Buinaima
Uitoto · deity · Uitoto traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Buinaima is the father or lord of the water-world in Uitoto cosmology, the class of primordial aquatic divinities associated with the rivers, the depths, and the anaconda-people, and at the same time a named founding hero. The 'deeds of Buinaima' encompass a great flood and a series of transformative feats, and in the fire-origin narrative he takes the solar name Jitoma and, with the trickster Fɨzido, wins fire for humankind before laying the borrowed name aside. He invokes Juziñamui as the Supreme God. The title Buinaima recurs throughout the tradition and is borne by more than one water being, so that the sources treat it both as a personal name and as a rank among the divinities of the waters.
Domains
- water
- wisdom
- fertility
Powers
- rules the aquatic world and its beings
- performs the founding deeds and the flood
Epithets
- Moo Buinaima — Father BuinaimaUrbina Rangel, Fernando. 2010. Las palabras del origen. Bogotá: Ministerio de Cultura de Colombia. (secondary)
Relations
- ally: JuziñamuiInvokes Juziñamui the Supreme God.'El Diluvio y las Hazañas de Buinaima'. mitosdecolombia.com. (secondary)
- ally: FɨzidoAllies in the winning of fire.'El Diluvio y las Hazañas de Buinaima'. mitosdecolombia.com. (secondary)
Sources
- Buinaima is the lord of the water-world and a founding culture-hero to whom the great flood and other primordial deeds are attributed.: Preuss, Konrad Theodor. 1921–1923. Religion und Mythologie der Uitoto. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. (primary); 'El Diluvio y las Hazañas de Buinaima'. mitosdecolombia.com. (secondary)