The Younger Brother

The younger brother of the Mambai origin myth departs across the sea carrying the 'tip' of the divided heritage, the mobile, outward, luminous 'white' portion associated with trade, weaponry, writing, and rule. He is the ancestral source of the foreign powers, the Malaia and ultimately the overseas rulers, and tradition awaits his eventual return. His visible dominion is understood as derivative and incomplete: the younger carries force and wealth but not the ritual precedence retained by the elder at the source, so that political power abroad remains obligated to the hidden authority of the land. The dualism of departed younger and abiding elder frames the Mambai reading of their relations with outside sovereignty. Like his elder, he is designated by relational title rather than a personal name.

Parentage

• paternal: Father Heaven
• maternal: Mother Earth

Domains

• sovereignty
• foreignness

Powers

• carry the tip of the heritage overseas
• father the foreign powers and be awaited in return

Relations

• sibling: The Elder BrotherJunior of the two brothers of the origin myth; he departs while the elder stays.Traube, 'Mambai Rituals of Black and White' (1980), pp. 290-314 (the elder and younger brothers who divide the heritage) (primary)

Sources

• In the Mambai origin narrative the younger brother departs overseas with the 'tip' of the heritage, becoming the ancestral source of foreign political power and awaited in return, his dominion subordinate to the elder's ritual precedence.: Elizabeth G. Traube, 'Mambai Rituals of Black and White,' in The Flow of Life (Harvard University Press, 1980), pp. 290-314 (primary); Elizabeth G. Traube, Cosmology and Social Life (University of Chicago Press, 1986) (primary)