Anaposo

Chamacoco · numen · Chamacoco traditional religion; continuing · numen

The Anaposo, called Anabsoro among the Ebitoso and Ahnapsuro in older transcriptions, are the primordial spirit-beings of Ishir cosmology. Beautiful and terrible, they emerged in the first times and taught the ancestors the whole of culture: hunting, weaving, music, body-painting, and the ceremonies. But they demanded the initiates and grew cruel, and at the urging of the scarlet Ashnuwerta the Ishir rose and slew them. As they died their powers passed into the world, becoming plants, illnesses, and the features of the land, and the people took up the duty of impersonating them in the great initiation, the Debylyby, wearing feather ornaments and masks so that the dead spirits return among the living. Their slaying and perpetual return is the central myth of the tradition; the many named Anaposo are its individual actors.

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