entza

Achuar

Alternative forms

• entsa

Noun

entza

1. terrestrial water : water from the earth, for example river-water or the water that fills a swamp
2. a river

See also

• yumi (water from the sky, i.e. rainwater)

References

• Philippe Descola, In the Society of Nature: A Native Ecology in Amazonia (1996, →ISBN, page 36: "Like other Amazonian groups, the Achuar make a clear lexical distinction between celestial water, yumi, and terrestrial water, entza (Levi-Strauss 1964: 195). Yumi designates the rainwater […] . Entza is both water from the river and the river itself; it is the clear water of fast-flowing streams, the brown boiling flood waters, the slack, low waters of the river, and the stagnant waters of the swamps. By some curious paradox, the Achuar use yumi to designate the cooking water used in making manioc beer and for boiling the tubers; and yet they fetch this celestial water from the river in a gourd they also call yumi."