Yacuruna

Last updated

The Yacuruna are a mythical water people of the Amazon basin who live in beautiful underwater cities, often at the mouths of rivers. Belief in the Yacuruna is most prominently found among indigenous people of the Amazon. [1] The term is derived from the Quechua language, yaku ("water") and runa ("man").

Contents

Characteristics

The Yacuruna is described as being hairy with a backward-facing head and deformed feet. [2] Illustrations depict the Yacuruna as a man-like creature accompanied by a serpent and riding a crocodile. It is considered by many to be a god who has the power to change into an attractive man. [3]

The Yacuruna roam the Amazon rainforest at night using black crocodiles as canoes. During the day they sleep at the bottoms of rivers and lakes with one eye open. [3] They have the ability to communicate with aquatic animals of the Amazon and have ultimate control over them. Locals believe that Yacuruna can transform into an Amazon river dolphins which are attracted to the odor of blood in menstruating women. Once the woman is found, a Yacuruna will transform into a handsome and alluring man who then uses aphrodisiacs to kidnap her and bring her into his kingdom in the depths of the river. [3]

Underwater cities

Yacuruna are said to inhabit underwater cities that mirror upside-down human cities. The cities can be interpreted as reflections on the surface of the water. Within the city, the Yucuruna live in palaces of crystal with multicolored walls of fish scales and pearl, reclining on hammocks of feathers under a mosquito net of butterfly wings. The hammocks are snakes, with turtles for seats. [1]

Abduction

Yacuruna can be characterized as dangerous spirits who lure humans into the water by taking on human forms. When people of the Amazonian community disappear and do not return such as fishermen, husbands, and young girls (who become mysteriously pregnant), it is often assumed that they have been seduced and captured by the Yacuruna. [1]

The abducted victims gradually transform into yacuruna: first, their eyes turn to resemble the Yacuruna, then their head and feet turn backward so that they cannot find their way home, and must continue onwards to the underwater city. [1] Transformation is irreversible and a victim may never return to his or her home. [2]

Don Juan Flores Salazar describes a story of how his little sister was taken by a Yacuruna. One day she was swimming when she was pulled underwater and vanished. It was not until years later when he saw her again, still alive but had transformed into a mermaid. She had married a Yacuruna, and gained knowledge in becoming a healer of the waters. They complemented one another for he was a healer of the lands: he believed it was her destiny to become a Yacuruna. [4]

Shamanism

A Yacuruna can be summoned by a shaman to act as a familiar. It may pass on healing knowledge to a sick person or shaman, and in this way they establish trust. Once trust has been established, the Yacuruna will turn the person's head towards the front again, allowing the individual to return to the human world. [5] A yacuruna can be the source of shamanic powers, becoming a powerful ally to the shaman. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shapeshifting</span> Ability to physically transform in mythology, folklore and speculative fiction

In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through unnatural means. The idea of shapeshifting is in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest existent literature and epic poems such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Iliad. The concept remains a common literary device in modern fantasy, children's literature and popular culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloodscream</span> Comics character

Bloodscream is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as an enemy of Wolverine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curandero</span> Traditional healer found in Latin America and the United States

A curandero is a traditional native healer or shaman found primarily in Latin America and also in the United States. A curandero is a specialist in traditional medicine whose practice can either contrast with or supplement that of a practitioner of Western medicine. A curandero is claimed to administer shamanistic and spiritistic remedies for mental, emotional, physical and spiritual illnesses. Some curanderos, such as Don Pedrito, the Healer of Los Olmos, make use of simple herbs, waters, or mud to allegedly effect their cures. Others add Catholic elements, such as holy water and pictures of saints; San Martin de Porres for example is heavily employed within Peruvian curanderismo. The use of Catholic prayers and other borrowings and lendings is often found alongside native religious elements. Many curanderos emphasize their native spirituality in healing while being practicing Catholics. Still others, such as Maria Sabina, employ hallucinogenic media. Most of the concepts related to curanderismo are Spanish words, often with medieval, vernacular definitions.

<i>Amazon Adventure</i> Novel by Willard Price

Amazon Adventure is a 1949 children's novel by the Canadian-American author Willard Price featuring his "Adventure" series characters, Hal and Roger Hunt. It depicts an expedition to the Amazon River to capture animals for their father's wildlife collection business. Initially published by John Day in the US, the UK edition was published two years later by Jonathan Cape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brazilian mythology</span>

Brazilian mythology is the subset of Brazilian folklore with cultural elements of diverse origin found in Brazil, comprising folk tales, traditions, characters and beliefs regarding places, people, and entities. The category was originally restricted to indigenous elements, but has been extended to include:

The Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge is part of the United States National Wildlife Refuge System, located in north Key Largo, less than 40 miles (64 km) south of Miami off SR 905. The 6,686 acre (27.1 km2) refuge opened during the year of 1980, under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. It was established in order to protect critical breeding and nesting habitat for the threatened American crocodile and other wildlife. This area also includes 650 acres (2.6 km2) of open water in and around the refuge. In addition to being one of only three breeding populations of the American crocodile, the refuge is home to tropical hardwood hammock, mangrove forest, and salt marsh. It is administered as part of the National Key Deer Refuge which is also located in the Florida Keys.

Morgens, morgans, or mari-morgans are Welsh and Breton water spirits that drown men.

Pedro Penduko is a Filipino fictional comic book character created by National Artist for Literature Francisco V. Coching. The character, who is styled as a folk hero, debuted in the magazine Liwayway in 1954.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iara (mythology)</span> Figure from Brazilian mythology

Iara, also spelled Uiara, Yara or Hiara or Mãe das Águas, is a figure from Brazilian mythology based on the ancient Tupi and Guaraní mythology. The word derives from Old Tupi yîara = y ("water") + îara = "lady of the lake". Depending on the oral tradition and the context of the story, she can be seen either as a water nymph, a siren, or a beautiful mermaid that lives in the Amazon River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mermaids in popular culture</span>

Mermaids, like many other creatures of mythology and folklore, are regularly depicted in literature, film, music, and popular culture. In the folklore of some modern cultures, the concept of the siren has been assimilated to that of the mermaid. For example, the French word for mermaid is sirène, Italian sirena, and similarly in certain other European languages. This usage existed by the Middle Ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belén District, Maynas</span> District in Loreto, Peru

Belén District is one of thirteen districts of the Maynas Province in Peru. Belén lies at the edge of the city of Iquitos, in the floodplain of the Itaya River. It is home to some 65,000 people, most of them poor, and many of whom live in extreme poverty. The housing does not have clean water, proper sanitation, or electric power distribution.

Tamshiyacu is the name of a town in the Fernando Lores District which is located in Iquitos - northeastern Peru.

Vegetalismo is a term used to refer to a practice of mestizo shamanism in the Peruvian Amazon in which the shamans—known as vegetalistas—are said to gain their knowledge and power to cure from the vegetales, or plants of the region. Many believe to receive their knowledge from ingesting the hallucinogenic, emetic brew ayahuasca.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsentsak</span>

Tsentsak are invisible pathogenic projectiles or magical darts utilized in indigenous and mestizo shamanic practices for the purposes of sorcery and healing throughout much the Amazon Basin. Anthropologists identify them as objects referenced in emic accounts that represent indigenous beliefs. Tsentak are not recognized in scientific medicine.

Tsunki is a name for the primordial spirit shaman within the Achuar and Shuar people of Amazonia. The term is derived from the Jivaroan language family. It translates to English as "the first shaman" and is frequently alluded to in shamanic songs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manuel Córdova-Rios</span>

Manuel Córdova-Rios was a vegetalista (herbalist) of the upper Amazon, and the subject of several popular books.

Lí Ban or Liban, in the legend surrounding the formation of Lough Neagh, was a woman turned mermaid who inhabited the area before the great lake gushed up on dry land. Her family was drowned, but she survived in an underwater chamber in the lake for a year, after which she was transformed into a being who was half-human, half-salmon.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Beyer, Stephan (2009). Singing to the Plants. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. pp. 318–321. ISBN   978-0-8263-4730-5.
  2. 1 2 Luna, L.E. "Vegetalismo: Shamanism among the mestizo population of the Peruvian Amazon". Stockhold Studies in Comparative Religion. 27.
  3. 1 2 3 Pantone, Dan James. "Iquitos News and Travel Guide". Iquitos Legend: Yacuruna. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  4. Tindall, Robert (2008). The jaguar that roams the mind. Rochester, VT: Park Street. pp. 210–211. ISBN   978-1594772542.
  5. Bear, J. (2000). Amazon magic: The life story of ayahuasquero and shaman don Agustin Rivas Vasquez. Taos, New Mexico: Calibri. p. 140. ISBN   978-0967425504.