Kúwaiwa

The Kúwaiwa are the primordial ancestors of Cubeo cosmogony, the plural extension of Kúwai and, for the Hehénewa, the true makers and orderers of the world. Brought forth by Kúwai's thought, they arranged the cosmos and nature and completed the cultural inheritance of the Pamíwa. It is they who left behind the ancestral flutes and trumpets, which are not simply emblems of the ancestors but their very presence, sounded at initiation and at mourning. Tradition distinguishes two orders among them: the seniors, from whom all good things proceed, and the juniors, from whom come all harmful things. The first marriage of the mythic age joined the Kúwaiwa to the Anaconda beings, an act set in motion by the death-spirit Mavíchikori, and from that union descend the sibs of the Cubeo. Neighbouring Tukanoan peoples equate the Kúwaiwa with the He masa, the ancestral beings of the beginning.

Parentage

• paternal: Kúwai

Domains

• creation
• ancestral instruments

Powers

• arrange the cosmos and nature
• leave behind the sacred instruments

Epithets

• He masa — the ancestral people / thunder-people of the beginningRobin M. Wright, 'The Kuwai Religions of Northern Arawak-Speaking Peoples', Boletín de Antropología (Universidad de Antioquia) (secondary)

Relations

• child: KúwaiBrought forth by the thought of Kúwai.François Correa (comp.), Los Kuwaiwa (Quito: Abya-Yala, 1997) (secondary)
• spouse: Ancestral AnacondaThe first marriage of the mythic age unites the Kúwaiwa with the Anaconda beings.Irving Goldman, Cubeo Hehénewa Religious Thought (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004): the first marriage joins the two sets of gods, Anacondas and Kúwaiwa (secondary)
• companion: MavíchikoriTheir marriage is instituted by the death-spirit Mavíchikori.Irving Goldman, Cubeo Hehénewa Religious Thought (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004) (secondary)
• companion: YuruparíThe Kúwaiwa instruments are identified with the regional Yuruparí flute-complex.Irving Goldman, Cubeo Hehénewa Religious Thought (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004): the ancestral instruments identified with the Yuruparí complex (secondary)

Sources

• The Kúwaiwa are the collective of primordial ancestral culture-heroes, brothers who created the universe, society and culture and left the ancestral flutes and trumpets.: François Correa (comp.), Los Kuwaiwa: creadores del universo, la sociedad y la cultura (Quito: Abya-Yala, 1997) (secondary); Irving Goldman, Cubeo Hehénewa Religious Thought (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004) (secondary)
• The Kúwaiwa comprise two classes: senior beings, authors of all good things, and junior beings, authors of all bad things.: Robin M. Wright, 'The Kuwai Religions of Northern Arawak-Speaking Peoples', Boletín de Antropología (Universidad de Antioquia) (secondary)