Cufalh
Nivaclé · demigod · Nivaclé traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Cufalh is the trickster-demiurge of Nivaclé oral literature and the restless protagonist of its largest narrative cycle. In the mythic age he roams the world transforming it, settling the arrangements of present-day life while pursuing food, sex, and advantage through cunning. Many tales turn on his gluttony or on his own schemes rebounding upon him, yet the same episodes explain the origins of animals, foods, and social customs. He stands in the ambivalent middle ground between benefactor and fool that characterizes the Chaco transformer, comparable to the Wichí Tawkxwax and the Chorote Kixwet.
Domains
- trickery
- world ordering
Powers
- reshapes and orders the mythic world
- tricks and deceives
Epithets
- Cufalh — the TricksterWilbert & Simoneau, Folk Literature of the Nivaklé Indians (1987). (secondary)
Relations
- companion: The FoxThe Fox attaches himself to Cufalh's ventures as a bungling imitator.Wilbert & Simoneau, Folk Literature of the Nivaklé Indians (1987). (secondary)
- rival: The FoxWilbert & Simoneau, Folk Literature of the Nivaklé Indians (1987). (secondary)
Sources
- Cufalh is the trickster-demiurge and central protagonist of Nivaclé oral literature, ordering the world in the mythic age.: Wilbert, Johannes & Karin Simoneau (eds.), Folk Literature of the Nivaklé Indians (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1987). (secondary); Métraux, Alfred, 'Ethnography of the Chaco,' Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 1 (1946). (secondary)