Kuwai
Kuwai, called Yuruparí in the língua geral, is the child of the creator Nhiãperikuli and the primal woman Amaru, thought into being as the creator's own heart-soul. His body is riddled with holes and made of every element of the cosmos, so that his humming and singing bring forth all the animal species and cause the miniature primordial world to open out to its present immensity. After Kuwai teaches the first initiation and is thrust into a great fire, an enormous paxiúba palm rises from his ashes; from it Nhiãperikuli fashions the first flutes and trumpets, which are Kuwai's transfigured body and are sounded at the initiation rites (Kwaipan) whose taboos his songs enforce. He is at once the source of ritual music, the pattern of male initiation, and the origin of the sicknesses that follow the transgression of sacred prohibitions.
Parentage
Domains
- ritual music
- initiation
Powers
- expands the world through sound
- embodies the powers and dangers of initiation
Relations
- parent: Nhiãperikuli
- parent: Amaru
Sources
- Robin M. Wright, Cosmos, Self, and History in Baniwa Religion: For Those Unborn (University of Texas Press, 1998).
- Jonathan D. Hill, Keepers of the Sacred Chants (University of Arizona Press, 1993).
- Robin M. Wright, The Kuwai Religions of Northern Arawak-Speaking Peoples (Boletín de Antropología, 2017).