Nggwal Bunafunei
Arapesh · numen · Arapesh traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Nggwal Bunafunei is the fierce and dominant manifestation of the great spirit Nggwal, the tambaran of men in the full vigour of adulthood. Its revelation forms the dramatic and dangerous high point of the Ilahita initiation sequence, when the assembled cult mobilises its wealth and its terrors to overwhelm the novices. Sources treat Bunafunei and its aged counterpart Walipeine as two faces of a single spirit, the one ascendant and consuming, the other spent and reflective, so that a man's passage from the junior to the senior form mirrors the passage of his own life from strength toward age.
Domains
- mens cult secrecy
Powers
- bring the initiation cycle to its ritual climax
Relations
- sibling: Nggwal WalipeineThe fierce junior phase set against the aged senior phase of the same spirit.Tuzin 1980, The Voice of the Tambaran, chs. 7-8, on the paired manifestations of Nggwal. (primary)
Sources
- Nggwal Bunafunei is the ferocious fourth-grade manifestation of Nggwal, presented at the ritual climax of the Ilahita initiation cycle, associated with men in their vigorous adulthood.: Tuzin, Donald F. 1980. The Voice of the Tambaran, ch. 7, 'Nggwal Bunafunei: The Ritual Climax'. Berkeley: University of California Press. (primary)