Namásia, the underworld grandmother of the earth-girl

Namásia, known to the Cabécar as Makeur Siau, is the elder woman of the lower world in Bribri and Cabécar cosmology. She is the mother of the Tapir-woman Nãmãitãmĩ and the grandmother of the girl-child who becomes the earth, with whom she shares the underworld dwelling. Her role is that of the ancestral teacher: she narrates the stories and sings the melodious songs that instruct her granddaughter in right conduct toward other people, and it is she who names the great bat Dukúr Bulú as the family's enemy who feeds on the sleeping child's blood. She personifies the counselling grandmother at the deepest root of the pantheon's maternal line.

Children

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

Domains

• underworld and ancestral counsel

Powers

• to instruct the earth-girl through story and song

Relations

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

Sources

• Jara Murillo, Carla Victoria & Alí García Segura, 'Diccionario de mitología bribri', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2003.
• González Chaves, Alfredo & Fernando González Vásquez, 'La casa cósmica talamanqueña y sus simbolismos', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica / EUNED, 1989.