Makunaima

Eldest son of Wei (the Sun) by the mortal Pemon woman Aromadapuén; central culture-hero, trickster, and protagonist of the foundational cosmogonic cycle of the Pemón (Carib-speaking peoples of the Guiana Highlands spanning Venezuela, Guyana, and northern Brazil — including the Arekuna, Kamarakoto, Taurepan, Macuxi, Ingarikó, and Mapoyo subgroups). The cycle was first recorded in detail by the German ethnographer Theodor Koch-Grünberg from the Pemón storyteller Mayuluaipu in his expedition of 1911-1913, published as Vom Roraima zum Orinoco (5 vols., 1916-1928). The Pemón-five-brother form (Makunaima, Zigué, Wacalambé, Anzikilán, Ma'nápe) is preserved in María Manuela de Cora's Kuai-Mare (1957); the Macuxi-three-brother form (Makunaima, Anikê, Insikiran) continues in the erenkon songs sung at caxiri-feast pantonkon ceremonies in the present day. Pemon and Macuxi-Kapon groups identify themselves as common descendants of these mythic-hero brothers, the kinship-foundation of the Yomba (Pemon) / Tomba-Domba (Kapon) shared-identity. The defining act of the cycle is Makunaima's felling of the Wazacá tree — the Tree of Life that bore every cultivated and wild plant — which released the Great Flood and left a stump that became Mount Roraima, the source of the rivers that pass through Pemon territory. The post-Wazacá tepui-shaping journeys established the forms of Iru-tepui, Aparmán, Apakará, Chimaté, and Auyan-tepui (over which Angel Falls plunges), and the social-practice norms of the post-flood world. The figure passed into 20th-century Brazilian literature through Mário de Andrade's 1928 modernist novel Macunaíma: O herói sem nenhum caráter, drawn from Koch-Grünberg's ethnography — the literary reception is itself the subject of continuing scholarly attention (Lúcia Sá, Rain Forest Literatures, 2004).

Parentage

• paternal: Wei
• maternal: Aromadapuén

Powers

• shape shifting
• trickster cunning
• felling strength
• Die and return to life
• Fell the world-tree
• Transform beings and land

Epithets

• Makunaima latin · Makunaima · oralThe trickster culture-hero and youngest creator-brother of the Pemon and TaulipangTheodor Koch-Grünberg, Vom Roroima zum Orinoco (secondary)

Relations

• sibling: Anike
• cross tradition counterpart: MakonaimaReciprocal of kapon_makonaima.cross-tradition-counterpartButt Colson 1971 (primary)
• sibling: Ma'nápeYounger brother in Mário de Andrade's adaptation explicitly called "Maanape the geezer," suggesting elder-status in the Andrade reading; in the Pemon canon both are sons of Wei and Aromadapuén.de Cora 1957 (primary)
• sibling: ZiguéBrother whose wife Makunaima slept with via shape-shifting (preserved in Andrade 1928).de Cora 1957 (primary)
• sibling: Wacalambéde Cora 1957 (primary)
• sibling: Anzikilánde Cora 1957 (primary)
• sibling: InsikiranMacuxi-version brother; the Macuxi sing the erenkon (songs) of Makunaima-Anikê-Insikiran together as a triad.Macuxi continuing oral tradition; the songs (erenkon) of Makunaima, Anikê, Insikiran (primary)
• sibling: PiaPemon-Macuxi tradition (primary)

Sources

• existence: Theodor Koch-Grünberg, Vom Roraima zum Orinoco (5 vols., 1916-1928), recorded from the Pemón storyteller Mayuluaipu (primary); María Manuela de Cora, Kuai-Mare: Mitos Aborigenes de Venezuela (Editorial Oceánida, 1957) (primary); Cesáreo de Armellada, Tauron Panton (1989) — Pemon myth-collection (primary); Marc de Civrieux, Watunna: An Orinoco Creation Cycle (1980) — the Yekuana parallel (primary); Macuxi indigenous-peoples-of-brazil continuing oral tradition; the erenkon songs of Makunaima-Anikê-Insikiran sung in caxiri-feast pantonkon ceremonies (primary); Mário de Andrade, Macunaíma: O herói sem nenhum caráter (1928) — Brazilian modernist adaptation; Lúcia Sá, Rain Forest Literatures (2004) for the literary reception (secondary)