Magalim

Magalim is the pre-eminent bush spirit of the Telefolmin and neighbouring Mountain Ok peoples of central New Guinea. Where the ancestress Afek established human culture, gardens and the men's cult in the founding past, Magalim embodies everything outside that ordered domain: he is intimately associated with the earth, river courses, mountaintops and the forest, and is understood as the master of wild things beyond human control. He has no origin myth and his name has no transparent meaning, a meaninglessness that Telefol commentary treats as fitting for a being of the wild. Unlike Afek, who died long ago, Magalim remains an active presence, blamed for possession, uncanny encounters, landslides and, in recent decades, for disturbances connected with large-scale mining in the region. He is known under circumlocutory titles such as Aanang Kayaak, Tenum Misim and Bagan Kayaak.

Domains

• wilderness
• rivers and mountains

Powers

• to rule over wild animals and the untamed bush
• to disrupt the expected order of human affairs
• to appear in many changing guises, including snakes and strangers

Epithets

• Aanang Kayaak
• Tenum Misim
• Bagan Kayaak

Sources

• Dan Jorgensen, 'Whose Nature? Invading Bush Spirits, Travelling Ancestors, and Mining in Telefolmin', Social Analysis 42(3), 1998, pp. 100-116.
• Dan Jorgensen, 'Telefolmin', in Terence E. Hays (ed.), Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. II: Oceania, G.K. Hall, 1991.
• Dan Jorgensen, Taro and Arrows: Order, Entropy, and Religion among the Telefolmin, PhD dissertation, University of British Columbia, 1981.