The initiation spirit
Orokaiva · numen · Orokaiva traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
In Orokaiva male initiation the novices are secluded and delivered to a spirit said to swallow and then disgorge them, so that the boys die as children and are reborn as men. F. E. Williams recorded the rite in Orokaiva Society; its imagery of a devouring being echoes the cannibal Totoima, and the myth of the ogre's death is told as the origin of the tree-spirits impersonated in the ceremonies. Sources vary in how sharply this initiation-spirit is set apart from the wider host of sovai, the spirits of the dead who otherwise dominate Orokaiva belief.
Domains
- male initiation
- death and rebirth
Powers
- swallows the novices and gives them back as men
Sources
- In Orokaiva male initiation the secluded novices are given to a spirit said to swallow and disgorge them so that the boys die and are reborn as men, a devouring imagery Williams links to the myth of Totoima.: F. E. Williams, Orokaiva Society (London: Oxford University Press, 1930) (primary)