Mpinguari or Mpinguary, (also called the ''Juma'') are monsterous jungle-dwelling spirits from
Brazilian folklore.
Description
There are two major depictions of it. Some described them as a hairy humanoid
cyclops
In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, the Cyclopes ( ; el, Κύκλωπες, ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes"; singular Cyclops ; , ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures. Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguish ...
. This version is often said to have a gaping mouth on its abdomen.
Others claim that it is a modern day sighting of the
giant ground sloth, an animal estimated to have gone extinct during the early
holocene.
[Oren, David C. "Does the Endangered Xenarthran Fauna of Amazonia Include Remnant Ground Sloths?", ''Edentata'' (June 2001) p. 2-5] Skeptics point out that there haven't been any fossil records of ground sloths for thousands of years
Terminology
According to Felipe Ferreira Vander Velden, its name is a combination of the
Tupi-Guarani words "mbaé", "pi", and "guari", meaning "''a thing that has a bent ''
r' crooked foot ''
r' paw''".
[Felipe Ferreira Vander Velden "Sobre caes e indios: domesticidade, classificacao zoologica e relacao humano-animal entre os Karitiana", ''Revista de Antropología'' 15 (2009) p. 125-143] Other names by which they are referred to include the
Karitiana
The Karitiana or Caritiana are an indigenous people of Brazil, whose reservation is located in the western Amazon. They count 320 members, and the leader of their tribal association is Renato Caritiana. They subsist by farming, fishing and hunt ...
''kida harara'',
and the
Machiguenga
The Machiguenga (also Matsigenka, Matsigenga) are an indigenous people who live in the high jungle, or''montaña'', area on the eastern slopes of the Andes and in the Amazon Basin jungle regions of southeastern Peru. Their population in 2020 amou ...
''segamai''.
See also
*
List of legendary creatures
* ''
Mylodon''
References
Sources
*
Martin, Paul S. 2007. ''Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America''.
University of California Press.
*Shepard, G. H. 2002. "Primates and the Matsigenka" in Agustín Fuentes & Linda D. Wolfe. ''Primates Face to Face: The Conservation Implications of Human-nonhuman Primate Interconnections''.
Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN, 9781139441476
Brazilian folklore
Indigenous Amazonian legendary creatures