the Jaguar
Xavante · numen · Xavante traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The Jaguar is the first owner of fire in Xavante myth, guarding flame and the art of cooking before humankind possesses them. In the Xavante telling the fire is taken and, as it is about to fall into water, is caught in the air and relayed by birds until it reaches the people. The narrative belongs to the great Central and Northern Jê cycle of the bird-nester and the jaguar's fire that Lévi-Strauss made the point of departure for his analysis of the passage from raw to cooked; the Xavante account further ties the episode to the origin of their ceremonial body-designs and the ritual carrying of the buriti log.
Domains
- fire ownership
- hearth cooking
Powers
- guards the first fire
Relations
- enemy: Buru'õtõreThe swallow snatches the jaguar's fire from the air.Pracé Xavante, in Pappiani & Lacerda (eds.), 2014 (primary)
- enemy: MãThe rhea carries off the stolen fire.Pracé Xavante, in Pappiani & Lacerda (eds.), 2014 (primary)
Sources
- In the Xavante fire-theft myth the jaguar is the original owner of fire, from whom the boys and the birds take it, an episode the Xavante link to the origin of ceremonial body-painting and the buriti-log race.: Pracé Xavante, in A. Pappiani & M. Lacerda (eds.), Aiho'ubuni Wasu'u: O Lobo Guará e outras histórias do povo Xavante (Ikorê, 2014) (primary); G. L. J. Falleiros, The Theft of the Jaguar's Fire is not Property in Indigenous Central Brazil (Emerald, 2020) (secondary)