mawadi

Ye'kwana

Etymology

Compare Kari'na imaware (“bush spirit”), Akawaio mawari (“evil spirit”), Pemon imawari (“nature spirit”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [mawaːɾ̠i]

Noun

mawadi

1. ritual pollution or taboo matter (amoi) found in fish and basketry materials, said to sometimes be visible as worms or parasites
2. a malevolent water spirit of fecundity that typically takes the form of an anaconda and causes floods and kidnaps people as a creation of the water goddess Wiyu

   Synonym: wiyu

References

• Cáceres, Natalia (2011) “mawadi”, in Grammaire Fonctionnelle-Typologique du Ye’kwana‎^[1], Lyon
• Hall, Katherine Lee (1988) “mawa:di”, in The morphosyntax of discourse in De'kwana Carib, volumes I and II, Saint Louis, Missouri: PhD Thesis, Washington University
• de Civrieux, Marc (1980) “mawadi”, in  David M. Guss, transl., Watunna: An Orinoco Creation Cycle, San Francisco: North Point Press, →ISBN
• Lauer, Matthew Taylor (2005) Fertility in Amazonia: Indigenous Concepts of the Human Reproductive Process Among the Ye’kwana of Southern Venezuela‎^[2], Santa Barbara: University of California, pages 296–297
• Guss, David M. (1989) To Weave and Sing: Art, Symbol, and Narrative in the South American Rain Forest, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, →ISBN, pages 108, 146–161