Shakaim
Achuar · deity · Achuar traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Shakaim is the spirit-master of the standing forest and the patron of the specifically male labour of opening a garden. Where Nunkui rules the planted, tamed ground, Shakaim rules the felling of the tall timber that precedes planting, and men address anent to him for the strength, dexterity and protection that clearing demands. Myth casts him as one who can make felled trees rise again, an image of the forest's power to renew itself and of the measured reciprocity the Achuar owe it. Sources differ on whether he and Nunkui are simply complementary tutelaries of the swidden or a married couple.
Domains
- forest clearing
- forest
Powers
- grants strength and skill to clear the high forest
- makes the cleared forest stand again
Epithets
- Shakaim, ikiama nunkuri — Shakaim, master of the forestSiro Pellizzaro, Shakaim (Mundo Shuar, 1978) (secondary)
Relations
- companion: NunkuiComplementary tutelary of the swidden alongside Nunkui; some accounts pair them as husband and wife.Philippe Descola, The Spears of Twilight (The New Press, 1996) (secondary)
Sources
- Shakaim is the male spirit governing the forest and the men's work of clearing the swidden, complementary to Nunkui's cultivated ground.: Philippe Descola, In the Society of Nature (Cambridge, 1994) (secondary); Siro Pellizzaro, Shakaim (Mundo Shuar, 1978) (secondary)