Maï

The Maï are the divinities of the Araweté cosmos, immortal beings who withdrew from the earth during the inaugural cataclysm and now inhabit the sky, leaving humanity behind as 'the forsaken.' They are conceived simultaneously as the ideal image of the Araweté themselves and as ferocious cannibals, and the whole of Araweté religion turns on the relation between the living and these departed gods, mediated by the dead. The Maï exist in a great multiplicity of species, most bearing animal names, and their village occupies the lowest of the celestial tiers. Larger, stronger, and more vividly sexual than living people, their bodies blaze with the red of annatto and the sheen of black paint, a scintillating brilliance opposed to the grey opacity of mortal flesh. They possess the science of immortality, which they impose upon the souls that ascend to them: those souls are devoured, resurrected, and married into the ranks of the gods, made forever young.

Domains

• divinity
• immortality
• cannibalism

Powers

• makes the dead immortal
• shines with fiery brilliance

Relations

• companion: Maï heteThe Maï hete are the eminent species among the Maï, dwelling in the same celestial village.Viveiros de Castro, Araweté: os deuses canibais, 1986. (primary)
• companion: IaraciInstituto Socioambiental, 'Araweté', pib.socioambiental.org. (secondary)
• companion: Awï peyeInstituto Socioambiental, 'Araweté', pib.socioambiental.org. (secondary)
• spouse: ĩThe resurrected celestial soul is married to a Maï and made to live forever young.Viveiros de Castro, From the Enemy's Point of View, 1992. (secondary)
• rival: moravihaThe Maï fear the killer, whose fusion with an eaten enemy grants him a divinity the gods cannot devour.Viveiros de Castro, From the Enemy's Point of View, 1992. (secondary)

Sources

• The Maï are immortal celestial divinities who left the earth at the beginning of time and now dwell in the lowest heaven; they are at once ideal Araweté and dangerous cannibals, existing in hundreds of species that mostly bear animal names.: Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Araweté: os deuses canibais, Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Editor/ANPOCS, 1986. (primary); Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, From the Enemy's Point of View, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. (secondary)
• The Maï are larger and stronger than humans, more sexual, with shining bodies painted in urucum and black, immortal, living in a village in the middle of the sky.: Instituto Socioambiental, 'Araweté', Povos Indígenas no Brasil, pib.socioambiental.org. (secondary)