öönema

Ye'kwana

Variant orthographies

ALIV	öönema
Brazilian standard	äänema
New Tribes	äänema

Etymology

From öt- (intransitivizer) +‎ enema (“to abide by (a prohibition)”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [əːnema]

Verb

öönema

1. (intransitive, agentive) to observe the ritual prohibitions of so-called ‘fasting’: not to bathe in the river while bleeding, not to have sex, not to participate in community rituals and festivals, not to touch soap, not to eat certain meats, drink manioc beer, or smoke tobacco, but instead to eat and sleep alone and only eat the most ritually pure foods such as motto worms and the wokkiya bird

Derived terms

• wöönemanö

 

References

• Cáceres, Natalia (2011) “öönema”, in Grammaire Fonctionnelle-Typologique du Ye’kwana‎^[1], Lyon
• Lauer, Matthew Taylor (2005) Fertility in Amazonia: Indigenous Concepts of the Human Reproductive Process Among the Ye’kwana of Southern Venezuela‎^[2], Santa Barbara: University of California, page 248: “wänemanä”