The Knee-born Foremother
Yami (Tao) · mortal · Yami (Tao) traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
A member of the first human generation, born from the swollen knee of the bamboo-born primordial ancestor. Her marriage to the knee-born forefather of the opposite lineage produced whole descendants and, in the etiology of Tao custom, established the prohibition on marriage between close kin sprung from the same ancestor. The recorded myths preserve her founding role rather than a personal name.
Parentage
- paternal: The Bamboo-born Ancestor
Domains
- ancestry and origins
Powers
- mother the legitimate human line
Relations
- spouse: The Knee-born ForefatherMarried across the two ancestral lineages.Kano & Segawa (1956), An Illustrated Ethnography of Formosan Aborigines, Vol. I: The Yami. (secondary)
Sources
- A knee-born daughter of one primordial ancestor married the knee-born child of the other; their union founded legitimate Tao descent.: Kano & Segawa (1956), An Illustrated Ethnography of Formosan Aborigines, Vol. I: The Yami. (secondary); Wei Hwei-lin & Liu Pin-hsiung (1962), Social Structure of the Yami, Botel Tobago, Academia Sinica. (secondary)