Tiri (Rodrigues’s Yurukaré account)

Overview

The Mamoré account places Tiri’s birth within the aftermath of an earth-burning catastrophe. A survivor’s daughter takes the tree-man Ulé as her partner; after his violent death, restoration and departure, she loses her way and enters the jaguar household. The four-eyed jaguar kills her and removes the child she is about to bear. His mother secretly saves that child, Tiri, and raises him. A paca later tells Tiri that he lives with his parents’ killers. He kills three jaguar brothers, while the four-eyed one escapes into the moon.

Tiri nevertheless provides the bereaved jaguar mother with an instantly made cultivated field. Later he creates a companion, Karu, from a detached toenail placed inside hollow wood. At a bird’s feast, an inexhaustible vessel of chicha becomes the source of another inundation when Tiri throws it down. Karu dies in the flood; after the land dries, Tiri restores him from his bones. This episode explicitly includes death and restoration, unlike Rairu’s escapes in the separate Tapajós tale.

Tiri and Karu seek further companions through unions with female animals. The account gives pairs of human children and says Tiri corrects the initial position of the women’s eyes. Karu later eats cassava roots discovered in the grave of his son, against Tiri’s prohibition. Tiri announces mortality, work and suffering as the consequence. A subsequent duck-eating episode leads Karu to vomit parrots, toucans and other birds; the two meals are separate events.

Finding blood on the jaguar mother’s mouth, Tiri threatens her until she explains that she ate someone already killed by a serpent. He changes her into a scavenging vulture, orders a Uacauan bird to kill the serpent and opens the way for people to emerge from its hole. Alarmed by their numbers, he closes the opening. A rain of arrows arms the emerging peoples and helps separate them through conflict before he brings peace. Finally he tests possible destinations with a messenger bird: it returns partly plucked from the east and north but beautifully feathered from the west. Tiri follows the western route and does not return in this account.

D’Orbigny’s earlier French account, published in 1844 within the record of his 1832 travels, supplies a fuller western departure. Tiri takes several people with him: they become immortal and grow young again when they age. That ending is stronger than the simple disappearance in Rodrigues. The earlier account also says Tiri closes the emergence hole because he fears a man about to appear as king of all the peoples, whereas Rodrigues emphasizes the growing multitude. These are differences in the printed witnesses, not details silently supplied to the later telling. D’Orbigny’s blanket assertion that every Yurakaré person knew and resented these figures is his colonial-era generalization, not evidence of universal present belief.

Origins & earliest records

Rodrigues1890, Tiri e Karu,252–255, labelled Yurukaré/Rio Mamoré, expressly cites d’Orbigny. The earlier French witness is Voyage dans l’Amérique méridionale, tomeIII, part1 (1844),209–215, in the narrative of1832 travels. On199 d’Orbigny credits Father Lacueva, an eighteen-year resident among Yurakaré people, for much of his regional description; he does not assign this whole myth to a named individual teller. Publication dates are not interview dates.

Records & interpretation

Complete Portuguese252–255 narrative and its footnotes visually read, through Tiri’s western departure;256blank. The preceding Munduruku Cáru/Rairu account is a distinct source and cast. Comparison with d’Orbigny’s complete209–215 myth sequence and contextual199 note; original title and213–215 scans confirm1844, maní and the immortal companions. The two authors’ wording and colonial generalizations are distinguished.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Poranduba amazonense, ou Kochiyma-uara porandub

   João Barbosa Rodrigues · 1890

   Complete Tiri e Karu,252–255, labelled Yurukaré/Rio Mamoré; explicitly cites d’Orbigny, whose earlier French version is separately compared.

2. 02

   Voyage dans l’Amérique méridionale, tomeIII, première partie: Partie historique

   Alcide d’Orbigny · 1844

   Complete myth sequence209–215, with regional provenance note199. Travels framed as1832; title1844 verified in original image. Lacueva credit concerns much of the regional description, not an individually attributed performance of each episode.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary textUFPE: Barbosa Rodrigues1890 original scanResearch access: 2026-10-05
2. Primary textInternet Archive / Smithsonian Libraries: d’Orbigny1844 tomeIII part1 originalResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.