Transforming Spirits
Bororo · deity · timeless · Recorded classification
Bororo (Mato Grosso). English 'Transforming Spirits' leads; Bororo bope. A spirit-class (not a single individual) rendered as a deity-class per the schema rule. Sex 'none' (collective, non-gendered). Paired conceptually with the aroe; the bari shaman is the bope-medium, the aroe etawara the aroe-medium.
Domains
- transformation and decay
- illness and death
Powers
- drive the cycles of growth and rot
Epithets
- the Bope The transformative spirits that govern blood, death, storms, and the powers of natureColbacchini & Albisetti, Os Bororos Orientais (secondary)
Sources
- The bope are the Bororo spirits of transformation, decay, weather, illness and death, mediated by the bari shaman, and are opposed to the aroe (souls/eternal forms).: Crocker, J. Christopher (1985). Vital Souls: Bororo Cosmology, Natural Symbolism, and Shamanism. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. (secondary); Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1973 [1955]). Tristes Tropiques. New York: Atheneum. (secondary)