User:BaduFerreira/Jurupari

Jurupari, also known as Yurupari, is a mythological character of the indigenous people of South America. The Mawé people portray him as not only a demon, but Evil itself, and the one who gave birth to other demons (such as the Ahiag̃ or the Mapinguary).

The worship of Jurupari was the most widespread cult at the time of the arrival of the first Europeans to South America. This led Catholic missionaries to associate Jurupari with the Christian devil to combat it.

Etymology
Several theories try to explain the meaning of the term "Jurupari":


 * According to Tupinologist Eduardo Navarro, it comes from the ancient Tupi language word Îurupari, which means "crooked mouth" (îuru, "mouth" + apar, "crooked").
 * According to folklorist Luís da Câmara Cascudo, the word "jurupari" seems to be a corruption of "jurupoari", described by Couto de Magalhães in the course on nheengatu (general language) "O selvagem". In the work, "Jurupari" literally translates as "mouth, hand over; take from the mouth"; che jurupoari - "took the word out of my mouth", or from iuru (mouth) and pari (trap of fish splints, with which the are closed), besides referring to several mythical meanings, among which the one that corresponds to the expression "being that comes to our hammock" (place where we sleep), and "generated from the fruit".
 * According to Father Constant Tastevin (1880-1958), apud Faulhaber, the name "Jurupari" may correspond to the proper name of an ancient Indian legislator, of whom they still preserve the uses, laws and traditions remembered in the masked dances of Jurupari. The name, according to this author, seems to mean "mask", pari, "of the mouth" or "of the face": iu-ru-pari: "to put a pari on one's own face".

The Aurélio dictionary reinforces the Tupi etymology and the meaning of "demon", extending its meaning to:


 * a river fish, cichlid (jeropari, Satanoperca daemon);
 * The common squirrel monkey
 * The plant from the legume family (Eperua grandiflora), which may or may not have a relationship with this mythical sign, which is evident in the name of the fish (Satanoperca daemon or Satanoperca jurupari).



The Legislator
The first version tells the story of an Indian woman named Ceuci who, like the Virgin Mary, had a miraculous conception. Legend has it that Ceuci was resting under a tree and, stricken with hunger, ate its fruit, the mapati (uacu in some variants), whose ingestion was forbidden to young women on the day they were in fertile period. The juice of the fruit would then have run down her naked body and reached the middle of her thighs, fertilizing her. The news reached the village, and the council of elders, faced with the revolt of the people, decided to punish Ceuci with exile, where she had her son.

This child, called Jurupari, was in fact the envoy of the Sun (Guaraci), by whom it was ordered to reform the customs of men and find a wife for him. With seven days of life, he already appeared to be 10 years old, and his wisdom attracted the attention of everyone, who began to listen to his words and the teaching of the new customs that the Sun said they should follow. He is called a legislator because he changed the laws (read customs) of the world, transforming it from matriarchal to patriarchal.

Dream demon
In the best known of the two legends, Jurupari would actually be the god of darkness and evil, who would visit the Indians in their dreams, frightening them with nightmares and omens of horrible dangers, preventing, however, his victims from screaming - which sometimes caused asphyxiation. This is the most "probable", since the meaning of the word Jurupari is something like "the one who shuts up", "who covers his mouth", or even "the one who visits our net". The Jesuits encouraged this version of the legend, some even saying that they were the ones who created it, and it was immediately accepted by the natives, eager for an explanation as to why they had nightmares. For Câmara Cascudo, this conception of the creature of "nightmares" is an amalgam of European and African legends, invented by wet nurses to control the children's behavior.

Appearances
He is sometimes seen as a hideous caboclo who is always laughing, a cripple with a crooked mouth, and is very cruel and vengeful. In some Indian cultures he is described as a snake with arms; in others, as a common Indian with great wisdom and divine powers. He has been described as an invisible baby, or simply as a "presence" (spirit).

In some of the myths involving the Jurupari, this hero burns to death and, from his ashes, the paxiúba palm tree (Socratea exorrhiza) is born, a tree from whose wood the jurupari instruments played in this ritual are made. Among the Toucan Indians, the flute (simiômi'i-põrero) is made from the wood of the uacu (Monopteryx angustifolia). According to Piedade, it is a sacred instrument that has a thunderous sound, having been used by the men to recover the Jurupari instruments that the women had stolen.

Jurupari Ritual
Besides the fact that the name Jurupari corresponds to a Tupi legend and to a group of animals and trees that the myth relates to each other, there are also several variants of this myth in other ethnic groups. It also corresponds to a ritual with flutes in which only men can participate, among the Indians of the Northwest Amazon (Rios Negro and Uaupés), such as the Tucanos and the Tarianas, described by Ermanno Stradelli (1852-1926). Other rites and myths are also known by the name Jurupari, like those found in tribes:


 * Tuiucas / (Tucanos)
 * Macus / (Línguas macus)
 * Wauja e outras do Parque do Xingu

According to Carvalho's description of what he calls the "Jurupari religion" in the upper Amazon region of the Rio Negro, it comprises a secret male cult, revealed to the initiates mainly at the second initiation: its rites include floggings, use of tobacco and coca, illusogens such as yagé (caapi), and, further west, also paricá.