Iwia
Shuar · deity · Shuar traditional religion; continuing · deity
Iwia is the gigantic man-eating ogre of Shuar and Achuar myth, a voracious cannibal who roams the forest seizing human beings, stuffing them into his great net-bag, and devouring them. He is the antagonist of the Etsa cycle: having eaten Etsa's parents, he kept the boy as a captive hunter to supply him with birds, until Etsa learned the truth, restored the game he had been forced to kill, and brought about the ogre's death. The name is linked to the wider Jivaroan term iwianch for malevolent forest-demons and ghosts, but Iwia in the myths is a distinct, individuated monstrous personage.
Domains
- cannibal ogre of the forest
- devouring and predation
Powers
- to seize and devour human beings
Relations
- enemy: Etsa
Sources
- Rafael Karsten, The Head-Hunters of Western Amazonas: The Life and Culture of the Jíbaro Indians of Eastern Ecuador and Peru (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum VII.1, 1935).
- Philippe Descola, The Spears of Twilight: Life and Death in the Amazon Jungle, trans. Janet Lloyd (New York: New Press, 1996).