Moon
Enga · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Enga kana = 'moon' (attested in idiom, e.g. 'niki langapu, kana langapu' — 'cheat the sun, cheat the moon'). The moon as a female sky-power opposite the male sun; rendered deity. Less personified in the literature than Aitawe, hence sparse faculties and secondary weight.
Domains
- moon
Sources
- In Central Enga cosmology the moon (kana) is reckoned female and dwells in the sky as the counterpart of the male sun Aitawe.: Brennan, P.W. (1977). Let Sleeping Snakes Lie: Central Enga Religious Belief and Ritual. Australian Association for the Study of Religions. (ethnography); Wiessner, P. & Tumu, A. (1998). Historical Vines: Enga Networks of Exchange, Ritual, and Warfare in Papua New Guinea. Smithsonian Institution Press. (ethnography)