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

• 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

• Nãmãitãmĩ

Relations

• mother of: Iriria, the girl-child who became the earth
• consort of: Sulá, the creator-helper and lord of the seed below
• enemy: Dukúr Bulú, the first great bat

Sources

• Jara Murillo, Carla Victoria & Alí García Segura, 'Diccionario de mitología bribri', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2003.
• Constenla Umaña, Adolfo (ed.), 'Laca majifijca: la transformación de la tierra', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 1993.
• Bozzoli de Wille, María Eugenia, 'El nacimiento y la muerte entre los bribris', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 1979.