Watcher of Kin-Law
Huli · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
A high sky-god of moral sanction; rendered as deity. Notably set apart from the dama class of nature-spirits both in name (never called dama) and in being beyond ritual manipulation. Often discussed comparatively as a 'high god of morality' in Melanesian religion.
Domains
- moral order and justice
- kinship and taboo
- sky
Powers
- PUNISH breaches of kinship law from the sky
Epithets
- Datagaliwabe The great sky-being who watches over kinship duty and strikes down those who break itRobert Glasse, Huli of Papua (secondary)
Sources
- Datagaliwabe is a giant sky-being who watches Huli conduct and punishes lying, theft, adultery, incest, the killing of kin and the breach of ritual taboos; uniquely among Huli supernaturals he is not addressed as dama and cannot be propitiated ritually, only by moral behaviour.: Glasse, R.M. (1965). 'The Huli of the Southern Highlands.' In Lawrence & Meggitt (eds.), Gods Ghosts and Men in Melanesia. Oxford University Press. (ethnography); Frankel, S. (1986). The Huli Response to Illness. Cambridge University Press. (ethnography)