Navigating the Turiaçu: A Cosmological Reproduction of the Amazon River and a Canoe Snake Myth and Its Relationship with the Stilt Villages from Maranhão

ABSTRACT

The indigenous Amazonian sources, especially in the Northwestern side, such as among the Tukano, report an oral transmission on the creation of the world by an anaconda that moves inside the Amazon River whose shores the serpent populates as it meanders through the waters of the great river, giving rise to primitive villages. This myth seems to be very ancient and it has been shared by various Amazonian peoples along the Amazon trough because of an efficient culturally symbolic message widely accepted among them, and therefore it appears in opposed areas within the Amazon, both between the Northwestern portion and the estuary of Maranhão. This paper presents this evidence using Amazonian archaeological ceramics from the stilt villages of Maranhão.

Keywords:
snake canoe myth; anaconda; shamanism; archaeological ceramics; stilt villages in Maranhão