wejannö

Ye'kwana

Variant orthographies

Bolívar state	wejannö
Brazil	wejannä
historical ad hoc	huehanna

The egg of Tinamus major, common depiction of the physical form of wejannö.

Etymology

From w- (intransitive prefix) +‎ ejamü (“to increase in population, to multiply”) +‎ -nö (infinitive suffix).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [wehannə]

Noun

wejannö

1. (usually of a place or group of living things) fecundity, fertility, growth
2. the ability to produce life, fecundity, generative power
3. (Ye'kwana mythology) fecundity concretized in the form of a primordial egg (often the egg of a great tinamou), the source of life

Verb

wejannö

1. infinitive of ejamü

References

• Lauer, Matthew Taylor (2005) Fertility in Amazonia: Indigenous Concepts of the Human Reproductive Process Among the Ye’kwana of Southern Venezuela‎^[1], Santa Barbara: University of California, pages 178–179, 192–193, 196–202:

  The Ye’kwana tell us that villages or societies have varying amounts of wejannä, which is a word that can be roughly translated as the ‘source of life’ or ‘growth’. Individuals, except for mythical beings, are rarely described as having wejannä. This socio-centric definition is in marked contrast to demographic and biological models of fertility that narrowly construe the ‘reproductive process’ as something involving fertile couples rather than entire communities. […] At that time Wanadi gave out wejannä (the source of all living things) and if you wanted a wife she could be made from anything (amodenädö). This was the way people were created until wejannä was given to the people. If Wanadi wanted people then they would be created, children would be created, brothers and sisters would be created. That is how it worked […] Odo’sha changed the work of Wanadi so that women had to bear children. This is how we lost the chance to gain wejannä, and now we only slowly can have wejannä with the women.

• de Civrieux, Marc (1980) “huehanna”, in  David M. Guss, transl., Watunna: An Orinoco Creation Cycle, San Francisco: North Point Press, →ISBN:

  The new Wanadi had Huehanna. He brought it from Kahuña to make people with. He wanted new people for the Earth. He wanted lots of people. Huehanna was like a great ball, huge and hollow, with a thick, heavy shell as hard as stone. It was called Huehanna. Inside Huehanna you could hear noises, words, songs, laughter, screaming. It was filled with people. […] Wanadi wanted Huehanna opened on the Earth so its people could spread over it.