Muellepen
Yanesha · numen · Yanesha traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The Muellepen are the cannibal beings of ancient Yanesha memory, raiders who came up the Palcazu River to fall upon the settlements of the Cacazu valley and devour their people. The Yanesha of old fought them, burning the bodies of the slain at a great rock that still marks the episode in the landscape. In a final assault the Muellepen overwhelmed the guardian divinity Yatoʼ Caresa and killed many warriors, making them the archetypal predatory enemy against whom the defense of the homeland was waged.
Domains
- cannibalism
Powers
- travels upriver to raid and eat the people
Relations
Sources
- The Muellepen were ancient cannibals who travelled upriver along the Palcazu to attack Yanesha settlements of the Cacazu valley; their bodies were burned at a large rock, and they finally defeated the warrior divinity Yatoʼ Caresa.: Fernando Santos-Granero, 'Writing History into the Landscape,' American Ethnologist 25(2), 1998 (secondary)