Mou-nyamy (Earth Mother)
Nganasan · deity · Nganasan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Mou-nyamy, the Earth Mother, is the senior of the Nganasan 'mothers of the world' (nguo), the supreme female powers who personify the elements of the cosmos. As the source of all living things she gives birth to humans, animals and plants and receives them back into the ground at death. Like the other elemental mothers she was held to be too great for ordinary people to address directly, so sacrifices and appeals were made to her for fertility and prosperity, with the shaman (ngo) acting as intermediary. She is documented across the classic ethnographies of the northernmost Samoyedic people of the Taymyr Peninsula.
Domains
- earth and land
- birth and fertility
Powers
- to give birth to all living things from the earth
Epithets
- Mou-nyamyPopov, A. A. (1984). Nganasany: Sotsial'noe ustroistvo i verovaniya. Leningrad: Nauka. (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: Kou-nyamy (Sun Mother)Mou-nyamy stands alongside the Sun Mother as one of the great cosmogonic 'mothers of the world' who jointly order the universe.Gracheva, G. N. (1983). Traditsionnoe mirovozzrenie okhotnikov Taymyra. Leningrad: Nauka. (secondary)
- rival: Syrada-nyamy (Mother of Underground Ice)The life-giving Earth Mother is counterposed to Syrada-nyamy, the Mother of Underground Ice who governs the realm of the dead in the cold below.Dolgikh, B. O. (1976). Mifologicheskie skazki i istoricheskie predaniya nganasan [Mythological Tales and Historical Traditions of the Nganasans]. Moscow: Nauka. (secondary)
Sources
- Mou-nyamy is the Nganasan Earth Mother, foremost of the elemental nguo 'mothers of the world', who gives birth to all living things.: Popov, A. A. (1984). Nganasany: Sotsial'noe ustroistvo i verovaniya [The Nganasans: Social Structure and Beliefs]. Leningrad: Nauka. (secondary); Gracheva, G. N. (1983). Traditsionnoe mirovozzrenie okhotnikov Taymyra [The Traditional Worldview of the Hunters of Taymyr]. Leningrad: Nauka. (secondary)