Kuemoi
Kuemoi is the water-demiurge of Piaroa cosmology, lord of the aquatic world and of the anaconda, and the counterpart and adversary of Wahari, to whom he stands as mother's brother and as father-in-law. From his frenzied, insatiable creativity issue the implements of culture: fire, cultivated plants, the blowgun poison curare and the arts of sorcery. Yet his making is disordered and cannibalistic, so that everything he brings forth arrives charged with danger, and his devouring appetite becomes in Piaroa moral teaching the image of the uncontrolled self that the living must learn to master. Through his long contest with Wahari the powers of culture are wrested from water to land. Sources differ on the precise turns of the myth and on his ultimate fate, but he endures as the peril of the rivers and deep waters.
Children
Domains
- water and serpents
- poison and sorcery
- night and darkness
Powers
- compound curare and the arts of poison
- invent the tools and cultivated crafts
- hunger and devour like a cannibal
Epithets
- ahe ruwang — lord of the water worldOvering Kaplan, J. (1975). The Piaroa, a People of the Orinoco Basin. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (secondary)
- the mad creator — the demented, cannibal demiurgeOvering, J. (1985). 'There Is No End of Evil.' In D. Parkin (ed.), The Anthropology of Evil, pp. 244-278. Oxford: Blackwell. (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: Ofoda'eBoglar, L. (1978). Cuentos y mitos de los Piaroa. Caracas: Universidad Catolica Andres Bello. (secondary)
- child: CheheruCheheru is his daughter, whom Wahari takes to wife.Overing Kaplan, J. (1975). The Piaroa, a People of the Orinoco Basin. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (secondary)
- rival: WahariWahari is his sister's son and son-in-law; their contest carries the powers of culture between water and land.Overing, J. (1986). 'Images of Cannibalism, Death and Domination in a Non-Violent Society.' In D. Riches (ed.), The Anthropology of Violence, pp. 86-102. Oxford: Blackwell. (secondary)
Sources
- Kuemoi is the second demiurge, lord of the water world, manifest as the anaconda, and father-in-law and maternal uncle of Wahari.: Overing Kaplan, J. (1975). The Piaroa, a People of the Orinoco Basin. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (secondary)
- He is the source of the dangerous instruments of culture, curare, fire and cultivated crafts, produced through a mad and cannibalistic creativity.: Overing, J. (1986). 'Images of Cannibalism, Death and Domination in a Non-Violent Society.' In D. Riches (ed.), The Anthropology of Violence, pp. 86-102. Oxford: Blackwell. (secondary); Overing, J. (1985). 'There Is No End of Evil.' In D. Parkin (ed.), The Anthropology of Evil, pp. 244-278. Oxford: Blackwell. (secondary)