Rawa Mugi

The rawa mugi, or 'red spirits', are the spirits of Maring men killed in warfare, who dwell in the upper montane forest of the high ground. They form one pole of a thoroughgoing cosmological dualism: associated with the color red, with fire and heat, with dryness and hardness, with the ax and with the strength and solidarity of fighting men. In the ritual cycle Rappaport made famous, the red spirits are the chief creditors of the living. Their support is enlisted in warfare, and at a truce a cordyline, the rumbim, is planted with a pig sacrifice to acknowledge a debt owed them. That debt is discharged only when the group has raised pigs enough to stage the kaiko, uproot the rumbim, and slaughter the herd in the ancestors' honor, freeing the men to fight again. The red spirits favor the high forest and its creatures and receive the fat and the smoke of sacrificed pigs.

Domains

• war and the dead
• the high forest
• fire and heat

Powers

• demands the sacrifice of pigs
• strengthens fighting men
• imposes ritual taboos

Epithets

• rawa mugi — red spiritsRappaport, Roy A. (1968). Pigs for the Ancestors. New Haven: Yale University Press. (primary)

Relations

• rival: Koipa MangiangHot, dry, red high forest against the cold, wet, rotting low ground.Buchbinder, Georgeda & Rappaport, Roy A. (1976). 'Fertility and Death among the Maring.' In Man and Woman in the New Guinea Highlands, pp. 13-35. (primary)
• rival: Rawa TukumpThe two complementary halves of the Maring dead, high and low.Buchbinder, Georgeda & Rappaport, Roy A. (1976). 'Fertility and Death among the Maring.' In Man and Woman in the New Guinea Highlands, pp. 13-35. (primary)
• companion: Kun Kaze AmbraThe Smoke Woman is the medium through whom the living reach the red spirits.Rappaport, Roy A. (1999). Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (secondary)

Sources

• The rawa mugi ('red spirits') are the spirits of Maring men killed in warfare, dwelling in the high forest and forming the hot, dry, red pole of the cosmological dualism; they are the principal creditors repaid with pigs at the kaiko.: Rappaport, Roy A. (1968). Pigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People. New Haven: Yale University Press. (primary); Buchbinder, Georgeda & Rappaport, Roy A. (1976). 'Fertility and Death among the Maring.' In Man and Woman in the New Guinea Highlands, pp. 13-35. (primary)