Wichí · deity · Wichí traditional religion; continuing · deity
In Wichí thought the cosmos is charged with power (la-ka-áyah), held by innumerable beings of either demonic (ahot) or living-human (wichí) nature. Ahát/ahot denotes the soul of the dead and, more broadly, the demon or devil; the augmentative Ahátaj, the 'great devil,' names the supreme demonic being, head of all evil, who occupies the highest place in the hierarchy of spirits and governs the 'owners' of plants, animals and domains of the bush. The ahot embody danger and harm against the vitality and prosperity of the living, and they are held responsible for sickness and death, which the shaman counters by journeying to confront the offending spirit and reclaim the stolen life force.
Domains
death and the dead
sickness and misfortune
evil and danger
Powers
to send sickness and death upon the living
to command the spirit-owners of the bush and its creatures
Epithets
Ahátaj
Sources
Alfred Métraux, Ethnography of the Chaco, in Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 1, ed. Julian H. Steward, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143, Washington, 1946.
Alfred Métraux, Myths and Tales of the Matako Indians (The Gran Chaco, Argentina), Etnologiska Studier 9, Göteborg, 1939.
Jan-Åke Alvarsson, The Mataco of the Gran Chaco, Uppsala Studies in Cultural Anthropology 11, Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala, 1988.