Karusakaibö

Karusakaibö is the supreme creator and civilizing hero of Munduruku religion, a being who existed on the earth without father or mother and who brought forth the sky, the stars, the rivers and hills of the upper Tapajós, and every kind of animal, fish, tree and cultivated plant together with their guardian spirits. Sources differ on his own beginning: some narratives hold that he simply always was, while others say the first Munduruku sprang from the seed of a tucumã palm. In the best-known myth he lives at the village of Acupary (Wakupari) and, angered by inhabitants who refuse to share meat with his son, encloses them with feathers and turns men, women and children into white-lipped peccaries before sealing the ground over them, an act that first stocks the forest with game and founds the hunt. He is remembered as the teacher of hunting, of the making of manioc flour, and of the martial order of Munduruku life.

Children

• Korumtau

Domains

• creation
• culture hero
• game animals

Powers

• fashions the sky, rivers, hills and living kinds
• turns unworthy people into peccaries
• establishes hunting, farinha-making and warfare

Epithets

• Karu Sakaibê — Father of the MundurukuDaniel Munduruku, retellings of Munduruku origin narratives (e.g., Histórias de Índio, Companhia das Letrinhas). (primary)
• Bakïka'a — the Great BeingKaru Sakaibê (pt.wikipedia), 'Grande Ser.' (secondary)

Relations

• spouse: SikridaMunduruku ethnographic summaries after Murphy 1958, naming Sikrida as the wife of the creator. (secondary)
• parent: KorumtauRobert F. Murphy, Mundurucú Religion (1958), peccary-origin myth. (secondary)
• companion: DaiïruThe armadillo accompanies the creator through the cosmogonic myths, alternately helper and troublemaker.Robert F. Murphy, Mundurucú Religion (1958); Karu Sakaibê (pt.wikipedia). (secondary)
• rival: DaiïruThe armadillo's rebelliousness repeatedly opposes and tests the creator.Instituto Socioambiental, 'Munduruku'; Munduruku creation narratives after Murphy 1958. (secondary)

Sources

• Karusakaibö is the creator deity and civilizing culture-hero of the Munduruku, who had no parents and made the world and its beings.: Robert F. Murphy, Mundurucú Religion, UC Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 49(2) (1958). (secondary); Instituto Socioambiental, 'Munduruku,' Povos Indígenas no Brasil. (secondary)
• He transformed the villagers of Acupary/Wakupari into peccaries, creating large game and instituting hunting.: Robert F. Murphy, Mundurucú Religion (1958). (secondary)