Icaro () is a

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

and mestizo colloquialism for

magic Magic or magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces ** ''Magick'' (with ''-ck'') can specifically refer to ceremonial magic * Magic (illusion), also known as sta ...

song. Today, this term is commonly used to describe the medicine songs performed in '' vegetal'' ceremonies, especially by

shamans Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of th ...

ayahuasca AyahuascaPronounced as in the UK and in the US. Also occasionally known in English as ''ayaguasca'' (Spanish-derived), ''aioasca'' (Brazilian Portuguese-derived), or as ''yagé'', pronounced or . Etymologically, all forms but ''yagé'' descen ...

ceremonies. Each Amazonian ethnic group has a specific term for this type of generic magical song: for example, eshuva for the Huachipaire people, ''meye'' for the

Piaroa The Piaroa people, known among themselves as the ''Huottüja'' or ''De'aruhua'', are a South American indigenous ethnic group of the middle Orinoco Basin in present-day Colombia and Venezuela, living in an area larger than Belgium, roughly circ ...

, ''mariri'' for the Kokama, or ''rao bewá'' for the

Shipibo The Shipibo-Conibo are an indigenous people along the Ucayali River in the Amazon rainforest in Peru. Formerly two groups, they eventually became one tribe through intermarriage and communal rituals and are currently known as the Shipibo-Conib ...

Etymology

The word ''icaro'' is believed to derive from the

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

verb ''ikaray'', which means "to blow smoke in order to heal".

In healing ceremonies

Medicine songs

Icaro is most commonly used to describe the medicine songs used by

in healing

ceremonies A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin . Religious and civil (secular) ceremoni ...

, such as with the

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also referred to as classic halluci ...

brew ayahuasca. Traditionally, these songs can be performed by whistling, singing with the voice or

vocable In the broadest sense of the word, a vocable (from ) is any identifiable utterance or writing, such as a word or term, that is fixed by their language and culture. The use of the term for words in the broad sense is archaic and the term is instea ...

s, or playing an instrument such as the

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (;()), also spelt didjeridu, among other variants, is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgerido ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

. Traditionally, icaros may come to a shaman during a ceremony, be passed down from previous lineages of healers, or come to a shaman during a 'dieta' where plant spirits are believed to teach icaros to the shaman directly. The singing or whistling of icaros is sometimes accompanied by a

chakapa ''Chakapa'' (sometimes spelled ''shakapa'' or Latinized to ''shacapa'') is a Quechua word for a shaker or rattle constructed of bundled leaves. Bushes of the genus ''Pariana'' provide the leaves for the chakapa. ''Chakapa'' is also the commo ...

, a rattle of bundled leaves. Due to the complexity of certain performance techniques, it may take many years to learn certain icaros, and experienced shamans may be able to recite hundreds of them.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Icaro Peruvian songs Music of Peru Shamanism of the Americas Cultural heritage of Peru Shipibo-Conibo