Metzaka (the Moon, the Mother)
Metzaka is the personified Moon of the Rarámuri, addressed as 'the mother' and paired with Rayénari, the Sun. In the creation story the two begin as small dark-skinned children alone in the world, clothed only in palmilla leaves and lit by the Morning Star; in some tellings the Moon eats the lice from the Sun's head for want of any other food, until both are cured with crosses of madroño dipped in tesgüino and begin to shine. Once grown, Sun and Moon create the first Rarámuri. As the Moon, Metzaka guards human beings by night while the Sun guards the day, the two together expressing the complementary male-female order that runs through Rarámuri cosmology. Under mission influence the Mother-Moon was assimilated to the Virgin Mary (Eyerúame, 'Great Mother'), yet she remains the lunar guardian honoured in the dances and tesgüino offerings of the Sierra Tarahumara.
Parentage
Domains
- lunar light and night
- guardianship of the living
Powers
- to give light and watch over human beings during the night
- to create the first human beings together with the Sun
Epithets
- Iyé (la madre)William L. Merrill & Don Burgess, 'Ralámuli Kinship Terminology: A Diachronic Perspective on Diversity in the Sierra Tarahumara of Northwestern Mexico', Anthropological Linguistics 56, no. 3-4 (2014): 229-293. (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: Rayénari (the Sun, the Father)Moon and Sun form the primordial female-male pair who dwell together and together engender humanity.Carlo Bonfiglioli, 'El yúmari, clave de acceso a la cosmología rarámuri', Cuicuilco 15, no. 42 (2008): 45-60. (secondary)
- sibling: Chirisópori (the Morning Star)Metzaka and the Morning Star are children of the same creator; in infancy the Moon is watched over by Chirisópori's light.Wendell C. Bennett & Robert M. Zingg, 'The Tarahumara: An Indian Tribe of Northern Mexico' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935). (secondary)
Sources
- Metzaka is the Moon, a daughter of the Father-Mother creator, venerated as 'the mother' who watches over the Rarámuri by night and, with the Sun, made the first human beings.: William L. Merrill, 'Rarámuri Souls: Knowledge and Social Process in Northern Mexico' (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988). (secondary); Wendell C. Bennett & Robert M. Zingg, 'The Tarahumara: An Indian Tribe of Northern Mexico' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935). (secondary)