It would appear that the tribal religions of the southern
areas of South America were, in general, marked by a belief
in a supreme god. The Araucanians of the southern Andes,
and in particular the Mapuche, have left behind traces of the
concept of a superior god, as well as a devout veneration of
him that survived well into the eighteenth century. In most
instances the supreme being is referred to as either Ngenec-
hen (“lord of mankind”) or Ngenemapun (“lord of the
land”). Other, more feminine descriptions may reveal an an-
drogynous character. Ngenechen is thought of as living in
heaven or in the sun and is credited with being the creator
of the world as well as the provider of life and of the fruits
of the earth. Although he is responsible for the well-
being of mankind, he is not associated with the moral laws.
An individual would turn to Ngenechen in personal emer-
gencies with prayers, the sacrifice of an animal, or an offering
of the first fruits of the harvest. A public ritual known as the
Ngillatun, which has survived up to the present time among
the Araucanians, consists of offering the blood of a sacrificial
animal to him. Two important objects employed at this feast
are the rewe, a thick, step-notched pole, and a sacrificial altar,
both of which are circled by the participants at the beginning
of the ceremony. In addition to the master of ceremonies,
the female shaman (machi) takes over some of the most vital
functions at the Ngillatun. With a flat drum (kultrun), she
climbs the ceremonial pole and upon reaching the top turns
to Ngenechen, who is now symbolically nearer. Métraux
(1949, p. 561) and John M. Cooper (1946, pp. 742–743)
have both come to the conclusion that in this instance the
older features of god among the Araucanians have been con-
ceptually modified through the centuries to conform with
the concepts of the conquering Western civilization.
Earlier Spanish chroniclers viewed the thunder god Pil-
lán as the central, if not the supreme, being of the Araucani-
ans. Ewald Böning, in a more recent account, pointed out
convincingly that the Mapuche describe Pillán in general as
a powerful, extraordinary, and tremendous apparition (Bön-
ing, 1974, p. 175). Pillán primarily represents an impersonal
power, but he can also manifest himself in a personal form.
The concept of impersonal power seldom occurs in the men-
tality of the South American Indians. The Nambikwára of
the Mato Grosso, for example, believe in an abstract power,
known as nande, that is present in certain things and that
contains a magic poison or a real poison. Although any indi-
vidual can, to a certain extent, achieve contact with nande,
it is the shamans above all who can manipulate this power.
NATURE SPIRITS, HUNTING RITUALS, AND VEGETATION
RITES. In dealing with beliefs in a superior god, I have men-
tioned how the lord, or master, of the animals is one way in
which the supreme being is conceptualized among South
American tribes. Owing to the fact that hunting belongs to
one of the oldest phases of human history, gods who are asso-
ciated with this category of subsistence represent archaic be-
liefs. Not only do the Indians of South America believe in
a master of all animals but they frequently display a belief
in supernatural protectors of the various animal species. Such
nature spirits characteristically display strong individualistic
tendencies and are often considered to be demons (Métraux,
1949). From the standpoint of cultural history, they are re-
lated to the lord of all beasts and have affinities with him that
stem from the same hunting and fishing mentality.
Tupi master of the animals. The most important rep-
resentation of a master of the animals in the tropical lowlands
is the forest spirit Korupira, or Kaapora, of the ancient east-
ern Tupi and a few primitive isolates of the Tupi tribes, as
well as of the caboclo, or mixed race, people of Brazil. A series
of recorded myths and verbal descriptions have facilitated a
reconstruction of this deity.
Although the use of two names creates the impression
that Korupira and Kaapora are two separate mythical figures,
they are so closely related as to be nearly indistinguishable.
Korupira, the master of the animals, is the protecting spirit
of the beasts as well as of the forest; he punishes those who
maliciously destroy the game and rewards those who obey
him or those on whom he takes pity. For a portion of tobac-
co, Korupira will lift the restrictions that he places on the
killing of his animals. Encounters in recent times with a
small isolated Tupi tribe, the Pauserna Guarasug’wä, who
live in eastern Bolivia, have shown that the belief in Ko-
rupira/Kaapora has survived. Kaapora originated as a human
being—that is, he was created from the soul of a Guarasu
Indian. He is the lord of all animals of the forest and has put
his mark somewhere on each of the wild animals, usually on
its ear. A hunter must turn to him with a plea to release part
of the game, but he is only allowed to kill as many as he will
absolutely need for the moment. In thanksgiving for his suc-
cess, the hunter will leave the skin, the feet, or the entrails
of the slain animal behind when he leaves the forest: by doing
so he begs forgiveness from the animal for having killed it.
After such reconciliations, the soul of the animal returns
home to Kaapora. Presumably this tribe, like others, believes
either that the spiritual owner of the game will create an en-
tirely new animal or that the soul of the animal itself is capa-
ble of reproducing a new material form from the remains the
hunter leaves behind. (The preservation of the bones of game
in the so-called bone ritual appears to be widely distributed
throughout South America.)
Kurupi-vyra of the Guarasug’wä is a part-animal, part-
human forest spirit, but not a lord of the animals. He is,
however, a possible source of help for hunters in emergen-
cies. At such times he will lend his miraculous weapon, a
hardwood wand that he himself uses to kill game, and in re-
turn he demands total obedience. Evidence of a master of the
animals and a helping spirit is well documented in other re-
gions of the South American subcontinent.
Mundurucú protective mother spirit. In the Amazon
region, the idea of a lord of all animals is sometimes replaced
by the belief in a lord or master of each individual animal
species, and sometimes both concepts occur. Starting from
the basic Tupi premise that every object in nature possesses
a mother (cy), the Mundurucú, a Tupi-speaking group, rec-8580 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIAN RELIGIONS: AN OVERVIEW