Malaveyoyo
Goodenough Island · mortal · Goodenough Island traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Malaveyoyo is remembered in Kalauna as a tyrannical ogre-chief of the recent mythic past, a devourer of men and master of the famine magic (loka) by which the Lulauvile guardians could wither gardens and starve their rivals. Tradition casts him as the archetype of the abusive food-giver, monopolising abundance and driving the competitive food-exchanges (abutu, 'fighting with food') to ruinous extremes before he was at last destroyed. His career embodies the dangerous underside of the ritual power over prosperity and hunger that Kalauna's magicians still claim.
Domains
- famine
- food exchange
Powers
- blight gardens with famine magic
- devour his subjects as an ogre
Epithets
- the ogre-chief — the cannibal chiefYoung, M.W. 1983, Magicians of Manumanua, University of California Press (secondary)
Sources
- Malaveyoyo is remembered in Kalauna as a tyrannical ogre-chief and master of famine magic.: Young, M.W. 1971, Fighting with Food, Cambridge University Press (secondary)
- He embodies the destructive underside of the Lulauvile guardians' ritual control of prosperity and hunger.: Young, M.W. 1983, Magicians of Manumanua, University of California Press (secondary)