Uitoto Creation Story
The Uitoto Creation Story is a rich narrative that describes the origins of the universe as conceived by the Uitoto people, an indigenous group from the northwestern Amazon region of Colombia and Peru. Central to this myth is the creator figure, known as Naimuena or Buinaima, who brings existence into being through a word and a dream. This creator embodies the concept of illusion, and through a series of actions—including stomping on a dreamlike form and spitting—he creates the earth and the forests. The figure of Rafuema, the storyteller, is tasked with sharing this creation account with future generations.
This creation myth reflects the deep cultural practices and beliefs of the Uitoto, highlighting their views on healing and the relationship between the physical and the spiritual. The narrative has been recorded in various forms, indicating a vibrant diversity within Uitoto storytelling traditions. Historically, the Uitoto population faced significant challenges, especially during the rubber boom of the early 20th century, which led to dramatic societal changes and a decline in their numbers. Today, the Uitoto creation story remains a prominent example of how indigenous cultures articulate their understanding of existence and the interconnectedness of life.
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Subject Terms
Uitoto Creation Story
Author: Traditional Uitoto
Time Period: 1001 CE–1500 CE
Country or Culture: South America
Genre: Myth
PLOT SUMMARY
In the beginning, the creating entity comes about through a word. This creator is variously named Naimuena, meaning “father of illusion,” or Buinaima, which has several meanings, including “father of creation.” Naimuena is an illusion, and illusion is all that is. He has a vaguely defined dream of existence, which he concentrates on at length.
The creator then attaches the illusion, which is all that exists, to the thread of his dream. Grasping it like a piece of cotton, he stomps on it with his feet, and then rests on his dreamed earth. He then spits, and from his saliva, the forests of the earth come forth. He lies down and creates the heavens and the sky. A being called Rafuema, the storyteller, sits in the sky to pass along the account of how he has created existence to those who will come to populate the world.
SIGNIFICANCE
The Uitoto (often spelled Witoto or Huitoto) people are an indigenous group in the northwestern Amazon region. They inhabit southeastern Colombia and northern Peru, primarily dwelling along rivers, including the Putumayo and Caquetá. Before the twentieth century, they were the largest group in the Putumayo region, with an estimated population of fifty thousand. The rubber boom that began in the early twentieth century had a deep impact on the Uitotos and their way of life. The incoming rubber tappers pressed many Uitoto people into forced labor, and grueling conditions and ensuing waves of disease decimated their population. Many of the Uitoto people who survived fled the region, losing their cultural identities. As of 2013, the total Uitoto population is fewer than eight thousand.
The Uitoto creation myth was first recorded by a German ethnologist named Konrad Theodor Preuss sometime between 1912 and 1914. It was told to him by a Uitoto shaman named Rigasedyue. Significantly, there have been a number of very different creation accounts recorded among the Uitotos. For instance, the one told to Fernando Urbina by Uitoto Octavio Garcia in 1982 bears little resemblance to the one Preuss published. Other social scientists, including the American William Farabee, who were working with the Uitotos at the beginning of the twentieth century claim that the Uitotos actually do not have a creation account.
There is a compelling explanation for why there are different takes on the Uitoto creation myth. Although their current population is rather small, the Uitotos were once a large group. They traditionally lived in relatively insular communal villages that were often at war with one another. As such, significant cultural and linguistic differences developed among the different bands of Uitoto people, and this heterodoxy remains to this day. Moreover, myths are traditionally passed down from fathers to sons within families, rather than as entire villages, meaning that each family essentially has its own folkloric customs.
Despite this profound cultural diversity, the version of the Uitoto myth recorded by Preuss has been the most repeated in academic circles, and indeed has become one of the best known myths of the entire Amazon region. It is an example of an ex nihilo account of the origin of the universe. While it is intellectually puzzling to contemplate existence coming from nothing, this form of creation story is common among world cultures.
The name Uitoto, which members of the group use today, is actually a word meaning “enemy” from the Carijona tribe. The Uitotos and Carijonas are known to have been bitter enemies at least as far back as the Spanish conquest. One significant reason for the constant animosity was Uitoto belief that death comes not from natural causes, but from sorcery. Shamanic healers intoxicate themselves and sick patients with tobacco paste, coca, and a hallucinogenic snuff. In the dreamlike state induced by these drugs, the shamans try to determine who sent the evil spirit responsible for illness and to reattach the afflicted person’s soul to his or her body.
There are clearly deep symbolic connections between these ritual practices and the Uitoto creation myth. The practitioner of a healing ritual is often called Buinaima, just as the creator god often is. The myth begins by stating that the creator was born of a word, and indeed, the idea of manifesting reality through saying the proper words in chants is an important part of Uitoto belief. The concept is referred to as rafue, meaning “the power of turning words into objects or outcomes.” Likewise, just as the creator god generated the forests through saliva, the shaman, aided by the ingestion of intoxicants, drools during the ceremony. It is while chanting the correct words and drooling that the healer attempts to reattach the sick person’s body and soul. The healing ritual is fundamentally an act of linking the illusory to the physical to form a unity of complementary opposites, which is a refrain often heard in Uitoto myths, including the famous version of the creation story.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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