Omalyce

In the cosmogony of the Iqwaye, also called Yagwoia, an Angan people of the Menyamya area recorded by Jadran Mimica, the world begins with a single primordial being that is at once one and the totality of things and both male and female. Alone at the beginning, this being brings the cosmos out of its own body: the sun and moon are its two eyes, and the multiplicity of persons together with the very structure of number unfolds from its self-generation. The name is variously transcribed in the literature. The figure anchors Iqwaye understandings of unity and infinity, in which every whole is also the primordial one.

Children

• The Moon
• The Sun

Domains

• cosmos
• creation

Powers

• brings the cosmos out of its own body
• is at once one and the totality

Relations

• parent: The SunIn Iqwaye cosmogony the sun is an emanation of the primordial being, figured as one of its eyes.Mimica, Jadran. Intimations of Infinity: The Cultural Meanings of the Iqwaye Counting System and Number. Oxford and New York: Berg, 1988. (secondary)
• parent: The MoonThe moon is likewise an emanation of the primordial being, its second eye.Mimica, Jadran. Intimations of Infinity: The Cultural Meanings of the Iqwaye Counting System and Number. Oxford and New York: Berg, 1988. (secondary)

Sources

• In Iqwaye (Yagwoia) cosmogony the world begins with a single primordial being, at once one and the totality and both male and female, which brings the cosmos out of its own body.: Mimica, Jadran. Intimations of Infinity: The Cultural Meanings of the Iqwaye Counting System and Number. Oxford and New York: Berg, 1988. (secondary)
• The sun and moon are figured as the eyes of the primordial being, and the structure of number unfolds from its self-generation.: Mimica, Jadran. Intimations of Infinity: The Cultural Meanings of the Iqwaye Counting System and Number. Oxford and New York: Berg, 1988. (secondary)