Mekaro

The mekaro are the souls of the dead, the collective of karo, the ghost-soul that each living person carries and that departs the body at death to travel to the village of the dead. They form the principal category of Canela supernatural being. The dead are not distant: they may appear to living kin, frighten or sicken them, or draw a grieving relative after them, and the boundary between the living village and the settlement of the dead is one that shamans in particular can cross. A living person's charged encounter with the mekaro is the classic source of shamanic power, the ability to see souls, diagnose, and cure. Canela mortuary practice and much of its ritual caution are organised around keeping the mekaro appeased and at a proper remove.

Domains

• death
• shamanism

Powers

• departs the body at death
• confers shamanic power on the living
• appears to and troubles the living

Sources

• The karo is the ghost-soul that leaves the body at death and joins the mekaro, the dead, who dwell apart, appear to the living, and confer shamanic power.: Crocker 1990, The Canela (Eastern Timbira) I (soul and death). (secondary); Crocker and Crocker 1994, The Canela: Bonding through Kinship, Ritual, and Play. (secondary)