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OTTO ZERRIES (1987)
Translated from German by John Maressa
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIAN RELIGIONS:
MYTHIC THEMES
South American mythology is a vast field whose purview ex-
tends linguistically and archaeologically beyond the conti-
nent proper to include the oral traditions of Panama and
eastern Costa Rica as well as those of the autochthonous in-
habitants of the West Indies. This article will consider myths
from the point of view of religious studies and will emphasize
the cosmological patterns and sacred symbolism in narratives
from nonliterate South American societies of both ancient
and modern times.
Since the early sixteenth century more than one thou-
sand languages, representing a variety of linguistic stocks and
many unrelated tongues, have been listed for this area—a
fact that suggests that South America was populated over a
great number of centuries by successive migratory groups
that trekked down from Siberia, North America, and Central
America. One classification of South American languages at-
tempts to reduce hundreds of mutually unintelligible
tongues to only three groups: Macro-Chibchan, Andean-
Equatorial, and Ge-Pano-Carib. This classification, however,
is admittedly provisional and, in the case of the last two
groups, very uncertain. These migrations began more than
twenty thousand years ago. The majority of early South
American archaeological sites date from between twelve and
fourteen thousand years ago, but quartz tools found in Brazil
in 1983 have been dated at about twenty-five thousand years
before the present.
The higher civilizations of ancient South America occu-
pied the Andean region and the Pacific coast from northern
Colombia to central Chile. From the point of view of mytho-
logical studies the more or less “primitive” cultures are at
least as important as the higher civilizations because the less
developed societies usually possess abundant collections of
sacred stories. The exceeding diversity of South American ab-
original peoples has precluded the formation of a common
pantheon or mythico-religious system for the whole conti-
nent. Nevertheless, since many societies have been in contact
at one time or another, more than a few myths are common
to several tribes. Moreover, a large number of motifs are not
only found in the mythologies of different South American
groups but are also known to peoples of other continents,
leaving room for speculation as to whether these motifs
spread through diffusion or originated independently.
MYTHS OF ORIGIN. South American sacred stories about
how the world originated do not, as a rule, conform to the
pattern of creation out of nothing by the will of an omnipo-
tent god. Rather, they commonly depict the coming into
being and unfolding of a primordial spirit. In many cases lit-
tle is said about the actual genesis of the world, but a detailed
description of the structure of the universe is given. This de-
scription points out the universe’s tiered levels, the axis
mundi (often in the shape of a cosmic tree), and the heavenly
bodies (whose existence is mostly conceived as the product
of the transformation of heroes, animals, or other creatures).8586 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIAN RELIGIONS: MYTHIC THEMES