The Religions Book

39

See also: The Dreaming 34–35 ■ The spirits of the dead live on 36–37

■ Symbolism made real 46–47 ■ Man and the cosmos 48–49

L

iving in the environment

of the Orinoco Delta, where

the land is divided into

countless islands by a network

of waterways, the Warao tribe see

the world as flat—the earth is just

a narrow crust between water and

sky. They believe that Hahuba, the

Snake of Being—the grandmother

of all living things—is coiled

around the earth, and that her

breathing is the motion of the

tides. Their various gods, known

as the Ancient Ones, live on sacred

mountains at the four corners of

the earth, with the Warao living

at its very center. In villages under

the particular protection of one

of the gods, the temple hut also

contains a sacred rock in which

the god dwells.

Divine dependence

The Warao gods depend on humans

to nourish them with offerings,

especially tobacco smoke; in return,

the Warao depend on the gods for

health and life. This lifelong bond

with the gods is established as

soon as a baby is born. The child’s

first cry is said to carry across the

world to the mountain of Ariawara,

the God of Origin, in the east; in

return, the god sends back a cry of

welcome. Soon after a baby is born,

Hahuba, the Snake of Being, sends

a balmy breeze to the village, to

embrace the new arrival. From that

point on, the baby becomes part

of the complex balance between

natural and supernatural that

forms the web of Warao daily life. ■

PRIMAL BELIEFS

In Warao myth, the Bird of Beautiful

Plumage is believed to provide

supernatural protection to children.

A child that dies is said to be claimed

as food by spirits of the underworld.

IN CONTEXT

KEY BELIEVERS
Warao

WHEN AND WHERE
From 6000 BCE, the Orinoco
Delta, Venezuela

BEFORE
From prehistory The
Warao are one of the largest
indigenous groups in the
Latin American lowland.

AFTER
16th century Europeans
first encounter the Warao
and compare their settlements
with similar structures in
Venice, giving Venezuela
(“little Venice” in Spanish)
its name.

From 1960s Environmental
degredation in the region
affects local fisheries and
displaces tribespeople
to the cities; some are
converted to Catholicism.

2001 More than 36,000 Warao
people are registered as living
in the Orinoco Delta area.

EVERYTHING

IS CONNECTED

A LIFELONG BOND WITH THE GODS