The Fish-Women
Nivaclé · numen · Nivaclé traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The Fish-Women figure in a Nivaclé origin of women in which the first females emerge from fish that a solitary man keeps, discovered when his catch is repeatedly disturbed. Related tellings hold that the original women descended from the sky and were dangerous, bearing toothed genitals that had to be broken before ordinary marriage became possible. The aquatic and celestial traditions coexist in the corpus, and sources differ over which was primary.
Domains
- origin of women
- water
Powers
- become the first women
Sources
- In a Nivaclé origin of women the first females emerge from fish kept by a man; a related tradition derives them from dangerous sky-descended beings with toothed genitals.: Wilbert, Johannes & Karin Simoneau (eds.), Folk Literature of the Nivaklé Indians (1987). (secondary); Métraux, Alfred, 'Ethnography of the Chaco,' Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 1 (1946). (secondary)