Maï hete

The Maï hete, the 'true' or 'real gods,' are the eminent species among the divinities and the agents of the Araweté afterlife. When a soul reaches the sky the Maï hete kill and eat it, then resurrect the devoured one from the bones by means of a magical bath, remaking the dead as a shining, immortal being of their own kind who is thereupon married to a Maï. This cannibal-matrimonial operation, in which consumption is the very condition of divinization, lies at the heart of Araweté theology: to become divine the person must first be eaten. The Maï hete thus stand at the threshold between humanity and godhood, the devourers through whom the dead are unmade and made eternal.

Domains

• divinity
• death
• cannibalism

Powers

• devours the souls of the dead
• resurrects and transforms the dead into gods

Relations

• companion: MaïThe pre-eminent species among the Maï.Viveiros de Castro, Araweté: os deuses canibais, 1986. (primary)
• companion: ĩThe Maï hete devour, resurrect, and take as affines the celestial soul of the dead.Viveiros de Castro, From the Enemy's Point of View, 1992. (secondary)

Sources

• Among the hundreds of species of Maï, the Maï hete ('true gods') are those who transform the souls of the dead into Maï-like beings by a cannibal-matrimonial operation: the celestial soul is killed, devoured, then resurrected by a magical bath and married to a Maï, living forever young.: 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)