Mai

The mai are spirits of the low ground and of its waters and wild places, dangerous beings blamed for certain sicknesses and misadventures suffered in the forest and swamp. They belong to the cold, wet, lower half of the Maring cosmos, the region governed by Koipa Mangiang, and are propitiated or avoided rather than honored with the great pig feasts owed to the ancestors. Sources differ on whether the mai are a class of spirit clearly distinct from the ancestral spirits of rot or an aspect of the encompassing low-ground domain; the Maring themselves draw the boundary loosely, treating the beings of the low country as a single wet, generative, but perilous power.

Domains

• the low ground
• disease and affliction

Powers

• afflicts those who trespass in the forest and swamp

Relations

• companion: Koipa MangiangThey belong to the low-ground world over which Koipa Mangiang presides.LiPuma, Edward (1988). The Gift of Kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (primary)
• companion: Rawa TukumpSources differ on whether they are distinct from the ancestral spirits of rot.LiPuma, Edward (1988). The Gift of Kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (primary)

Sources

• The mai are spirits of the low ground, its waters, and its wild places, dangerous beings blamed for sickness and misadventure and belonging to the cold, wet lower half of the Maring cosmos; sources differ on whether they are a class distinct from the ancestral spirits of rot or an aspect of the low-ground domain.: LiPuma, Edward (1988). The Gift of Kinship: Structure and Practice in Maring Social Organization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (primary); Rappaport, Roy A. (1968). Pigs for the Ancestors. New Haven: Yale University Press. (primary)