Waya nukuthi buhana
Waya nukuthi bunaha is an Arawakan name from Lokono. This is referring to milky way.
Etymology and History
Spelling Variants
Origin of Constellation
The Milky Way is known among the Lokono as Waya nukuthi bunaha, literally ‘Path of the carriers of clay’. The Milky Way represents the footprints of men who once went to fetch clay for making pots, an art that is, rarely if at all, practiced by the Lokono today. The origin of the name, however, is still known, and is summarized in a myth.[1] The same name for Milky Way was noted by William Brett who adds that it is named after a specific whitish type of clay.[2] Charles Dance, on the other hand, says that the Milky Way represents the footprints of peccaries rooting up the clay, while Walter Roth mentions a different Lokono explanation, according to which the Milky way represents a tapir chased by a dog and jaguar.[3][4] However, these two sources do not give the corresponding Lokono name for the Milky Way, and it is possible that these two explanations are a Kari’na influence, who recognize a constellation of a tiger following the constellation of a tapir within that of the Milky Way.[5]
Mythology / Religion
Weblinks
References
- References (general)
- ↑ Bennett, John P. 1995. Twenty-Eight Lessons in Loko (Arawak): A Teaching Guide. Georgetown, Guyana: Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology.
- ↑ Brett, William Henry. 1868. The Indian Tribes of Guiana: Their Condition and Habits. London: Bell and Daldy.
- ↑ Roth, Walter Edmund. 1915. An Inquiry into the Animism and Folk-Lore of the Guiana Indians. Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology 30. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.
- ↑ Dance, Charles D. 1881. Chapters from a Guianese Log Book. Georgetown, Guyana.
- ↑ Penard, Frederik Paul, and Arthur Philip Penard. 1907. De Menschetende Aanbidders Der Zonneslang. Paramaribo: H.B. Heyde.
