Iwia
Achuar · numen · Achuar traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Iwia is the man-eating ogre of Achuar myth, a giant of insatiable appetite who preys on human beings and hoards the birds and beasts of the forest. In the central narrative he slays the parents of the boy Etsa and rears him as a captive hunter, only for Etsa to grow, see through his bondage and destroy the ogre, freeing the game he had swallowed. The name is bound up with iwianch, the broader Jivaroan term for the malevolent ghosts of the dead and forest demons, and Iwia embodies the devouring wildness against which ordered, cultivating, sociable human life is defined.
Domains
- cannibalism
- forest monsters
Powers
- hunts and eats people
Epithets
- Iwia yuwakratin — Iwia the devourerSiro Pellizzaro, Etsa (Mundo Shuar, 1978) (secondary)
Relations
- enemy: EtsaSlain by the sun-hero Etsa, whom he had raised in captivity.Siro Pellizzaro, Etsa: defensor del pueblo shuar (Mundo Shuar, 1978) (secondary)
Sources
- Iwia is the primordial cannibal ogre who kept the birds captive and was overcome by Etsa.: Siro Pellizzaro, Etsa: defensor del pueblo shuar (Mundo Shuar, 1978) (secondary); Philippe Descola, The Spears of Twilight (1996) (secondary)