First Ancestor
Selk'nam · demigod · mythic primordial · Recorded classification
Male first ancestor and culture-hero; classed as demigod (a howenh, an ancestral being of the first age, ranking below the sole god Temáukel). The howenh later transformed into the sun, moon, winds, animals, and landscape features. Foregrounded as a culture-hero per the brief.
Domains
- creation and civilizing
- ancestry and origins
Powers
- mould the first ancestors from marsh earth
- lift up the sky to make room for the world
Epithets
- Kénos The first ancestor sent by Temáukel to order the world and establish the moral lawMartin Gusinde, Die Feuerland-Indianer (secondary)
Relations
- ally: Supreme BeingTemaukel's deputy: the supreme being sent Kenos to order the primordial world and give the Selk'nam their law.Martin Gusinde, Die Feuerland-Indianer I: Die Selk'nam (1931) (secondary)
Sources
- Kénos is the first howenh (ancestral being) and chief culture-hero of the Selk'nam, sent by Temáukel to organize the world and bring forth the first people; he is the most important figure after the supreme being.: Gusinde, Martin. Die Feuerland-Indianer, Band I: Die Selk'nam, 1931. (secondary); Chapman, Anne. Drama and Power in a Hunting Society, 1982. (secondary)