Abstract
The monster known as Mapinguari is widely mentioned throughout Amazonia. The Karitiana people (speaking a Tupí language of the Arikém family) in northern Rondônia state equate the Portuguese term “Mapinguari” with a monster they call Owojo or Kida harara in their own language, relating tales of frightening encounters in the jungle. Whereas the Mapinguari is generally treated in the literature as a folkloric belief (i.e. an “Amazonian yeti or bigfoot”), there is no doubt among the Karitiana that this creature exists. We can perceive the monster’s reality in the effects it has on the ways the Karitiana occupy and explore their territory. Moreover some scholars have suggested that the Mapinguari could be a kind of living fossil, or folkloric memory of the Giant Sloths that used to roam in this region in the past, and that perhaps is still around. The present article focuses on the dialogue between folkloric beliefs, indigenous ontologies, and scientific hypotheses.
Keywords
Mapinguari; Karitiana Indians; Ontology; Myth; Fiction; Folklore