Tipmeaman
Iatmul · numen · Iatmul traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Tɨpmeaman is the mythological name of the tall Borassus fan-palm that crowns the ancestral mound set before the men's ceremonial house in Central Iatmul and neighbouring Sawos villages. Named as the 'brother' of the sago palm, it gives botanical form to the pervasive dual structure of Middle Sepik cosmology, in which paired beings and species divide and balance the world. The mound it surmounts marks the site of a mythical past, associated with founding ancestors and with the stone settings on which the heads of slain enemies were once laid.
Domains
- dual cosmology
Powers
- crown the primal mound
Epithets
- brother of the sago palmSchindlbeck, Markus. 'Stones in swamps: remains of a mythical past in the Sepik area.' Journal de la Societe des Oceanistes. (secondary)
Sources
- In Central Iatmul and Sawos tradition the tall Borassus (fan) palm standing on the ceremonial mound bears the mythological name Tɨpmeaman and is the mythic 'brother' of the sago palm.: Schindlbeck, Markus. 'Stones in swamps: remains of a mythical past in the Sepik area.' Journal de la Societe des Oceanistes. (secondary)