Ngutapa
Tikuna · deity · Tikuna traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Ngutapa is the primordial being of Tikuna cosmogony, the ancestor who stands before the ordered world. In the canonical account he was bathing in a stream when wasps dispatched by his wife stung his knees, which swelled enormously; from the right knee issued the elder hero Yoi together with his sister Mowatcha, and from the left the younger hero Ipi with his sister Aicuna, each pair already occupied with the arts of blowgun, net, bow and weaving. From his body thus descends the whole subsequent generation of world-shapers. Sources differ over whether Ngutapa is better understood as a creator deity or as a primordial ancestor, since his generative act rather than any sustained rule defines him.
Children
Domains
- creation
- ancestry
Powers
- brings forth the primordial siblings from his own swollen knees
Relations
- parent: Yoiborn from the right kneeInstituto Socioambiental, 'Ticuna: A origem dos Ticuna', Povos Indigenas no Brasil, pib.socioambiental.org. (secondary)
- parent: Ipiborn from the left kneeInstituto Socioambiental, 'Ticuna: A origem dos Ticuna', Povos Indigenas no Brasil, pib.socioambiental.org. (secondary)
- parent: Mowatchasister born with YoiInstituto Socioambiental, 'Ticuna: A origem dos Ticuna', Povos Indigenas no Brasil, pib.socioambiental.org. (secondary)
- parent: Aicünasister born with IpiInstituto Socioambiental, 'Ticuna: A origem dos Ticuna', Povos Indigenas no Brasil, pib.socioambiental.org. (secondary)
Sources
- Ngutapa is the first man of Tikuna myth, from whose stung and swollen knees the culture-hero brothers Yoi and Ipi and their sisters Mowatcha and Aicuna were born.: Curt Nimuendaju, The Tukuna, ed. Robert H. Lowie (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1952). (primary); Instituto Socioambiental, 'Ticuna: A origem dos Ticuna e a festa da moca nova', Povos Indigenas no Brasil, pib.socioambiental.org. (secondary)