The Sun
Angan · deity · Angan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Across the Angan groups the Sun is a principal cosmic being. The Baruya, according to Maurice Godelier, address the Sun as their father and hold that the power sealed inside the kwaimatnie, the sacred bundles handled by ritual masters, derives from it. In the widely told sun-and-moon myth the Sun and Moon are paired: some Angan communities cast them as husband and wife, others as siblings, and among the Iqwaye recorded by Jadran Mimica the two luminaries are emanations of the single primordial being, figured as its eyes. The Sun governs daylight, warmth and the vital heat that ripens gardens and hardens the bodies of initiates.
Parentage
- paternal: Omalyce
Domains
- sky
- sacred power
Powers
- warms the world and ripens the gardens
- empowers the sacred bundles of the ritual masters
Epithets
- notre pere le Soleil — our father the SunGodelier, Maurice. The Making of Great Men: Male Domination and Power among the New Guinea Baruya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: The MoonIn the Baruya telling of the sun-and-moon myth the two luminaries are a married couple.Godelier, Maurice. The Making of Great Men: Male Domination and Power among the New Guinea Baruya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. (secondary)
- sibling: The MoonAs twin emanations of the primordial being in Iqwaye cosmogony the Sun and Moon are also siblings.Mimica, Jadran. Intimations of Infinity: The Cultural Meanings of the Iqwaye Counting System and Number. Oxford and New York: Berg, 1988. (secondary)
Sources
- The Baruya address the Sun as their father and hold that the power inside the kwaimatnie derives from it.: Godelier, Maurice. The Making of Great Men: Male Domination and Power among the New Guinea Baruya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. (secondary)
- The sun-and-moon myth is central across the Angan groups; the Sun and Moon are paired variously as spouses, siblings, or twin emanations of a primordial being.: Mimica, Jadran. Intimations of Infinity: The Cultural Meanings of the Iqwaye Counting System and Number. Oxford and New York: Berg, 1988. (secondary); Bonnemere, Pascale. Le pandanus rouge: Corps, difference des sexes et parente chez les Ankave-Anga. Paris: CNRS Editions / Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, 1996. (secondary)