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
- parent: NhiãperikuliThought into being by Nhiãperikuli as his own heart-soul.Robin M. Wright, Cosmos, Self, and History in Baniwa Religion (1998). (secondary)
- parent: AmaruAmaru is his mother, who later leads the women in stealing his instruments.Robin M. Wright, The Kuwai Religions of Northern Arawak-Speaking Peoples (2017). (secondary)
Domains
- ritual music
- initiation
Powers
- expands the world through sound
- embodies the powers and dangers of initiation
Relations
- parent: NhiãperikuliThought into being by Nhiãperikuli as his own heart-soul.Robin M. Wright, Cosmos, Self, and History in Baniwa Religion (1998). (secondary)
- parent: AmaruAmaru is his mother, who later leads the women in stealing his instruments.Robin M. Wright, The Kuwai Religions of Northern Arawak-Speaking Peoples (2017). (secondary)
Sources
- Kuwai is the son of Nhiãperikuli and Amaru, an extraordinary being whose perforated body contains all the elements and animals of the world and whose song opens up the world and produces every animal species.: Robin M. Wright, Cosmos, Self, and History in Baniwa Religion: For Those Unborn (University of Texas Press, 1998). (secondary); Jonathan D. Hill, Keepers of the Sacred Chants (University of Arizona Press, 1993). (secondary)
- The sacred flutes and trumpets of Baniwa initiation are Kuwai's transformed body, made by Nhiãperikuli from a paxiúba palm grown from Kuwai's ashes.: Robin M. Wright, The Kuwai Religions of Northern Arawak-Speaking Peoples (Boletín de Antropología, 2017). (secondary)