3) not to recognize chrono- logical boundaries either, since each study group is formed by specialists in the pre-Columbian, colonial, nineteenth-century, and contemporary peri- ods. (Our translation)

In another fresh, integrative direction, Latin American comparative literature studies have been effective in presenting intertextual find-

ings in various sociocultural areas, especially when these findings are

accompanied by a description of the formal correlations which allow a homogeneous examination of the given textual planes. This can be seen in the interpretation and explanation of myths, or "matrices of

intelligibility" (Levi-Strauss 1976: 16), beginning with minor units of narrative, such as the minimal mythical recit. The analytical procedures in this field have varied considerably, from the formal description of minor narrative enunciates (e.g., veni, vidi, vici) to innumerable cate-

gorial schemes (which describe, on the plane of content, the minimal

properties of general narrative), such as the well-known diagram of the Narrative Program.1

1. The semiotic terms and their definitions appear in A. J. Greimas and Joseph Courtes (1982, 1986).

Ball6n-Aguirre * Comparative Ethnoliterature 31

The formal organization of motifs (defined as mobile recits which migrate from one narrative unit to another either within a cultural universe or outside of it) has become a fruitful field of study thanks to the contributions made by, among others, Joseph Courtes (1986, 1989, 1991), Claude Calame (1990), and Claude Bremond.2 In this essay, we intend to proceed in that direction, focusing on the "challenge motif," a micro-recit that has traditionally been considered a manipulation- recit in the Indo-European narrative corpus (see Greimas 1982). We will also analyze this motif within the context of other motifs found in Latin American ethnoliterary texts. It is particularly important that our corpus/context be a non-Indo-European one because, as we shall demonstrate, it modifies the apothegm that is held to be universally valid for the r6cits of challenge: "It is unthinkable that a knight could challenge anyone who is despicable" (ibid.: 44). In the Amerindian corpus, this apothegm becomes a relative enunciate because "despicable" characters are in fact challenged, although they embody an implicit divine competence.

As mentioned in an earlier study (Ball6n-Aguirre 1983), the obser- vation and description of motifs cannot be accomplished, nor their typologies established, outside of the texts in which they are inscribed. In fact, a motif creates a relation of invariance and variance with the surrounding text which contains and contextualizes it. If we consider the micro-recit narrative structure (with its own processes) to be invariable, the motif then appears variable, and vice versa. Therefore, the motif cannot be fully autonomous from the narrative articulations on the structural level, but can be defined only in relation to them.

Aside from its relative autonomy, the motif can be distinguished from the functional signification that it attains in connection with the major narrative (or "occurrence text") in which it is inscribed. It is also possible to delineate and analyze the motif as an invariable figurative unit in itself, unaffected by its various contexts and isolated from the functional secondary significations (narrative functions and discursive variables) acquired within a larger narrative unit. In this sense, the motif can be considered a consistent narrative segment, substantive enough to be studied by itself.

Turning now to the micro-recit, we can see that it also functions as a transtextual discursive configuration, possessing a self-reliant semantic- syntactic organization and capable of being inscribed in longer discursive units. Thus the evaluation of a series of discursive configurations

2. See Communications 39 (Paris: Seuil, 1984); see also Le Conte, pourquoi? comment? Actes desJournees d'etudes en Litterature orale (Paris, 23-26 mars 1982) (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1984), and Leon and Perron (1987).


navigating in a given sociocultural universe may allow us to establish a

typology of the sociocultural stereotypes which define it. In this essay, we intend to contribute to the formulation of such a typology.3

The Corpus The original narrative body or mass to be examined here comes from

chapter 5 of Ritos y tradiciones de Huarochiri, which is considered the ur- text of Andean ethnoliterature (Taylor 1987: 103-15, lexies 64-114). We have constituted the corpus following the guidelines that have al-

ready been established for the semiotic (Ball6n-Aguirre 1987) and the semantic (Ball6n-Aguirre, Cerr6n-Palomino, and Chambi-Apaza 1992) regulation of this type of discourse. Next, we will briefly outline the "occurrence text," or narrative context, from which this micro- recit is taken.

The macro-recit in chapter 5 develops the following plot. Huatia- curi, a poor, humble man (described as such because he subsists en-

tirely on "papas huatiadas," potatoes buried underground and baked with hot rocks), who is also the son of the god Pariacaca, overhears in a dream a conversation between two foxes and learns that a powerful man, Tamtanamca, is very ill. In his dream, Huatiacuri also discovers the cause of this man's illness: his wife's love affair. Huatiacuri goes to see Tamtanamca, but is not well received. In spite of this, Huatia- curi offers to cure Tamtanamca on the condition that he be allowed to

marry the man's younger daughter (since his elder daughter is already married to a wealthy man). When Tamtanamca agrees, Huatiacuri cures him, revealing his wife's love affair; immediately thereafter, Hua- tiacuri destroys a serpent and a frog who were undermining this man's house. Tamtanamca then fulfills his promise and gives his daughter to Huatiacuri in marriage. However, when the affluent husband of Tamtanamca's elder daughter hears about the marriage, he becomes

enraged, refusing to accept Huatiacuri as his new brother-in-law:

1. Asi, un dia, ese hombre le dijo a Huatiacuri: "Hermano, vamos a

competir en distintas pruebas. CC6mo te atreviste t6, un miserable, a casarte con la cunada de un hombre tan poderoso como yo?" El

pobre acept6 el desafio y fue a contarle a su padre lo que el otro le habia dicho. "Muy bien," le dijo su padre, "cualquier cosa que te

proponga, ven en seguida a verme." 2. He aqui la primera prueba. Un dia su cunado le dijo: "Vamos a medir

nuestras fuerzas bebiendo y bailando." Huatiacuri, el pobre, fue a contarselo a su padre.

3. Este le dijo: "Vete a la otra montana, donde convirtiendote en huanaco, te echaras como si estuvieras muerto; entonces, por la manana

3. The number of American ethnoliterary studies published has greatly increased in recent years (see Ball6n-Aguirre 1986, 1989b).


temprano, un zorro y su mujer, una zorrina, vendran a verte; la zorrina traera chicha en un poronguito y traera tambien su tambor; al verte, creyendo que eres un huanaco muerto, pondra estas cosas en el suelo, el zorro hara lo mismo con su antara, y empezaran a co- merte; alli te convertiras de nuevo en hombre y, gritando con todas tus fuerzas, te echaras a volar; ellos huiran, olvidandose de sus cosas y asi iras a la prueba." Estas fueron las palabras de su padre, Pariacaca.

4. Entonces, el hombre pobre hizo todo conforme a sus instrucciones. Al empezar la competici6n, el hombre rico fue el primero en ha- blar. Aproximadamente doscientas mujeres bailaron para el; cuando acab6, Huatiacuri, el pobre, entr6 solo con su mujer, los dos solitos. Cruzaron el umbral y bailaron acompanados por el tambor de la zorrina; entonces, en toda la regi6n la tierra tembl6. De esta manera, Huatiacuri venci6 en todo.

5. Despues empezaron a beber. Como suelen hacer ain los huespedes, que en las asambleas se sientan en el sitio mas alto. Tambien Hua- tiacuri y su mujer fueron a sentarse solos en el puesto de honor. Entonces, todos los hombres que estaban sentados alli, vinieron a servirle chicha sin dejarle respirar. Huatiacuri bebio tranquilamente todo lo que le sirvieron. En seguida le toc6 a el; empez6 a servirles la chicha que habia traido en su poronguito. Los demas, cuando vieron lo pequeno que era el porongo para saciar a tanta gente, se rieron a carcajadas. Pero apenas se puso a servirles, yendo de un extremo a otro de la asamblea, cayeron todos sin sentido.

6. Como Huatiacuri habia vencido en esta prueba, al dia siguiente el otro quiso desafiarlo de nuevo. Esta vez, la competicion consistia en ataviarse con las mas finas plumas de casa y cancho. Nuevamente, Huatiacuri fue a consultar a su padre. Este le dio un traje de nieve. Asi venci6 a su rival deslumbrandolos a todos.

7. El otro le desafi6 a traer pumas. Quiso vencer trayendo lo que po- seia. Segin las instrucciones de su padre, el hombre pobre fue muy temprano a un manantial de donde trajo un puma rojo. (Cuando se puso a bailar con el puma rojo, apareci6 en el cielo un arco iris semejante a los que vemos de nuestros dias.)

8. Entonces, su rival quiso competir con el en la construcci6n de una casa. Como ese hombre tenia mucha gente a su servicio, casi acab6 en un solo dia la construcci6n de una casa grande. El pobre no co- loc6 mas que los cimientos y pas6 todo el dia paseando con su mujer. Pero por la noche, todos los pajaros asi como las serpientes, todas las que habia en el mundo, construyeron su casa. Entonces, cuando al dia siguiente su rival la vio ya acabada, se asust6 mucho.

9. Desafi6 a Huatiacuri a una nueva competicion: esta vez debian techar las casas. Todos los huanacos, todas las vicunas traian la paja para el techo del hombre rico. Huatiacuri esper6 encima de una pena el paso de las llamas que llegaban cargadas con paja. Contrat6 la ayuda de un gato montes y, asustandolas, destruyo e hizo caer todo. Asi venci6 en esta prueba.

10. Despues de haber ganado en todo, el pobre, siguiendo el consejo de


su padre, dijo a su rival: "Hermano, tantas veces ya he aceptado tus desafios; ahora te toca a ti aceptar el desafio que voy a hacerte yo." El hombre rico acept6. Entonces, Huatiacuri le dijo: "Ahora vamos a bailar vestidos con una cusma y huara azul y de algod6n blanco." El otro acept6.

11. El hombre rico bail6 primero como siempre solia hacer. Mientras bailaba, Huatiacuri entr6 corriendo y gritando. El hombre rico se asust6, se convirti6 en venado y huy6.

12. Entonces, su mujer se fue tras el: "Voy a morir al lado de mi marido," dijo. El hombre pobre se enojo mucho. "Vete, imbecil; vosotros me

perseguisteis tanto que tambien a ti te voy a matar" le dijo y, a su vez, se fue tras ella. La alcanz6 en el camino de Anchiococha. "Todos los que bajan o suben por este camino veran tus verguenzas" le dijo y la coloc6 boca abajo en el suelo. En seguida se convirtio en piedra. Esta piedra, parecida a una pierna humana completa con muslo y vagina, a6n existe. Hasta hoy, por cualquier motivo, la gente pone coca encima de ella. Entonces el hombre que se habia convertido en venado, subi6 al cerro y desapareci6.

13. Antiguamente el venado comia carne humana. Despues, cuando los venados ya eran muchos, un dia, mientras bailaban una cachua di- ciendo: "'C6mo haremos para comer hombres?" Una criatura se

equivoc6 y dijo: ".C6mo van a hacer los hombres para comernos?" Al oir estas palabras, los venados se dispersaron. A partir de entonces, habian de ser comida para los hombres. (Taylor 1987: 103-15)

1. Thus, one day, this man said to Huatiacuri: "Brother, let's compete in different contests. How did you, a wretched man, dare to marry the sister-in-law of a powerful man like me?" The poor man accepted the

challenge, then went to see his father and told him what his brother- in-law had just said. "Very well," responded his father, "no matter what he proposes, come see me right away."

2. Here is the first test. One day his brother-in-law told him: "Let's test our strength [in] drinking and dancing." Huatiacuri, the poor man, went to see his father.

3. His father said: "Go to the other mountain, where you will turn into a huanaco [i.e., guanaco, an Andean animal related to the llama] and lie down, pretending to be dead; then, early in the morning, a fox and his mate, a vixen, will come to see you; the vixen will bring chicha [fermented maize drink] in a poronguito [small jar] and also a tambor [drum]; upon seeing you, thinking you are a dead huanaco, she will put her things down on the ground, and the fox will do the same with his antara [cane flute], as they prepare to devour you. In that moment you will turn into a man, and, screaming with all your strength, you will fly up; they will flee, leaving their things behind for you to take to the contest with you.4 These were the words of his father, Pariacaca.

4. Diego Gonzalez Holguin (1989 [1608]: 298) defines porongo as "vaso de barro cuelli largo," which Gerald Taylor (1980: 51 n.44) translates into French as "vase


4. Then the poor man proceeded to carry out his father's instructions. The contest began and the rich man was the first to take the floor. Nearly two hundred women danced with him; when the dance ended, Huatiacuri, the poor man, showed up alone with his wife, just the two of them. They crossed the threshold and danced to the rhythm of the vixen's tambor; then, all over the region, the earth trembled. In this way, Huatiacuri triumphed totally.

5. After this, they started to drink. It is customary for guests to take the highest seat in the assembly, so Huatiacuri and his wife went to sit by themselves in the place of honor. Then all the men who had been sitting there rushed to bring him chicha without giving him a chance to catch his breath. Huatiacuri drank all the chicha that was served him without flinching. When it was his turn to serve, he provided the chicha from his poronguito. When the men saw that the jar was too small to supply such a large group, they burst out laughing. But as soon as he had finished serving the chicha [to everyone] from one end of the assembly to the other, all of them passed out.

6. Since Huatiacuri won the contest, the other man wanted to challenge him again the next day. This time, the contest would consist of dress- ing up in the finest casa y cancho [feathered robe].5 Again, Huatiacuri went to confer with his father. He gave Huatiacuri a robe of snow.6 In this way, he defeated his rival, dazzling all the spectators.

7. The other man [then] challenged him to a puma hunt. The rich man wanted to win by wearing the [puma] furs that he had already acquired.7 Following his father's instructions, the poor man went at dawn to a spring and brought back a red puma. (When he started to dance with the red puma, a rainbow like the ones we see today appeared in the sky.)

en terre ayant un col allonge"; Francisco de Avila (1966 [1608]: 211) calls it a "can- tarillo";Juan de Arona (1974 [1884]: 279) defines it as a "vaso o cantaro de barro"; and Jose Maria Arguedas (1966 [1598]: 41) defines it as "jarra pequena." The Quechua term tinya is translated by Taylor (1987: 104-5) and by Jorge Urioste (1983: 31) as "tambor"; Avila (1966 [1608]: 211) calls it a "tamborcillo," as does Arguedas (1966 [1598]: 41); Gonzalez Holguin (1989 [1608]: 343), curiously, defines it as "atabal, aduse, bihuela, guitarra." The Quechua term antara is translated by Avila (1966 [1608]: 211) as "flauta hecha de muchas [canas]"; Gonzalez Holguin (1989 [1608]: 28) indicates that an "antara" comprises "flautillas juntas como 6rgano"; Arguedas (1966 [1598]: 41) translates it as "flauta de pan," as do Taylor (1980: 51 n.45) and Cesar Bolanos (1985: 28-29, 44); Urioste (1983: 31), however, "translates" it as a Quechua parasynonym, pinquillo. 5. Avila (1966 [1608]: 212 n.1) translates it as "plumas galanisimas y de diversos colores," as does Taylor (1987: 109 n.87), while Urioste (1983: 126 n.2) defines cancho as a "tejido con plumas incorporadas." 6. Avila (1966 [1608]: 212) translates it as "camiseta de nieve." 7. In Taylor's (1980: 53 n.46) translation, we find this explanation: "Siendo la po- sesi6n de las pieles de pumas el simbolo de la prosperidad de los propietarios de llamas, el cunado de Huatiacuri crey6 que su victoria estaba asegurada" (Since the possession of puma fur is a sign of prosperity among llama owners, Huatiacuri's brother-in-law believed that his victory was assured).


8. Then his rival wanted to compete with him in the construction of a house. Since the rich man had many servants, he could almost finish a large house in one day. The poor man laid only the foundation and then spent the rest of the day strolling about with his wife. That

night, however, all the birds and snakes on the face of the earth built his house. Then, the next day, when his rival saw the finished house, he was truly startled.

9. He challenged Huatiacuri to a new contest: this time they were to roof their houses. All the huanacos and vicunas [Andean animal related to the llama] were loaded up with straw for the rich man. Hua- tiacuri waited on top of a rock for the llamas to arrive with loads of straw. He asked a wildcat to help him by scaring the llamas away. Thus he destroyed the house, as everything collapsed. In this way, he won the contest.

10. After he had triumphed in all the contests, [Huatiacuri,] following his father's advice, said to his rival: "Brother, I have accepted your challenges many times already; now it is your turn to accept the chal-

lenge I am going to propose to you." The rich man agreed. Then Huatiacuri told him: "Now, let's dance, dressed in a cusma [shirt] and blue and white cotton huara [pants].8 The other man accepted.

11. First, the rich man started to dance as he was accustomed to doing. While he was dancing, Huatiacuri came running in, yelling. The rich man, being frightened, turned into a deer and ran away.

12. Then the rich man's wife went after him: "I am going to die be- side my husband," she said. The poor man became very angry. "Go,

stupid; the two of you have tormented me so much that I am going to kill you too," he told her. He followed, overtaking her on the road to Anchiococha. "All the people who travel along this road will see your genitals," he told her, while pushing her face down to the ground. Immediately, she turned into a stone. This stone, which looks like a human leg, including a thigh and a vagina, still exists today. Even

now, for whatever reason, people put coca on it. In the end, the man that became a deer went up the hill and disappeared.

13. In ancient times deer ate human flesh. Later on, when there were

many deer, they were spinning a cachua one day, asking: "What would we have to do in order to eat more men?"9 A fawn made the mistake

8. Hip6lito Galante (in Urioste 1983: 127 n.21) translates "cusma" as "camis6n," while Arguedas (1966 [1598]: 43) gives "t6nica," and Taylor (1980: 53 n.48) says that it is "una especie de tunica o camisa larga andina." Gonzalez Holguin (1989 [1608]: 182) defines "huara" as "panetes o caraguelles estrechos," while Galante (in Urioste 1983: 127 n.21) translates it as "calzones"; Arguedas (1966 [1598]: 43), as

"panete que cubria la cintura y piernas"; and Taylor (1980: 53 n.49), as "pantal6n indio." 9. For Gonzalez Holguin (1989 [1608]: 129), the "cachua" (kachua) is a "bayle asidos de las manos," and kach huani means "baylar en corro asidos." Taylor (1987: 115 nn.112, 113), besides quoting Gonzalez Holguin, indicates that according to the An6nimo of 1585 this "baile" was "pernicioso" and adds: "In this text we are


of asking: "What would men have to do in order to eat more of us?" Upon hearing these words, the deer scattered. From then on, they were to be food for humans. (Translated by Jose Ball6n-Aguirre)

The Structure In this micro-recit composed of thirteen sequences, the challenge constitutes the action and the effect of defying on the part of the brother-in-law in five instances and on the part of Huatiacuri in one. A challenge may also be defined as a provocative declaration which implies that someone is incapable of something. It also entails the provocation of one-on-one combat and a contest in which qualities like strength, dex-

terity, and skill are put to the test. The concept of challenge, then, includes all of these meanings, not

just the "provocative declaration" which has been the basis for consid-

ering it a motif of narrative manipulation. Thus, the micro-recit of chal-

lenge constitutes a complete Narrative Program, with the components of manipulation, competence, performance, and sanction appearing in the textual sequences (Secs.), as displayed in Figure 1.

The components of the narrative which describe the confrontation between the protagonist, Huatiacuri, and the antagonist, his brother-in- law, do not follow the canonical order of the Narrative Program. They are distributed among multiple sequences linked to the six (con)tests (or performances) that occur at various points in the narrative. Ap- parently, we are dealing with a true dissemination of the components of the recit, typical of this ethnoliterary motif (since, ideally, the hero-

protagonist ought to show her/his sovereignty by going through not one but several tests). Such is the case of the hero-brothers (syncretic protagonists) in the Popol Vuh, who participate in the different trials

proposed by the Lords of Xibalba (syncretic antagonists). Curiously, in this case the lords do not participate in the tests; they only impose them on the hero-brothers. This fact indicates that in order for the test to be performed within the motif, the protagonist must participate, but not the antagonist, who can function instead as observing subject and as judging subject (or sanctioner). In this case, the test is no longer a contest because it has become an examination, during which the competence of the subject, his sovereignty, should be manifest and effective, as in the following excerpt from the Popol-Vuh (1984: 157):

[Los hermanos-heroes] entraron despues a la Casa del Frio. No es posible describir el frio que hacia. La casa estaba llena de granizo, era la mansi6n

apparently dealing with a ritual cachua, which should enable deer to find human flesh. The fawn, by inverting the terms in the magic formula, brings bad luck upon deer."


MANIPULATION --- ACTION - SANCTION

I I Competence Performance

I l Secs. 1-2-6-7 Ses. 3-6-7-10 Secs. 4-5-6 Secs. 4-5-6-7-8

-8-9-10 -8-9-11 -9-11-12-13

Figure 1. Narrative program of the challenge.

del frio. Pronto, sin embargo, se quit6 el frio porque con troncos viejos lo hicieron desaparecer los muchachos.

Asi es que no murieron; estaban vivos cuando amaneci6. Ciertamente lo que querian los de Xibalba era que murieran: pero no fue asi, sino que cuando amaneci6 estaban llenos de salud, y salieron de nuevo cuando los fueron a buscar los mensajeros.

"'C6mo es eso? ~No han muerto todavia?" dijo el Senor de Xibalba. Admirabanse de ver las obras de Huanahpu e Ixbalanqu6 [los hermanos- heroes]. ([The hero-brothers] entered the House of Cold. It is impossible to describe how cold it was. The house was full of hail, it was the mansion of cold. Soon, however, the cold went away. The boys made it disappear by burning old logs.

So it was that they didn't die; they were alive when the sun came out.

Certainly, what the Xibalba men wanted was for the boys to die: but that wasn't the case; at dawn they were glowing with health; and they left again when the messengers came looking for them.

"How is this possible? Aren't they dead yet?" said the Lord of Xibalba.

Everyone was amazed at the deeds of the Huanahpu and Ixbalanqu6 [the hero-brothers].) (Translated by Jos6 Ball6n-Aguirre)

Let us reconsider, now, the base text taken from chapter 5 of Ritos

y tradiciones de Huarochiri. The narrative program that allows the protagonist, Huatiacuri, to pass from an initial modal incompetence (/wanting-being able-doing/) to a state of full competence (/know-

ing-being able-doing/) is achieved in all tests (either effectively or

potentially) by the intervention of his father, Pariacaca, who thus defines himself as the hero's helper. However, this intervention is not

required for the configuration of the challenge motif; in a given recit, the hero/subject/protagonist can ignore a previous narrative program because the modal series /knowing-being able-doing/ is revealed in


his/her competence. In this series, the /doing/ is clearly the conjunctive action, with the value object being /to defeat/ in the contest or /to solve/ in the examination. Numerous ethnoliterary texts show this attainment of full competence by the protagonist.

In five of the tests entailed by the performance, the protagonist maintains the thematic roles of /provoked/ and /challenged/, and the antagonist those of /provoker/ and /challenger/. In the sixth and last test, however, these roles are reversed, indicating that during the "antagonism" the roles of /provocation/ and /challenge/ typically performed by the contenders/subjects can be reversed or redistributed. What seems to remain a constant in the challenge motif is the protagonist's success in all of the tests, regardless of his different protagonist/ antagonist thematic roles. The disputed value object /to defeat/ is defined by its virtual relation with the antagonistic subjects, but neither of them is in ajunctive relationship with it before the /duel/: it is merely virtual until it is revealed in the moment of its conjunction with the /defeater/ (the hero).

In regard to the sanction, it can be limited: (a) to the /approval/ of the protagonist's action; (b) to the declaration of his /victory/ by an implicit or a tacit judging subject ("in this way Huatiacuri triumphed completely"; "in this way he won the contest"); or (c) to the /failure/ of the antagonist's action and his /defeat/ at the end of each test. The final sanction can be simple, as in sequence 11 (the antagonist's trans- formation into a deer), or complex, as in sequences 12 and 13, where the sanction includes "revenge" (the sanction affects the antagonist's wife and even increases its semantic density by stressing the existential condition of deer).

Let us turn now to the three stages of confrontation in the challenge motif. These stages are different from the narrative classification of enunciates (of inchoateness, duration, and terminableness). Here, we are dealing with three stages of action in the narrative process, which might be called:

1. Ab initio, enunciated in the first sequence when the brother-in- law introduces the theme of the "affront" (the protagonist's marriage to his wife's sister) which he has received from Huatiacuri. This event immediately establishes the initial thematic role of the antagonist (anti-subject or anti-hero), who has been referred to as "cunado" (brother-in-law) and who adopts the thematic roles of /offended/ in the cognitive dimension and of /injured/ in the pragmatic dimension. The protagonist, Huatiacuri, on the other hand, involuntarily assumes the thematic roles of/offender/ and of /injurer/, respectively.

2. Media adfinem, enunciated in the first and second sequences by the "antagonism" theme: the verbal challenge, which determines,


as before, the antagonist's second set of thematic roles of /provoker/ on the cognitive plane and of/challenger/ on the pragmatic plane, with the protagonist symmetrically adopting or accepting the thematic roles of /provoked/ and /challenged/, respectively, on each plane. This stage also includes the development of the confrontation, that is, of the "contest" as such: it is the challenge in action which comprises the series of tests contained in sequences 4 and 11. In all but the last test, antagonism also determines the thematic roles played on the cognitive plane by the antagonist /adversary 1/ and the protagonist /adversary 2/ and on the pragmatic plane by both, as antagonists in the /duel/ (i.e., the contest). In the last test the thematic roles are reversed: the protagonist is then /adversary 1/, and the antagonist /adversary 2/.

3. Adfinem, which consists of the "resolution" of the "antagonism"; it is the outcome of the challenge, resolved only after several tests, that is revealed in different enunciates in sequences 4 to 9 and 11. In the cognitive and pragmatic dimensions, the protagonist performs the thematic roles of /approved/ and /defeater/, while the antagonist performs those of /disapproved/ and /defeated/, respectively.

Figure 2 summarizes the roles just described. The thematic roles prescribed by the armature of the action in the

recit determine the actants' performance: the antagonist-subject (S1) performs the actant role of Idestinateurl of the challenge, giving him the encompassing role of /defier/ (which includes the roles of /offended/, /injured/, /provoker/, and /challenger/), the figurative role of the "emission," and the figure /to utter/, with the content /to propose/ in the first five tests.

In the sixth test, the thematic narrative form and the figurative distribution of these actants is reversed, as noted before: Huatiacuri

performs the actantial role S1 and adopts the corresponding thematic

roles-except for that of/defeated/-and the figures which, in the previous tests, were performed by S2; the "cunado," inversely, performs these roles. In sequence 2, the intervention of a third actant (S3) is announced: the protagonist's father, the god actorialized as Pariacaca. In sequence 3, the thematic narrative form and the figurative distribution that he assumes are established. His actantial role is /helper/ and his thematic role is /auxiliary/ (both related to S2); his figurative role is the "revelation" and his performance implies the existence of the figures /to listen/ and /to utter/, with the content /to reveal/.

During the entire confrontation between protagonist and antagonist, the disputed value object (O) is defined by the thematic role /to defeat/, the figurative role "encounter," and the figure /to compete/, with the content /to fight/. It is necessary, however, to distinguish the


Narrative Process

Dimensions Ab initio - Media adfinem - Adfinem

Affront Antagonism Contest Resolution

COGNITIVE Offender/ Provoker/ Advers. 1/ Approved/ Offended Provoked Advers. 2 Disapproved

PRAGMATIC Injurer/ Challenger/ Duels Defeater/

Injured Challenged Defeated

Figure 2. Three stages of confrontation in the challenge motif.

value object over which the antagonists in the recit dispute from the

"objects" and "animals" that help Huatiacuri succeed in the tests. The latter are the antagonist's helpers and the protagonist's (co-)helpers (since Huatiacuri's main helper is embodied by the god Pariacaca). The help that these secondary value objects give the protagonist is

conveyed within the recit's pragmatic verisimilitude. Therefore, its thematic narrative form and its figurative distribution are organized by an exclusive designative referentiality. (For instance, the llamas and the huanacos that help the "cunado" build his house still perform the same tasks today, as beasts of burden, in the Andes.) However, those

objects that operate in conjunctive relation to the protagonist perform the thematic roles of "magic objects" and "zoemas." (Both of these roles will be examined later.) The roles and figures described so far are diagrammed in Figure 3.

The Helpers: Magic Objects and Zoemas Francoise Bastide suggested that the object, besides being defined as a syntactic actant, should be defined "inside the spatial configurativiza- tion" (Greimas and Courtes 1986: 155); in other words, in addition to its operational or intentional definition, it should be defined eide- tically and extensionally. Claude Levi-Strauss (1985: 130) defines the zoema as "a species of animal equipped with a semantic function" (our translation) in the recit; however, as far as we know, zoemas have not been addressed semiotically. Since the operational function of the antagonist's helpers and the protagonist's (co-)helpers has already been described, we will now outline their eidetic and extensional meaning, which explains the semantic density and discursive functions of these objects and animals.

To begin with, we must organize the initial juxtaposition of ele-


THEMATIC NARRATIVE FORM FIGURATIVE DISTRIBUTION

ACTANTS Actantial roles Thematic roles Figurative roles Figures S1 /sender/ /defier/ "emission" "to utter":

/defeated/ /to propose/ S2 /receiver/ /defied/ "reception" "to listen":

/defeater/ /to accept/ S3 /helper/ /auxiliary/ "revelation" "to listen,"

"to utter": /to reveal/

O /object/ /to defeat/ "encounter" "to compete": /to fight/

Figure 3. Thematic narrative form and figurative distribution of the actants' roles in the recit.

ments proposed by the text and distinguish the two figurative actors whose actantial function is to help the adversaries: (1) the protagonist's (modal) (co-)helpers, namely, the poronguito, [the antara], the drum, the robe of snow, the birds, the snakes, and the wildcat; and (2) the antagonist's (simple) helpers, namely, the two hundred women, the robe of casa

y cancho feathers, the puma furs, the people, the huanacos, and the vicunas. The taxeme is organized as follows:

1. the sememe "poronguito," with its classeme /container/; 2. the sememes "antara" and "drum," with their classeme /musical

instrument/; 3. the sememes "robe of casa y cancho feathers" and "robe of snow,"

with their classeme /clothing/; 4. the sememes "two hundred women" and "people," with their

classeme /human/; 5. the sememes "birds," "snakes," "wildcat," "huanacos," and "vicu-

nas," united by the classeme /animal/; 6. the sememes "puma furs" and "fur of a red puma," with their

classemes /animal/ and /clothing/. If we examine the fortuitous signification of each sememe, we can

see that the objects (O) donated by father Pariacaca, the "sender" (Send), operate in conjunctive relation to Huatiacuri, the "receiver"

(Rec). These objects belong to the fortuitous categorial seme /supernatural/, and their operations can be summarized in the following formula:

(Send n 0 U Rec) = (Send n 0 n Rec).


The antagonist's helpers, on the other hand, according to the logic of the recit, do not have this fortuitous quality. The unique presence of the /supernatural/ value in the objects and animals in conjunctive relation to the protagonist-subject "semantizes somewhat the entire enunciate and constitutes a value for the subject who employs them; thus, the subject's semantic existence is determined by his relationship with the supernatural value when he comes into contact with the objects. It will suffice then, in an ulterior stage, to invest the subject with a wanting-being in order to transform the value of the subject, in a semiotic sense, into a value for the subject in the axiological sense of the term" (Greimas 1973: 16) [our translation]). This nicely explains the acquisition of divine sovereignty by Huatiacuri during the tests posed by the challenge contract.

It is also important to note that the object abandoned by the "fox" in sequence 2 (the antara), in spite of its potential as a conjunction and a narrative predication vis-a-vis the hero, Huatiacuri, does not ulti- mately perform a modalizing function, as do the objects supplied by the "vixen" (the poronguito and the drum). Structurally, it is under- stood that Huatiacuri will not pick up the antara, but will abandon it, since he will not need to utilize it in the tests described in sequence 3.

But how can we justify the presence in the text of an object lack- ing a specific function in the narrative? Is this useless element merely descriptive "stuff," created to demonstrate the narrator's competence? Perhaps. We cannot verify this since there are no other variants of this recit. What becomes evident in the economy of the text is that the noun "antara" is a "superfluous detail" in relation to the structure. Ap- parently, objects that are "neither incongruous nor meaningful," that do not participate "in the order of the notation" but are present in texts of Western literature (Barthes 1972: 143-48 [our translation]), can also be found in texts of ethnoliterature. The antara in this text appears to be an "insignificant" object on the structural level and has no definable aesthetic or rhetorical function (e.g., rhyme, alliteration, symbolization, metaphorization, etc.). It becomes an authentic eventu- ality, a "neutral, prosaic excipient," completely irrelevant.

However, as Barthes noted, "The meaning of this object does exist and depends not on its conformity with the model, but with the cultural rules of representation" (ibid.: 149). The French semiotician added that the "meaning" of these "useless" nouns comes not only from the narrator's idiolectic competence, but also directly from the sociolectic competence enunciated in the recit. We have taken this statement as a working hypothesis in our analysis.

If this strong ethnoliterary hypothesis were confirmed (a project worth undertaking, but one which goes beyond the confines of this discussion), it might also establish that the "realist verisimilitude," or


reference to the "concrete real," enacted by the literary realism inherent to these nouns in Western literature pertains solely to Western culture. The semantic armature of their fortuitous signification is not universally applicable to all times and places: Does the antara in our text have the same "realist" function as the barometer, say, in Flau- bert's Madame Bovary? The structural "irrelevance" of the terms is not the same in both cases; although "the object's pure transitive situa- tion" (Barthes 1985: 259 [our translation]) is present in both texts, the context of each one actualizes its fortuitous signification differently, with the antara actualizing a mythical signification and the barometer a realist one.

We have denominated as reonimos, or discursive figures that perform functions which are exclusively inherent (cf. Ballon-Aguirre 1989a: 76), those figures that perform semantic functions which are almost invariable. Thus, in the recit, while "antara" is a noun with only one constant function (musical instrument), "poronguito" is a magic object since it simultaneously performs both a pragmatic and a mythic function. In fact, A. J. Greimas (1973: 13-14) maintained that magic objects are figurative actors which, "once they become available to the hero or anti-hero, help in different ways, including the search for values" (our translation). Figurative actors are such objects as a bag that fills itself, a hat that transports the person who is wearing it, or a horn that conjures up soldiers; "a hollow gourd, for instance, is not a good in and of itself, but a provider of goods, because only when it is filled with liquid, does it offer abundant beverage" (ibid.). As we will see, although such terms change their references and designations from one ethnic group to another, they nevertheless perform similar pragmatic and mythic roles, becoming combinatory variants of one another.

The magic objects and the zoemas in this recit manifest their An- dean cultural specificity: they not only produce consumable goods (e.g., the poronguito's inexhaustible chicha) and synonymous goods (e.g., the casa and its roof), as they do in Indo-European fabulous recits, but they are also capable of producing natural phenomena (e.g., the drum causes an earthquake; the red puma generates a rainbow), or they even constitute such extraordinary phenomena in themselves

(e.g., the dazzling robe of snow). They can, furthermore, reflect the natural attributes of the animals they embody (e.g., the wildcat fright- ens "real" animals).

Let us consider now, as an example, the semantic value-and the cultural values-of one of these helpers in comparison with one taken from an Inuit (Eskimo) recit recorded by Maurice Metayer (1973: 14- 18), "The Girl of the Magic Drum." In this r6cit, a young woman who did not want to get married finally became attracted to two boys (who


were also bears). They took her to the bottom of the ocean, where her

body was devoured by marine animals. Reduced to only a skeleton, she walked along the ocean floor until she found a place where the water was illuminated by the rays of the sun. There, she rose out of the ocean and rested on a floe. Exhausted, she fell asleep and dreamed about all the things she needed. When she woke up, she found these objects around her and saw some young men, who had discovered her. How- ever, since she was still a skeleton, they were frightened and ran away. (The following Spanish translation is by Enrique Ballon-Aguirre, with an English translation by Jos6 Ball6n-Aguirre.)

De retorno al iglu de su anciano padre, esos hombres le dijeron: "Encontramos un esqueleto que caminaba. jera una mujer! Vino hacia

nosotros, pero tuvimos miedo y huimos sin hablarle." "Mis dias estan contados de todas maneras!"-respondi6-"Ire a visitarla

manana." Al dia siguiente parti6 y encontr6 a la mujer sentada a la entrada de

su igli; ella no dio un paso hacia el, pero cuando se aproxim6 la hizo en- trar. La lampara de piedra estaba llena de aceite y la llama de las mechas alta y brillante. La muchacha-esqueleto y el anciano comieron y durmieron juntos.

Cuando fue de dia, ella le dijo al hombre: "Hazme un tamborcito." Inmediatamente se puso a trabajar y una vez que termin6 el instrumento,

se lo entreg6. La mujer apag6 la llama de la lampara, tom6 el tamboril y se puso a danzar. Cantaba un encantamiento magico y de pronto el tambor comenz6 a agrandarse y su sonido al retumbar parecia llenar la llanura y la colina.

Una vez que termin6 su canto, la mujer alumbr6 la lampara y baj6 las luces de las flamas danzantes, el viejo la vio y no pudo quitar la mirada. No era mas un lastimoso esqueleto, era una joven magnifica cuya came generosa se adivinaba bajo los soberbios vestidos. Ella apag6 de nuevo la limpara, cogi6 el tambor y se puso a danzar. Despues de un tiempo le pregunt6 al hombre: "iTe sientes bien asi?"

Ante su respuesta afirmativa, ella encendi6 la lampara. Ya no era mas un viejo quien le habia respondido que si, sino un hombre joven y aguerrido a quien el ritmo magico del tambor le habia devuelto la fuerza y lajuventud. (When they reached the igloo of their old father, they told him:

"We found a skeleton walking. It was a woman! She came toward us, but we were frightened and escaped without speaking to her."

"My days are numbered anyway!"-he answered-"I'll go to visit her tomorrow."

The next day he left and found the woman sitting at the door of the igloo; she didn't walk toward him. He approached her and went inside. The stone lamp was full of oil and the flame coming out of its wick was high and bright. The skeleton-girl and the old man ate and slept together.

When the sun came out, she said to the man: "Make me a small drum." The man immediately got down to work, and when he finished the in-


Pragmatic TOPIC Mythic dimension dimension

LEXEME LEXICAL Statute of LEXICAL SEMEMES fortuitous SEMEMES

signification

drum musical /tectonic/ - seism (Quechua) instrument

drum musical /human/ - life, (Inuit) instrument rejuvenation

Figure 4. Comparative functions of a magic drum in a Quechua and an Inuit recit.

strument, he gave it to her. The woman put out the light, took the drum, and started to dance. She was singing a magic spell when suddenly the drum began to expand and its sound grew louder, filling the plain and the hill.

When she finished singing, the woman lit the lamp and lowered the danc-

ing flames. The old man, seeing her, was unable to look away. She was no

longer a pitiful skeleton, but a magnificent young woman whose generous flesh could be seen under her superb dress. Again, she put out the light, took the drum, and started to dance. After a while she asked the man: "Is

everything all right?" After he responded affirmatively, she lit the lamp. It was not an old man

who had answered "yes," but a young warrior, whose strength and youth had been restored by the magic rhythm of the drum.)

Now, let us compare the functions of the combinatory variants of the magic drum in the Quechua and Inuit recits (Figure 4). Although the lexeme drum shares the same lexical sememe in the Quechua and Inuit pragmatic dimensions, its two different semes (tectonic and

human) enable us to infer the afferent social sphere of each one: in the Quechua recit, the afferent seme /tectonic/ generates in the mythic dimension the lexical sememe /seism/; in the Inuit recit, the afferent seme /human/ yields the lexical sememes "life" and "rejuvenation." Each afferent sememe constitutes the "topic," or "sociolect sector of the thematic" (Rastier 1989a: 159), which indicates, on the semantic

plane, the two interpretants or idiomatic aspects of the magic drum. The mythic dimension, defining the afferent spheres of each r6cit, determines their cultural identity and, consequently, those of the recits in which they are included.

But what are the modes of existence of magic objects in ethnoliter-

ary recits? It is important to remember that such objects cannot be


equated with tecnemas. Magic objects refer in discourse to practical or to mythic objects, as we have just seen, and, designating (on the extralinguistic plane) everyday objects in the productive sociolects of those texts, can have only a denotative (or an indexical) function. Such is precisely the case with the usage of drum (among the Quechua and the Inuit) or with that of antara (only among the Quechua). With this in mind, we can affirm that while the discursive reference of the magic- object nouns is mythic-pragmatic, the reference of the reonimos is strictly pragmatic.

On the contrary, the so-called tecnemas perform practical and mythic functions in the community's daily life: practical, in that these objects have normal and simple uses; mythic, in that they are equipped with supplementary functions of a symbolic character.'0 Barthes (1985: 255) called them "anthropological symbols." Tecnemas can also have a metaphorical or religious character: for instance, amulets ("portable objects of supernatural virtue conferred by superstition"), talismans ("objects, characters, or figures of extraordinary virtue"), "alidonas" ("stone concretions presumably formed in a swallow's stom- ach"), or fetishes ("idols or superstitious cult objects in certain tribes" [ibid.]).

Besides this difference, the existential statutes of the magic objects and zoemas, on the one hand, and of the tecnemas, on the other, are similar. The former statute is expressed in discourse, and the latter in social conduct. As we know, in semiotics the modes of existence are described canonically, that is, with the intervention of the modality /being/ (which determines the noumenal mode of existence) or of the modality /seeming/ (which defines the phenomenal mode of existence). Thus, in ethnoliterary discourses, it is possible to identify a double existential statute in the figures of magic objects (i.e., phenomenal in the pragmatic dimension and noumenal in the mythic dimension). The interpretation of an object's meaning depends on the /being/ at- tributed to it in each ethnic discursive formation and on its figured or figural /seeming/. The re6nimos mentioned in these texts, however, have only a phenomenal-pragmatic representation.

The magic objects contained in the narrative program of the ethnoliterary recit are relevant only for the fiduciary contract (Fc) of the mythic dimension (noumenal/phenomenal), /being 1/-/seeming/. Different magic objects and zoemas can accomplish the same mythic function, for instance, a variety of containers (e.g., porongos, huacos, queros, etc., in the Andean oral tradition) or animals (e.g., in our text,

10. The term tecnema, as employed here, should not be confused with "techni- cal object," as formulated by Christian Bromberger (1979); cf. Jean-Pierre Digard (1979) and Jean Baudrillard (1982). See also Communications 13 (Paris: Seuil, 1969).


the birds and snakes which built the hero's house). On the other hand, the perception of tecnema objects initially establishes a mandatory fiduciary relation with the /being 2/ modality, that is, the apprehension of the object as such-a horseshoe, a rabbit's foot, strings of teeth or garlic cloves, a strand of hair in a locket, pictures in a wallet, and so on-by the group which uses that object (by such a process is a tecnema's phenomenal tangible existence determined). A relation is also established with the /being 1/ and /seeming/ modalities, which guaran- tee and ensure the "acknowledgment" of the tecnema on the mythic plane (luck, fortune, protection, affection, etc.).

To summarize, the mythic /knowing/, or the identification and signification achieved through the interpretation of magic objects and zoemas in the recits, operates as follows:

FC (/being 1/ + /seeming/) = /knowing/,

where the /knowing/ (identification and signification) of the tecnemas is expressed as

/being 2/ + FC (/being 1/ + /seeming/) = /knowing/.

Therefore, the process which "ensures" the interpretation of magic objects consists of identifying them with their mythic verisimilitude (an existential statute according with /being 1/ and /seeming/) and then with their pragmatic verisimilitude (an existential statute accord-

ing with /being 2/). If the process is reversed (i.e., first interpreting all the tangible-existential statutes of the magic object), the object may be confused not only with a re6nimo (given its common practical refer-

entiality), but also with a tecnema (since these share, as we have seen, poetic-mythic functions). Therefore, the veridical and substantive modalities predetermine, in our case, the cognitive modalities.

Finally, let us summarize the conclusions we can draw from the entire analysis.

1. It is due to the practical-mythic aspect of the magic objects and zoemas that the cultural identity of each ethnic group can be described via commutation.

2. The magic objects and zoemas share similar qualities that produce signification, since all of them are conjoined with the hero-

subject in the form of reflexive enunciates of doing (not of state: Huatiacuri is not a sovereign deity; he acquires his sovereignty, in a way, by doing). Both magic objects and zoemas are determined

semantically and syntactically by their objective mythic values, as indicated by the verb to have or to possess (not by practical or extra-

linguistic values alone). These determinations are apprehended as differences that clearly distinguish them (drum/antara; fur of a red puma/puma fur).


3. A mythic cycle or, more commonly, a number of recits (not variants among themselves) that refer to the same magic object or to the same zoema, allows one to describe the classification of the "folk taxonomy" whence they came. This is made possible by the structure of the topic: the particular statute of each afferent sememe in the pragmatic dimension. For instance, the lexeme "drum" belongs to the secondary modeling system of the Quechua culture, to the taxeme /seismic movements/, but to the taxeme /human beings/ in the Inuit culture.

4. The process of achieving cognitive appreciation of the performance carried out by the magic objects and zoemas in the literary recit is the result of two intertwined readings, and the intervention of the fiduciary contract established between both of them: (1) a descriptive and iconicizing reading, where the /being 1/-/ seeming/ modality is actualized as a result of the fiduciary relationship between the figurative format or figure (e.g., the drum) and its mythic function ("seism"/"life," etc.); and (b) an identifying reading, where the /being 2/ modality is actualized and determines the practical functions that separate the contextual opposites, /the same/ and /the different/, in the recit, allowing the magic objects and zoemas to be distinguished from the reonimos (drum/antara) and animals (birds, snakes/llamas, huanacos). It also distinguishes the aforementioned categories from the extralinguistic world: drum = musical instrument, fur of a red puma = feline fur. These references are really orientational instructions for an external interpretant, which is, as in the previous case, "a given semiotic unit, not necessarily linguistic." The interpretant also "permits the actualization of the semantic components (inherent or afferent) of the text being studied" (Rastier 1989b: 30 [our translation]).

These special characteristics of magic objects and zoemas in the structure of the challenge micro-recit strongly justify the classification of this text as motif, that is, as an independent mode that forms a con- stellation with other, closely related discursive configurations, such as those of controversy,friction, bellicosity, and so on, where the helpers are not actorialized in the fashion that we have observed here.

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Comparative American Ethnoliterature

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