XAVANTE-Wailing

To the Xavante (Sha VAN-tay) people of central Brazil, songs and ritual sounds are an important part of their daily life. Their deepest emotions are often expressed in a kind of wailing and both their songs and their wails are inspired by their dreams. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont.

“Xavante have incredible sentiment attached to both the songs and the wailing.”

Laura Graham is an associate professor in the department of Anthropology at the University of Iowa.

“In fact, young men get together almost every night and sing songs and when they’re older, they look back on that period with incredible nostalgia. The way people look back at say their college days when they had a really solid group of friends that they did everything with. And so those songs bring back memories to elders and evoke a very strong sentiment and often prompt elders to to wail and wailing sounds very musical to a western ear, but it’s not considered to be music at all to the Xavante. It’s its own separate genre. Wailing. And it’s composed by both men and women and it comes to men and women in their dreams. And it’s used to express very deep nostalgia. Often also they use wailing, to express joy. When someone returns who has been a long trip an elder will break into a wailing lament.”

You can now hear some of your favorite Pulse of the Planet programs on nationalgeographic.com Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

XAVANTE-Wailing

For the Xavante of Central Brazil, their deepest emotions are often expressed in a kind of wailing.
Air Date:02/21/2000
Scientist:
Transcript:

To the Xavante (Sha VAN-tay) people of central Brazil, songs and ritual sounds are an important part of their daily life. Their deepest emotions are often expressed in a kind of wailing and both their songs and their wails are inspired by their dreams. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont.

"Xavante have incredible sentiment attached to both the songs and the wailing."

Laura Graham is an associate professor in the department of Anthropology at the University of Iowa.

"In fact, young men get together almost every night and sing songs and when they're older, they look back on that period with incredible nostalgia. The way people look back at say their college days when they had a really solid group of friends that they did everything with. And so those songs bring back memories to elders and evoke a very strong sentiment and often prompt elders to to wail and wailing sounds very musical to a western ear, but it's not considered to be music at all to the Xavante. It's its own separate genre. Wailing. And it's composed by both men and women and it comes to men and women in their dreams. And it's used to express very deep nostalgia. Often also they use wailing, to express joy. When someone returns who has been a long trip an elder will break into a wailing lament."

You can now hear some of your favorite Pulse of the Planet programs on nationalgeographic.com Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.