The Myth of Bíkut

(A rock art panel, depicting some sort of powerful leader figure, that was possibly made by the Awajún.)

“Another youth [named Bíkut in most versions of the myth] who had never had sexual intercourse or contact with a woman, drank the juice of mamabaíkua twenty times. After taking mamabaíkua so many times, he could see things like a shaman. If a woman left the house to commit adultery, he saw it and cut her head with a machete. He could tell if a man had come to eat after defecating without washing his hands. He saw if a man had committed incest, and always killed such a person with his lance saying to the others "Can't you see that this was an evil person who had just had intercourse with his sister or someone else in his family? He comes here with his clothing covered with worms. A brave man who eats with him becomes a coward," he said. He killed many people, and was bound with ropes by the others. During this time, there was a war with those from downriver [Huambisa]. They killed many Aguaruna. The youth Bíkut was untied and given his lance so that he could fight. He bathed, tied back his hair, and dressed. Then he went to meet his enemies. Because his dream was so strong, he killed many Huambisa.”

“The apparent contradiction between Bíkut's defense of the moral order and his being bound by vines was baffling until Manuel Garcia Rendueles, who has made an exhaustive study of Aguaruna mythology, informed me that the binding of fierce warrior-heroes is a common theme in Aguaruna myths. The power of these super-warriors was felt to be so dangerous that they were bound to keep them from harming members of their family.”

“The people of the Alto Mayo often speak of a mythical hero named Bikut, a man who so obsessively consumed hallucinogens that he became both a visionary and a warrior possessed by an insatiable desire to kill (see Chumap and Garcia-Rendueles 1978:297). Bikut and other mythical warriors used their vision-derived power to lay waste to entire tribes. In more recent times, the ability of men to exterminate their foes has declined to more modest proportions, but it is no less dependent upon the power of visions. Warriors will voluntarily participate in raids only when they have succeeded in seeing an ajútap; to do battle without such a vision is tantamount to suicide. Men who repeatedly demonstrate an ability to acquire visions and then translate them into successful raids become local war leaders, or kakájam. Dreams and political leadership are similarly linked in many Amazonian societies.”

“In free speech, the verb kahamát "to dream" may denote dreaming during sleep or while intoxicated by an hallucinogenic plant. In Aguaruna thought, the dreams of sleep and their visions of tobacco, ayahuasca, or baikuá (Datura sp.) have many elements in common. Both can be omens of success in hunting, victory in battle, or impending danger. However, the dreams of sleep are given less significance because they lack the element of intentionality. Only by effort of will required to drink the strong-smelling juice of tobacco or baikuá and by the suffering associated with prolonged fasting and sexual abstinence, can one acquire a powerful and significant vision.”

“Myths identify him as a young man who  consumed staggering amounts of angel's trumpet, the dangerously deranging hallucinogen related to jimsonweed. This transformed him into a warrior of unparalleled ruthlessness. Bíkut's visions purified him so completely that he sensed when anyone around him had been tainted by sexual contact. After summarily killing several close kin for their impurity, Bíkut was lashed to a house post for the protection of the community, to be turned loose only when an expert killer was needed to defeat enemies. Bíkut eventually met a violent end in one of these battles, and three new varieties of angel's trumpet sprang from his corpse, one of which today bears his name. Published texts of the Bíkut myth, as well as versions that I recorded in the 1970s, portray him as a dangerous scold—half killer cyborg, half humorless ayatollah—who was respected for his uncompromising discipline but impossible to live with in a world of ordinary mortals. More recently, however, the Awajún have reimagined him as a beneficent sage or, as one Awajún communiqué put it, "the philosopher... who delivered the knowledge and ability to understand different worlds through the use of angel's trumpet and ayahuasca." This shift parallels the expressed desire of Gil Inoach and others to revitalize the traditional vision quest in a new form that sheds its association with violence.”

— Michael F. Brown