Baingap
Arapesh · mortal · Arapesh traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Baingap is the primordial man of the Nambweapa'w myth, the husband and captor of the Cassowary-Mother. Seeing the cassowaries shed their skins to bathe as women, he seizes and conceals one skin and so binds its owner to him in human form, taking her as wife and fathering upon her the children who become humankind. His mastery is provisional: when the hidden skin is at last betrayed to her by their youngest son, Nambweapa'w reclaims her cassowary nature and kills him, and the founding union collapses into flight and revenge. Sources give his name as Baingap, though he is also spoken of simply as the First Man.
Domains
- origins of humanity
Powers
- steal and conceal the cassowary's skin
Relations
- spouse: Nambweapa'wTakes the trapped Cassowary-Woman as his wife.Tuzin 1997, The Cassowary's Revenge, Nambweapa'w myth. (primary)
- enemy: Nambweapa'wKilled by her when she regains her skin.Tuzin 1997, The Cassowary's Revenge. (primary)
Sources
- Baingap is the primordial man who captured Nambweapa'w by hiding her cassowary skin, fathered her children, and was killed by her once she recovered it.: Tuzin, Donald F. 1997. The Cassowary's Revenge: The Life and Death of Masculinity in a New Guinea Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (secondary)