Nãmãitãmĩ, the Tapir-woman, mother of the earth-girl

Nãmãitãmĩ (Namaitamí), whose name derives from the Bribri word for the tapir, is a divinity of the Bribri and Cabécar peoples who takes the form of the danta. A sister of the creator Sibö and daughter of the underworld matriarch Namásia, she lives beneath the world with her mother and her own daughter, the earth-girl Irìria (called Sulára among the Cabécar). In the central creation narrative Sibö dreams of, or contrives, a festival at which he lures the Tapir-woman with chocolate so that he may carry off her daughter; the child falls, is trampled during the dancing, and from her blood the fertile soil and all vegetation arise. Nãmãitãmĩ thus stands as the maternal source of the living earth itself.

Parentage

• parent: Namásia, the underworld grandmother of the earth-girl

Domains

• tapir and game animals
• earth and fertility

Powers

• to give birth to the girl-child who becomes the earth

Epithets

• NãmãitãmĩJara Murillo, Carla Victoria & Alí García Segura, 'Diccionario de mitología bribri', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2003. (secondary)

Relations

• mother of: Iriria, the girl-child who became the earthThe Tapir-woman is the mother of the earth-girl Irìria, whom Sibö takes from the underworld so that the world may be made.Bozzoli de Wille, María Eugenia, 'El nacimiento y la muerte entre los bribris', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 1979. (secondary)
• consort of: Sulá, the creator-helper and lord of the seed belowIn the accounts collected by Talamancan ethnographers the earth-girl is named as the daughter of Sulá and Nãmãitãmĩ, making Sulá her co-parent.Jara Murillo, Carla Victoria & Alí García Segura, 'Diccionario de mitología bribri', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2003. (secondary)
• enemy: Dukúr Bulú, the first great batThe great bat Dukúr Bulú is reckoned an enemy of her household because each night he draws off the blood of her sleeping daughter.Jara Murillo, Carla Victoria & Alí García Segura, 'Diccionario de mitología bribri', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2003. (secondary)

Sources

• Nãmãitãmĩ is the Tapir-woman of Talamancan mythology, a sister of the creator Sibö and, with Sulá, mother of the girl-child who becomes the earth.: Jara Murillo, Carla Victoria & Alí García Segura, 'Diccionario de mitología bribri', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2003. (secondary); Constenla Umaña, Adolfo (ed.), 'Laca majifijca: la transformación de la tierra', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 1993. (secondary); Bozzoli de Wille, María Eugenia, 'El nacimiento y la muerte entre los bribris', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 1979. (secondary)