Creator Brother
Chamorro · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Chamorro primordial creator-brother; classed as deity. Native term Puntan (variant Pontan). Gloss 'Creator Brother'. With his sister Fu'una he is the foregrounded Mariana creator-pair; his dismembered body forms the cosmos, a sacrifice recorded since the earliest Spanish missionary observation that the Chamorros 'believed they are born of a rock.'
Domains
- creation from the body
- sky and earth
Powers
- yields his own body to make the world
Epithets
- Puntan The primordial being from whose body the sky, earth, sun, and moon were formedChamorro (Mariana Islands) creation tradition (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: Creator SisterPrimordial brother and sister: dying Puntan's body became sky, earth, sun and moon, and Fu'una quickened the world from it, turning herself to the stone Lalas at Fouha Bay.L. J. Cunningham, Ancient Chamorro Society (1992) (secondary)
Sources
- Puntan, the primordial brother, instructed his sister Fu'una to make the parts of the world from his body at his death.: Cunningham, L.J. (1992). Ancient Chamorro Society. Bess Press, Honolulu (reference); Garrido, F. (Fray Antonio de los Angeles, 1596-1597), in early Spanish mission accounts of Marianas origin belief, cited in Russell, S. (1998). Tiempon I Manmofo'na: Ancient Chamorro Culture and History. Micronesian Archaeological Survey Report 32 (ethnography)