Djivaamakwe

Djivaamakwe is the primordial first man of the Baruya flute myths. In the myth of origins women existed before men, and men first came to them as tadpoles, called namboula; the women clothed the little creatures in loincloths and made them small bows, and the tadpoles grew into men. The first man stands at the center of the myth that legitimizes male domination: the sacred flutes, together with the bow, cultivated plants, and the initiations, were first the property of the women, and the men seized the flutes and hid them, forbidding women ever to see them. Their secret name, namboula-mala, joins the tadpole to the woman's body, so that the men's most guarded instruments are held to contain the generative power once wielded by women. The exact orthography of the first man's name varies in the ethnographic record.

Parentage

• paternal: Sun

Domains

• origin of men
• male initiation

Powers

• appear to the women as a tadpole and become the first man
• take the sacred flutes from the women

Epithets

• the first man — primordial male ancestorGodelier, Maurice. The Making of Great Men. Cambridge University Press, 1986. (primary)

Relations

• child: SunAs the first man he issues from the Sun.Godelier, Maurice. 'Bodies, kinship and power(s) in the Baruya culture.' HAU 1(1), 2011. (primary)
• companion: The First WomanPrimordial male counterpart of the first woman, from whom the men take the flutes she had made.Godelier, Maurice. The Metamorphoses of Kinship. Verso, 2011. (primary)

Sources

• Baruya myth recounts a primordial first man who arose from the tadpole-form in which men first appeared to the women.: Godelier, Maurice. The Making of Great Men. Cambridge University Press, 1986. (primary)
• The sacred flutes, first owned by the women, were taken over by the men, and the first man figures as the agent of that seizure.: Godelier, Maurice. The Metamorphoses of Kinship. Verso, 2011. (primary); Godelier, Maurice. 'Myth and History.' New Left Review I/69, 1971. (primary)