Kashindúkua, the jaguar-priest and first curer

Kashindúkua is one of the sons of Gauteóvan, the Kogi Great Mother, and the first ceremonial priest (máma) destined to heal humankind. The Mother appointed him a great curer, able to pull sickness from a sufferer's body as though it were a solid thing, and gave him the ability to put on the shape of a jaguar so that he could see disease and devour it. In the myths, however, the jaguar-sight that let him consume illness also led him to see forbidden women as prey; his transgression of the Mother's command to do only good is one of the origins the Kogi give for disease, death, and the ambivalent, dangerous character of jaguar-power. He is remembered together with Noána-sé and Námaku as one of the jaguar-ancestors.

Parentage

• parent: Gauteóvan, the Great Mother

Domains

• healing and disease
• jaguar transformation

Powers

• to draw sickness out of a patient's body as a tangible substance
• to transform himself between the shape of a man and that of a jaguar

Epithets

• Máma nebbíGómez Cardona, Fabio. 'El jaguar en la literatura Kogi.' Poligramas 18, Universidad del Valle, 2002. (secondary)

Relations

• sibling: Noána-sé, the jaguar lordKashindúkua and Noána-sé are grouped together, with Námaku, as the trilogy of jaguar-ancestors born of the Mother.Gómez Cardona, Fabio. 'El jaguar en la literatura Kogi.' Poligramas 18, Universidad del Valle, 2002. (secondary)
• sibling: Búnkuasé, the shining lord and patron of the priesthoodFellow son of the Great Mother.Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo. 'The Great Mother and the Kogi Universe.' Journal of Latin American Lore 13(1), 1987. (secondary)
• sibling: Duginávi, culture-hero of cultivationFellow son of the Great Mother and brother of Sintana.Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo. 'The Great Mother and the Kogi Universe.' Journal of Latin American Lore 13(1), 1987. (secondary)

Sources

• Kashindúkua is a son of the Kogi Great Mother, the first máma-healer, whose gift of curing was joined to the power to become a jaguar, a power he transgressively abused, so that his story explains the origin of sickness and death.: Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo. 'Training for the Priesthood among the Kogi of Colombia.' In Enculturation in Latin America, ed. Johannes Wilbert. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976. (secondary); Gómez Cardona, Fabio. 'El jaguar en la literatura Kogi.' Poligramas 18, Universidad del Valle, 2002. (secondary)