Myth Cosmos (Yanomamo)
Myth Cosmos (Yanomamo)
The Yanomamo people inhabit southern American regions and particularly the Amazon basin regions that covers certain areas within Venezuela as well parts of Brazil at the borders of the two countries. This indigenous tribe of the South America does not have a written language but are great users of oral language in art like poetry and storytelling to delineate the truth about their world and the people live in it. One fascinating way through which these people use their unwritten language is by telling the stories of cosmos myths that pervades the Yanomamo mythology.
Yanomamo believe that cosmos is constituted of four layers of disc like objects that have got rotten edges that is inhabited by wild and evil spirits. According to this myth, one cannot venture out into the edges of the layers lest they are baffled by bad omen. The four layers have been given distinct names with the highest layer called Duku Ka Misi, below which there is Hedu Ka Misi which is followed below it by Hei Ka Misi and the lowest layer is called Hei Ta Bebi. The Yanomamo believe that the upper most layer is abandoned since in their myth they explain that thing tend to descend from the uppermost layer to the lowest layer. They also believe that the uppermost layer is a barren layer that do not support plant and animal life hence its barren gardens. Hedu Ka Misi which is below the upper most layer is believed to support life just like the earth does to the living things despite the fact that it cannot be seen from the earth. It is the layer that is believed to have the souls of dead members of the community who are believed to lead a life similar to the Yanomamo who live on ‘earth’. They also believe that the bottom layer of Hedu Ka Misi contains the stars that can be seen from the earth dwelling people of Yanomamo. Some of the Yanomamo have mythical stories that hold it that the stars are just but fish.
Yanomamo believe that man dwells in the layer called Hei Ka Misi (Earth) which they believe to have formed when part of the Hedu Ka Misi (layer above it) fell leading to its formation. The layer contains the typical physical features that would be characteristic of any other place on earth. These people also believe the rest of humanity including other Brazilians is part of them except that they speak a crooked form of the Yanomamo language. Foreigners to Yanomamo villages are taken as part of those of the original Yanomamos who were swept away by huge floods but were rescued by Omawa the spirit. Hei ka Bebi is believed to be under ground below Hei Ka Misi (Earth) and it is believed to have formed from a part of Hedu that sank a large depression on the surface of the earth when it fell. They also believe that a people of Yanomamo origin sank with their part of the earth that was hit into the ground. The Yanomamo call the people of Hei Ka Bebi as Amahiri-teri. The Amahiri-teri is believed to have turned into cannibals who can occasionally resurface to terrorize villages and take away children souls that they feast on.
The villages of Yanomamo have Shamans (men and women who possess spirit like powers) who often fight of the cannibalistic Amahiri-teri people whenever they lay an attack on the people of Yanomamo. The Yanomamo are always wary of becoming cannibals themselves and oppose anyone who shows a tendency that could predispose such persons in question to commit cannibalism among them. The Amaheri-teri are also believed to have existed at the beginning of time when original human beings according to their cosmos myth existed. The Yonamamo believe that the original human beings possessed qualities of being animals, spirits and human too.
