That which I dream is true: Dream narratives in an Amazonian community.

Abstract

In an Ese Eja community in the Peruvian Amazon, people dream the names of their children. Apart from neo-Freudian perspective, naming dreams reflect, more importantly, multiple overlapping realities of time and space. As such, notions of agency, multiplicity, and transformation need to be examined for a proper analysis of dreaming. Drawing on multinatural perspectivism, the author examines eshawa, an Ese Eja concept of personhood that connects the self not only with the body but also with all species and an expansive sprit world. The author suggests that naming dreams are reminders of the still possible transformation between multiple worlds. Such an interpretation of dreams, as sources of knowledge and channels to cross realities, emphasizes the overlay between subjective dream worlds and public objective waking worlds rather than their “opposition.”