Matheus Azevedo – Whitten Research Fund 2024-25
Understanding the Dynamics of Language Contact through Psychoactive Plant Lexicon
The Upper Amazon is one of many linguistically diverse areas of South America, but how this diversity developed is still relatively unknown. Large-scale language comparisons have traditionally been used to address such developments; however, they are less successful in such an area with prolonged language contact. This project builds on my MA thesis by taking a dynamic linguistics approach to explore the history of psychoactive plant words in the Upper Amazon, focusing on Tikuna (Tikuna-Jurí) as a departure point. Psychoactive plants, such as ojé, chacruna, and ayahuasca, have long been used by Latin America’s Indigenous communities for culturally important shamanic practices. Given the influential status of these plants and their uses across communities, they are an ideal candidate for uncovering contact traces throughout South America, providing a cultural and linguistic constant across languages and cultures. To unravel the history of psychoactive plant words, this project will incorporate first-hand data collected in the field and secondary sources to create two databases on psychoactive plant lexicon and their associated tools/practices. From these databases, quantitative and qualitative analyses will be conducted to identify contact markers between Tikuna, its neighbours, and languages spoken in the wider Upper-Amazonian area.
