Wakoborun
Munduruku · numen · Munduruku traditional religion; continuing · numen
Wakoborun is a Spirit Mother of Munduruku cosmology, remembered above all for the myth in which she recovers her brother's severed head from the hands of enemies. The narrative belongs to the Munduruku complex of head-taking, warfare and kinship, in which the trophy head carries the reproductive and spiritual power of game; her recovery of the head restores what the enemy had seized. In Munduruku thought she is a mother in a relational, perspectival sense rather than a strictly biological one, a guardian of her people and their territory. Her figure endures in the present: the Munduruku women's association takes the name Wakoborũn.
Domains
- spirit mother
- war
Powers
- recovers her brother's head from enemy hands
- acts as spirit mother of her kind
Sources
- 'Wakoborun Rescued her Brother's Head From Enemy Hands,' Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 32(2) (2023).
- Munduruku Wakoborũn Women's Association, Front Line Defenders profile.