Kanobo, the Supreme Grandfather
Warao · deity · Warao traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Kanobo, 'our grandfather', is the supreme being and tutelary ancestor of the Warao of the Orinoco Delta. As Kanobo Araobo, 'the Supreme Spirit', he is the author and protector of life; the wisiratu priest-shaman acts as intermediary between him and the community, feeding him tobacco smoke and, at the annual Nahanamu sago festival, the starch of the moriche palm. His plural aspect, the kanobotuma ('our grandfathers'), are the ancestral world-quarter gods who dwell on the four cardinal mountains at the edge of the world; his power is materialised locally in ancestor stones (kanohotuma) tended by a guardian. He stands at the apex of the Warao cosmos rather than within its kinship web.
Domains
- ancestral authority
- tobacco and sacrifice
- life and protection
Powers
- to author and protect the life of the Warao people
- to receive the smoke of sacred tobacco as nourishment
Epithets
- Kanobo AraoboJohannes Wilbert, Mystic Endowment: Religious Ethnography of the Warao Indians (Harvard University, 1993). (secondary)
Sources
- Kanobo ('our grandfather') is the supreme elder-ancestor and protector-god of the Warao, honoured with tobacco smoke and the hebu mataro rattle and fed sago at the Nahanamu festival.: H. Dieter Heinen, with A. Lorenzano, T. Rivero and S. Rivero, The Kanobo Cult of the Warao Amerindians of the Central Orinoco Delta: The Nahanamu Sago Ritual (Ethnologische Studien 41, LIT Verlag, 2012). (secondary); Johannes Wilbert, Mystic Endowment: Religious Ethnography of the Warao Indians (Harvard University, Center for the Study of World Religions, 1993). (secondary)