ĩ

The ĩ is the celestial component of the person, the vitality bound to consciousness that at death separates from the body and ascends toward the sky and the Maï. There it undergoes the cannibal-matrimonial passage that defines the Araweté afterlife: devoured by the true gods, resurrected from its bones by a magical bath, and remade as a shining immortal wedded to a Maï. The person, for the Araweté, is thus never complete in life but is realized only in death, when the ĩ is carried across into divinity. Its terrestrial twin, the specter that clings to the decaying body, follows the opposite path, downward and outward into the forest of the Añĩ.

Domains

• soul
• death

Powers

• ascends to the celestial world

Relations

• companion: ta'o weDeath divides the person into the celestial soul and the terrestrial specter.Viveiros de Castro, From the Enemy's Point of View, 1992. (secondary)
• spouse: MaïOnce resurrected, the soul is married to a Maï.Viveiros de Castro, From the Enemy's Point of View, 1992. (secondary)
• companion: Maï heteDevoured and remade by the true gods.Viveiros de Castro, 'The Crystal Forest', Inner Asia 9(2), 2007. (secondary)

Sources

• Death divides the person into a terrestrial ghost bound to the body and the Añĩ, and a celestial soul (ĩ) bound to consciousness and the Maï; the vitality (ĩ) rises to the sky, where the Maï hete devour and resurrect it, transforming it into a Maï married to a Maï.: Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, From the Enemy's Point of View, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. (secondary); Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, 'The Crystal Forest: Notes on the Ontology of Amazonian Spirits', Inner Asia 9(2), 2007: 153-172. (secondary)