The origin of humankind is bound to the cycle of the Ancestral Anaconda, from whom the Cubeo take their self-name Pamíwa, the children of the Anaconda. From the Door of the Waters at the far eastern edge of the world the serpent moved up the river-axis of the universe to its centre, a rapid on the Vaupés, and there brought forth people, fixing the characteristic traits of Cubeo identity as it went. As an anaconda-canoe it carried the ancestors and set them down along the great rivers, distributing the clans and endowing each with its spiritual and material culture. The body of the serpent orders society itself: the sibs of high rank descend from ancestors seated at its head, while shamans and servant sibs descend from its tail. In the mythic age the Anaconda beings and the Kúwaiwa were joined in the first marriage, the union from which the Cubeo lineages spring.