Yeba

Yeba, whose name means Earth, is the ancestral man of the Barasana and appears in myth in the shape of a jaguar. Portrayed at first as an ignorant, wild being of the forest, he is civilised through his marriage to Yawira, the daughter of Fish Anaconda, and through the cultivated crops that his wife and father-in-law provide. This union establishes the primordial alliance that structures Barasana society, joining the Barasana as earth people to their affines the Bará as water people. As the earthly counterpart to the sky-creatress Romi Kumu, Yeba anchors the human descent groups to the land and to the practice of agriculture.

Domains

• earth
• ancestry

Powers

• takes the form of the jaguar

Epithets

• Yeba — EarthChristine Hugh-Jones, From the Milk River (Cambridge University Press, 1979) (secondary)

Relations

• spouse: YawiraHis marriage to Yawira founds the alliance between earth people and water people.Christine Hugh-Jones, From the Milk River (Cambridge University Press, 1979) (secondary)
• sibling: NyakeNyake is his younger brother.Christine Hugh-Jones, From the Milk River (Cambridge University Press, 1979) (secondary)
• affine: Fish AnacondaFish Anaconda is his father-in-law, who teaches him cultivation.Christine Hugh-Jones, From the Milk River (Cambridge University Press, 1979) (secondary)

Sources

• Yeba, 'Earth', is the Barasana ancestor in jaguar form, who marries Yawira, daughter of Fish Anaconda.: Christine Hugh-Jones, From the Milk River (Cambridge University Press, 1979) (secondary); Instituto Socioambiental, 'Barasana,' Povos Indígenas no Brasil, pib.socioambiental.org (tertiary)