Cosmic Anaconda
Shipibo · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Shipibo-Conibo (Ucayali, Peru). English 'Cosmic Anaconda' leads; the Shipibo term is Ronin (also Rono, 'boa/snake'). A spirit-class water-being treated here as a primordial deity per the schema rule that spirit-classes map to deity/demigod. The Shipibo cosmos is layered into worlds (Nete): Jene Nete (the water-world, Ronin's realm), Non Nete (our world), Pashin Nete (the yellow world) and Jakon Nete (the celestial good-world of the sun and the Inka). Sex follows the consistent feminine, maternal characterization.
Domains
- primordial waters
- design and pattern
Powers
- encircle the world in water
- bestow the geometric designs
- reveal the kené designs to women
Epithets
- Ronin The cosmic anaconda whose shimmering skin holds the patterns (kené) and the waters of the worldShipibo-Conibo ethnography (P. Roe, The Cosmic Zygote) (secondary)
Sources
- Ronin is the cosmic anaconda / Great Boa, mother and owner of all waters, who dwells in the water-world (Jene Nete).: Roe, Peter G. (1982). The Cosmic Zygote: Cosmology in the Amazon Basin. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, pp. 49-52. (secondary)
- The serpent's skin carries every conceivable design (kené); the geometric art of Shipibo women derives from Ronin.: Roe, Peter G. (1982). The Cosmic Zygote. Rutgers University Press, pp. 117-120. (secondary)