The significance of the medicinal plant piripiri in Shipibo-Konibo culture

Piripiri is a cultivated medicinal plant, a sedge, with great importance in Shipibo-Konibo culture, and several other Amazonian indigenous cultures. I researched the plant for my ethnobotany dissertation and spoke with the Shipibo-Konibo about the importance of keeping their traditional knowledge alive.

When his third sister was born, Marcos saw how her umbilical cord was cut. His mother had prepared piripiri medicine that same day, so she could add 3 drops of the fresh liquid into the belly button of her newborn. After that, the young girl received a drop of piripiri in her eyes every three months, until the day she started her menstruation. Marcos’ mother wanted her daughter to follow in her footsteps as a kené artist. Kené is the Shipibo-Konibo tradition of materialising sacred geometric patterns in paintings, fabrics, and ceramics. Piripiri allows the artist to receive the kené patterns and ancestral wisdom in visions and dreams.

Today, Marcos’ sister is a very skilled artist. However, nobody in the family knows where to find the piripiri in the family garden. It is a secret his mother took with her when she suddenly passed on. Not only the passing of elders, but influences of western education and urbanisation are changing Shipibo-Konibo culture. Marcos is now working as the president of Alianza Arkana in Yarinacocha, Peru. This grassroots organisation works to protect Shipibo-Konibo culture and their territory in the Peruvian Amazon. For my ethnobotany dissertation, I spoke with Marcos Urquía Maynas, Chonon Bensho and Susana Careirras from Alianza Arkana about the significance of piripiri.

Piripiri plant medicine in Amazonian cultures

The Shipibo-Konibo are the largest indigenous group of the Peruvian Amazon and have their territory in the Ucayali river basin. Their culture is deeply intertwined with the wisdom of plant spirits and ancestors.

Piripiri is the Spanish name for a cultivated sedge from the Cyperus genus. The plant has great importance for the Shipibo-Konibo, and for several other Amazonian indigenous cultures, such as the Ashaninka, the Secoya and the Shuar. The tubers of this sedge are used for their medicinal and magical qualities and can heal cuts and wounds, snakebites and nausea, but also attract love, or facilitate communication with the ancestors. Because each piripiri has a unique name and use, they are considered separate ‘folk species’ in ethnobotany.

The many species and uses in indigenous Amazonian cultures have mystified and fascinated researchers and travellers for a long time. What is known is that piripiri has been associated with at least two plants from the Cyperus genus in the Cyperacea or sedge family, resembling grasses. Most Cyperus species grow in tight groups producing several clustered culms between 1m and 3m tall. Piripiri is most often associated with Cyperus articulatus L., also known as jointed flatsedge, guinea-rush, or adrue. This plant grows in or near open water in tropical and subtropical regions ranging from South-East Asia to Africa, Australia and North and South America. Sedges are usually identified by their triangular stems, however, the stems of C. articulatus are round. Cultivated Cyperus species in the Amazon region have been found to be sterile and propagate by multiplication of the tubers.

A powerful plant that teaches and heals

To prepare the medicine, the small tubers are mashed or grated. Marcos’ mother grated the tubers in the traditional way, by using the tongue of the largest fish in the Amazon, the paiche (Arapaima giga). The resulting liquid can be applied in different ways, dropped in the eyes, applied to a wound, or used in a bath. It is also essential to ask the plant for permission to receive the power to teach and heal.

The tradition of viewing plants as teachers in various indigenous cultures is called vegetalismo, and plant knowledge is acquired by following a shamanic diet or dieta. It requires periods of isolation, the avoidance of certain foods, including salt, sweet and fatty foods and alcohol, sexual abstinence, and the ingestion of the medicinal plant.

For a long time, western scientific researchers were puzzled by the lack of active elements in the phytochemistry of the plant. Some 30 years ago it was discovered that piripiri is often infected by fungi, which leads to the production of ergot alkaloids. This can explain some of the magical and hallucinogenic activities. But Marcos emphasises that piripiri is not just a plant in the material and scientific sense, but an intelligent being as well. Piripiri is a planta con rao, a plant with special powers, and cultivating a unique personal relationship with the spirit of the plant is essential.

The many different waste folk species and their medicine

In Shipibo-Konibo language piripiri is known as waste (pronunciation: wɑːsteə). Waste is said to have sprouted from the ashes of the Great Serpent, and many wastes have their own origin myth. When Susana followed a dieta with kené waste she saw her first design during a strong fever. The word that came to her clearly with this design was ‘structure’. Later, a Shipibo- Konibo elder told her the pattern Susana drew in her notebook is known as ‘kano kené’, kano meaning structure in their language. Susana realised she was receiving real knowledge from the plant. Susana also witnessed the effects of the mechati waste, to become a skilled fisher and hunter, when she visited the community of Paoyhan. One young boy said he was able to hear the fish in the river and was incredibly skilled at catching fish with his lance.

There are many other wastes like noi waste, the piripiri for love, which is used to bring harmony into a relationship or to make someone fall in love with you. Raya waste is used to dispel laziness and work harder. Maekawa waste is used to prevent or treat snakebites, tootima waste prevents pregnancy and pana waste is used for energetic protection. Over 60 different folk species have been identified in Shipibo-Konibo culture in fieldwork over the last 6 decades. More recent wastes reflect cultural changes, and can be used to attract customers to a shop, to resolve problems with the law, or to avoid alcohol.

Restoring traditional knowledge of medicinal plants

Shipibo-Konibo culture is rapidly changing due to the influences of western education and urbanisation. This is leading to a loss of language and traditional knowledge among younger generations. Understanding and use of the ‘plants with power’, like waste is eroding. To revive the relationships with plants and their medicinal and healing uses in Shipibo-Konibo communities, Alianza Arkana has started the Rao Banabo project. They have already gathered 33 of the wastes in their growing collection in the Rao Banabo, or medicinal garden. Protecting such traditional knowledge is crucial as it will help safeguard the biodiversity and cultural diversity of the Amazon region.

Support Alianza Arkana
Support Alianza Arkana in their work to protect and revive Shipibo-Konibo culture and the Peruvian Amazon. You can follow them on Facebook and Instagram and support them via globalgiving.org. 

Read the research
You can read my complete dissertation: Kuijper, I. 2021. The changing role of waste (Cyperus spp.) in Shipibo-Konibo culture right here or on Academia.edu.