Man-Above
Arapaho · deity · Arapaho traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Man-Above is the highest being of Arapaho cosmology, the sky-dwelling father to whom prayer, fasting, and the offerings of the Sun Dance are directed. In the tribal cosmogony he existed upon a limitless primeval water and, weeping in his solitude, determined to fashion dry land; he sent the water-birds and animals diving until one brought up a fragment of earth, which he spread and enlarged into the world before shaping its people. Sources differ on whether the acts of creation belong to Man-Above himself or are mediated through the Flat-Pipe that accompanies him upon the waters, the two being closely bound in narrative. In later worship he merges with the general Plains conception of a supreme father whose pity sustains the living.
Domains
- creation
- sky
- sovereignty
Powers
- create the earth from primordial water
- direct the earth-diver animals
- sustain and pity the people
Epithets
- Our Father — the paternal creator invoked in prayer and sacrificeFowler, 'Arapaho,' HNAI Vol. 13 (2001). (secondary)
Relations
- ally: the Flat-PipeThe Flat-Pipe is present with the Creator upon the primeval waters and is the medium of the world's making.Dorsey & Kroeber, Traditions of the Arapaho (1903). (primary)
- ally: TurtleTurtle answers the Creator's call and succeeds where other divers fail.Dorsey & Kroeber, Traditions of the Arapaho (1903). (primary)
Sources
- Man-Above is the Arapaho supreme sky deity and world-creator, addressed as 'Our Father.': Dorsey & Kroeber, Traditions of the Arapaho (1903). (primary); Anderson, The Four Hills of Life (2001). (secondary)