Manioc-stick Anaconda

Manioc-stick Anaconda is one of the ancestral serpents of the He world, named for the pointed stick with which manioc cuttings are planted and so joining the imagery of the snake to that of cultivation. Like the other primal anacondas it travelled the rivers of the Vaupés and, retracing its journey, deposited the founders of the descent groups at particular waterfalls, rocks and stretches of bank that became their ancestral homelands. In this way the serpent's body maps directly onto the human community: the segments of the anaconda correspond to the ranked clans that emerged from it, and the places of emergence anchor each group to the land.

Domains

• ancestry

Powers

• disgorges the clan founders along the rivers

Epithets

• Manioc-stick Anaconda — the ancestral serpent named for the planting stickStephen Hugh-Jones, The Palm and the Pleiades (Cambridge University Press, 1979) (secondary)

Relations

• kin: He AnacondaOne of the ancestral He anacondas.Stephen Hugh-Jones, The Palm and the Pleiades (Cambridge University Press, 1979) (secondary)
• kin: MeniBelongs with the Yebi Meni anaconda ancestors.Instituto Socioambiental, 'Barasana,' Povos Indígenas no Brasil, pib.socioambiental.org (tertiary)

Sources

• Manioc-stick Anaconda is named among the ancestral He anacondas in Hugh-Jones's account of Barasana myth.: Stephen Hugh-Jones, The Palm and the Pleiades (Cambridge University Press, 1979) (secondary)
• The ancestral anaconda retraced its river journey and birthed the clan ancestors of the Barasana and their neighbours at waterfalls and rocks.: Instituto Socioambiental, 'Barasana,' Povos Indígenas no Brasil, pib.socioambiental.org (tertiary)