Riablo (the Devil, brother of God)
Riablo, also called Riré, is the Devil of the Rarámuri, but in their cosmology he is no mere Christian fiend: he is the younger brother and counterpart of the creator-god Riosi (Onorúame). The complementarity of the two structures the world. In the foundational account the creator forms the Rarámuri from pure clay, while the Devil forms the chabochi, the bearded non-Rarámuri, by mixing white ash into his clay; the Devil remains the protector of these peoples just as the creator favours the Rarámuri. A widespread narrative tells how the Devil has relations with the creator's wife and, when discovered, kills the creator, who resurrects, overcomes the Devil and buries him beneath the earth. As a being associated with the underworld, sickness and death, the Devil is feared, yet he and the creator are sometimes said to act together to punish human beings who behave badly, so that the antagonism of God and the Devil is also a kind of cooperation in the moral ordering of the Rarámuri world.
Domains
- underworld and the dead
- patron of the chabochi
Powers
- to make and protect the non-Rarámuri peoples
- to send sickness and to punish wrongdoers
Epithets
- RiabloWendell C. Bennett & Robert M. Zingg, 'The Tarahumara: An Indian Tribe of Northern Mexico' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935). (secondary)
Relations
- enemy: Onorúame-Eyerúame (the Father-Mother creator)The Devil is the brother and adversary of the creator (Riosi); in narrative he wrongs and even slays the creator, who rises again to defeat and bury him, yet the two may also act jointly to chastise humankind.William L. Merrill, 'Rarámuri Souls: Knowledge and Social Process in Northern Mexico' (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988). (secondary)
Sources
- Riablo (the Devil) is the brother and adversary of the creator-god in Rarámuri cosmology, maker and patron of the non-Rarámuri chabochi, a source of sickness who is nonetheless bound to God in a fraternal opposition.: 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)