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Maní (Amazonian Legend)
Maní, a Tupí myth of origins, is the name of an indigenous girl with very fair complexion. The Amazonian legend of Maní is related to the cult of Manioc ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ..., the native staple food that sprang from her grave. The legend The daughter of a Tupí chief became pregnant. Her father wanted to take revenge on the man who brought shame to his family and dishonour to his pride despite her saying that she had known no man. He insisted that she revealed the name of the man and even made use of prayers, threats and finally severe punishments. As she refused to say, her father held her prisoner inside a hut and decided to kill her. So with this thought in mind the chief of the tribe went to sleep and dreamed of a white-skinned man dressed like ...
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Tupí People
A subdivision of the Tupi-Guarani linguistic families, the Tupi people were one of the largest groups of indigenous Brazilians before its colonization. Scholars believe that while they first settled in the Amazon rainforest, from about 2,900 years ago the Tupi started to migrate southward and gradually occupied the Atlantic coast of Southeast Brazil. Many Tupi people today are merged with the Guaraní people, forming the Tupi–Guarani languages. Guarani languages are linguistically different from the Tupian languages. History The Tupi people inhabited almost all of Brazil's coast when the Portuguese first arrived there. In 1500, their population was estimated at 1 million people, nearly equal to the population of Portugal at the time. They were divided into tribes, each tribe numbering from 300 to 2,000 people. Some examples of these tribes are: ''Tupiniquim'', '' Tupinambá'', ''Potiguara'', ''Tabajara'', '' Caetés'', ''Temiminó'', ''Tamoios''. The Tupi were adept agricu ...
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Myth Of Origins
An origin myth is a myth that describes the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the creation or cosmogonic myth, a story that describes the creation of the world. However, many cultures have stories set in a time after a first origin - such stories aim to account for the beginnings of natural phenomena or of human institutions within a preexisting universe. In Graeco-Roman scholarship, the terms etiological myth and ''aition'' (from the Ancient Greek αἴτιον, "cause") are sometimes used for a myth that explains an origin, particularly how an object or custom came into existence. Nature of origin myths Every origin myth is a tale of creation: origin myths describe how some reality came into existence.Eliade, p. 21 In many cases, origin myths also justify the established order by explaining that it was established by sacred forces (see section on "Social function" below). The distinction between cosmogonic myths and origin ...
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Amazon Basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Most of the basin is covered by the Amazon rainforest, also known as Amazonia. With a area of dense tropical forest, this is the largest rainforest in the world.   Geography The Amazon River begins in the Andes Mountains at the west of the basin with its main tributary the Marañón River and Apurimac River in Peru. The highest point in the watershed of the Amazon is the second biggest peak of Yerupajá at . With a length of about before it drains into the Atlantic Ocean, it is one of the two longest rivers in the world. A team of scientists has claimed that the Amazon is longer than the Nile, but debate about its exact length continues. The Amazon system ...
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Legend
A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude (literature), verisimilitude. Legend, for its active and passive participants may include miracles. Legends may be transformed over time to keep them fresh and vital. Many legends operate within the realm of uncertainty, never being entirely believed by the participants, but also never being resolutely doubted. Legends are sometimes distinguished from myths in that they concern human beings as the main characters rather than gods, and sometimes in that they have some sort of historical basis whereas myths generally do not. The Brothers Grimm defined ''legend'' as "Folklore, folktale historically grounded". A by-product of the "concern with human beings" is the long list o ...
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Cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated as an annual agriculture, crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates. Though it is often called ''yuca'' in parts of Spanish America and in the United States, it is not related to yucca, a shrub in the family Asparagaceae. Cassava is predominantly consumed in boiled form, but substantial quantities are used to extract cassava starch, called tapioca, which is used for food, animal feed, and industrial purposes. The Brazilian farinha, and the related ''garri'' of West Africa, is an edible coarse flour obtained by grating cassava roots, pressing moisture off the obtained grated pulp, and finally drying it (and roasting both in the case of farinha and garri). Cassav ...
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Tupi–Guarani Languages
Tupi–Guarani () is the most widely distributed subfamily of the Tupian languages of South America. It consists of about fifty languages, including Guarani and Old Tupi. The words ''petunia, jaguar, piranha, ipecac, tapioca, jacaranda, anhinga, carioca'', and ''capoeira'' are of Tupi–Guarani origin. Classification Rodrigues & Cabral (2012) Rodrigues & Cabral (2012) propose eight branches of Tupí–Guaraní: *Guaraní (Group I) * Guarayu (Group II): Guarayu, Pauserna**, Sirionó (dialects: Yuqui, Jorá**) *Tupí (Group III): Old Tupi (lingua franca dialect: Tupí Austral), Tupinambá (dialects: Nheengatu, Língua Geral as lingua franca, and Potiguára), Cocama–Omagua*, Tupinikin** * Tenetehara (Group IV): Akwáwa (dialects: Asuriní, Suruí do Pará, Parakanã), Avá-Canoeiro, Tapirapé, Tenetehára (dialects: Guajajara, Tembé), Turiwára * Kawahíb (Group VI): Apiacá, Kawahíb (numerous varieties; incl. Piripkúra, Diahói?), Kayabí, Karipúna, ? Uru-Pa-I ...
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Brazilian Mythology
Brazilian mythology is the subset of Brazilian folklore with cultural elements of diverse origin found in Brazil, comprising folk tales, traditions, characters and beliefs regarding places, people, and entities. The category was originally restricted to indigenous elements, but has been extended to include: * Medieval iberic traditions brought by the Portuguese settlers, some of which are forgotten or very diminished in Portugal itself; as well as other European nations folklore, such as Italy, Germany and Poland. * African traditions brought by Africans to Brazil as slaves during the colonial times—including their religious beliefs; * Elements originated in Brazil by the contact of the three different traditions; * Contemporary elements that are re-elaborations of old traditions. Because Brazil is a melting pot of cultures, many elements of Brazilian mythology are shared by the traditions of other countries, especially its South American neighbors and Portugal. Prominent ...
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Tupinambá People
The Tupinambá are one of the various Tupi ethnic groups that inhabited present-day Brazil since before the conquest of the region by Portuguese colonial settlers. In the first years of contact with the Portuguese, the Tupinambás lived in the whole Eastern coast of Brazil, and the name was also applied to other Tupi-speaking groups such as the Tupiniquim, Potiguara, Tupinambá, Temiminó, Caeté, Tabajara, Tamoio, and Tupinaé, among others. In an exclusive sense, it can be applied to the Tupinambá peoples who once inhabited the right shore of the São Francisco river in the Recôncavo Baiano and from the Cabo de São Tomé in Rio de Janeiro to the town of São Sebastião in São Paulo. Their language survives today in the form of Nheengatu. History Hundreds of years before the arrival of the Portuguese, the Tupinambá are said to have migrated from the South coast of Brazil to the Northern coast for the sake of better hunting and agricultural opportunities. From here ...
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Albinism
Albinism is the congenital absence of melanin in an animal or plant resulting in white hair, feathers, scales and skin and pink or blue eyes. Individuals with the condition are referred to as albino. Varied use and interpretation of the terms mean that written reports of albinistic animals can be difficult to verify. Albinism can reduce the survivability of an animal; for example, it has been suggested that albino alligators have an average survival span of only 24 hours due to the lack of protection from UV radiation and their lack of camouflage to avoid predators. It is a common misconception that all albino animals have characteristic pink or red eyes (resulting from the lack of pigment in the iris allowing the blood vessels of the retina to be visible), however this is not the case for some forms of albinism. Familiar albino animals include in-bred strains of laboratory animals (rats, mice and rabbits), but populations of naturally occurring albino animals exist in the wil ...
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Hainuwele
Hainuwele, "The Coconut Girl", is a figure from the Wemale and Alune folklore of the island of Seram in the Maluku Islands, Indonesia. Her story is an origin myth. The myth of Hainuwele was recorded by German ethnologist Adolf E. Jensen following the Frobenius Institute's 1937–8 expedition to the Maluku Islands. The study of this myth during his research on religious sacrifice led Jensen to the introduction of the concept of Dema Deity in ethnology. Joseph Campbell first narrated the Hainuwele legend to an English-speaking audience in his work ''The Masks of God''. Myth While hunting one day a man named Ameta found a coconut, something never before seen on Seram, that had been caught in the tusk of a wild boar. Ameta, who was part of one of the original nine families of the West Ceram people who had emerged from bananas, took the coconut home. That night, a figure appeared in a dream and instructed him to plant the coconut. Ameta did so, and in just a few days the coconut g ...
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Amazon Mythology
Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company Amazon or Amazone may also refer to: Places South America * Amazon Basin (sedimentary basin), a sedimentary basin at the middle and lower course of the river * Amazon basin, the part of South America drained by the river and its tributaries * Amazon Reef, at the mouth of the Amazon basin Elsewhere * 1042 Amazone, an asteroid * Amazon Creek, a stream in Oregon, US People * Amazon Eve (born 1979), American model, fitness trainer, and actress * Lesa Lewis (born 1967), American professional bodybuilder nicknamed "Amazon" Art and entertainment Fictional characters * Amazon (Amalgam Comics) * Amazon, an alias of the Marvel supervillain Man-Killer * Amazons (DC Comics), a group of superhuman characters * The Amazon, a ''Di ...
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