Brother of the Ancestress
Mountain Ok · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Brother (and in variants brother-husband) of the ancestress Afek; an underworld-founding figure of the Telefol myth-cycle, rendered deity (primordial-ancestor tier). Vital status deceased: in myth he is slain and becomes lord/maker of the land of the dead. His decay is the origin of cult valuables, a classic 'dema'-type fertility-from-death motif of southern New Guinea.
Domains
- land of the dead
- wealth and valuables
Powers
- PREPARE the land of the dead in the west
Relations
- sibling: Ancestress-CreatressReciprocal of mountain_ok_afek.sibling — Umoim is the ancestress's brother (in variants brother-husband) in the Telefol cycle; his death founds the underworld and the cult of the dead.B. Craig & D. Hyndman (eds.), Children of Afek: Tradition and Change among the Mountain-Ok of Central New Guinea (1990) (secondary)
Sources
- Umoim, the younger brother (and in some tellings brother-husband) of Afek, was killed by her and sent underground, where he prepared the western land of the dead and created the stone adzes (fubi) and the shell valuables (bonang) used in bridewealth and mortuary payments.: Jorgensen, D. (1981). Taro and Arrows: Order, Entropy and Religion among the Telefolmin. PhD thesis, University of British Columbia. (ethnography); Craig, B. & Hyndman, D. (eds.) (1990). Children of Afek. Oceania Monograph 40, University of Sydney. (ethnography)