ANTROPOLOGICA 68, 1987; 49-58 Try In the absence of gods: the Yekuana road to the sacred David Guss A common feature of not only South American native religions but of the religious traditions of tribal peoples everywhere is that of the "absent god," the deus otiosus who, after creating the human universe and the various cultural features that define it, removes himself forever after. For peoples faced with the crisis ofan absent creator no longer participating in the destiny of a world he or she has initiated, itis left fo myths to explain why such a cruel and tragic abandonment has occurred, One of the most common mythic structures for this explanation is that of the "prolonged flight;" a story detailing how the god or culture hero is literally chased from the earth by demons whom he himself has inadvertently created, Referred to’ by Mircea Eliade as “the myth of estrangement” (1984: 146), this tale is by no means restricted to what might be termed "primitive cultures.” For even among Andean groups who have adopted Christianity, such as the Quichua-speaking Chibuleo of Ecuador, the tale of Jesus is recastasa narrative of flight wherein the Romansand Pharisecs are converted into demons chasing the new culture hero from the earth (Stark 1976). As Eliade (1960) and others have pointed out, religious traditions wherein the Sod or gods have absented themselves, lack the type of supplication and prayer commonly found in the Judeo-Christian world. For them there is no supreme and interceding “Other.” As the Fang of Africa say: God (Nzame) is up on high, man down below. God is God, man is man; Each in his place, cach in his house (Eliade 1960: 135), Yet while Ged may be separate orestranged, the sacred is not. For it is precisely those asserting God's absence who recognize his presence everywhere. God is not incarnate ina single figure but immanent in all -the world he constructed and the world he left untouched.‘Among the Carib-speaking Yekuana Indians of the Upper Orinoco territory of Venezuela, this immanence is experienced in two principal ways -through historical incorporationand the concept of lidi’uma. In the first of these, the events of the culture hero's ifeare translated directly into thelandscape itself, giving the natural world the power formerly limited to his person alone. Butit is notmerely the details ofa mythic v iverse that undergo such transference, for historical events such as the coming of the Spanish and the arrival of iron, are mediated by myth and through itrelocated in the same cosmos (Guss 1981, 1986a,b). With tidi’wma this immanenceis not experienced in the worldas constituted but rather the world as constructed. Derived from the verbtidi, "to make," tidi’wma are the collective artifacts of the culture, the sum total of everything one must learn in order to be considered a Yekuana. These are the ‘essential items, from canoes and graters to houses and baskets, the things that not only distinguish the Yekuana as a society but incorporate the symbols that allow them to survive. Based on the models the culture hero Wanadi brought from Heaven, these artifacts reflect his continued sacred presence, an immanence found not merely in special ‘objects or ritual moments but in the simple construction of daily life (Guss 1989). Such power, however, is relative as evidenced by the Yekuana concept of the animal or non-human. While the Yekuana claim that animals possess the same six souls as humans, itis repeatedly emphasized that the creatures one sees walking the earth are only replicas of the first ones that existed. These "First People,” who had the power to change forms at will, left them here as “examples to show those of today how it had been in the beginning,” The carth’s present animals are not nearly as powerful as the originals, differing as much from them as ordinary humans are said to differ from shamans. Like shamans, the First People did not have “doubles” called akato but rather damodede. In contrast to the passive, uncontrollable akato of an ordinary human, the damodede is an independent soul that can be directed at will. Whenever its owner desires, itcan be removed from the body and dispal tched into the supernatural. For those possessing damodede, the form the body takes is irrelevant, as the barriers between realities are only transparencies to be easily transcended. The First People, just as shamans do today, lived ina polymorphous state in which no boundaries yet existed. It was the time of origins (illud tempus) when Heaven and Farth were still connected and the distinctions between species not yet recognized. Only when these divisions solidified did the First People finally remove themselves. from Earth, leaving their forms behind as reminders of what this Dream Time had been like. . After their withdrawal from Earth, each of the First People became the “Master” or Arache of the species they engendered. In addition to bequeathing is form, each rracite is also.credited with developing every aspect ofa species culture. AS such, all the Arache are perceived as culture heroes of their own species, with the deeds they performed in the Old Time serving as invisible prototypes for them to follow. The tradition of the humans -which the Yekuana refer to in all of its manifestations as Waturina- is not scenas unique but as onc of many, recast in as many versions as there are species. What is unique is the form taken, a form determined by the So'te Arache.This "Master of the Humans’ is Wanadi, the son of the Sun sent to Earth "to make people” (de Civrieux 1980: 21) and to give them the skills with which to survive. The record of his stay, however, is much more than a simple genesis of the Yekuana and the cultural forms that define them. For as Wanadi gives birth to form itself, his adventures turn into the quintessential models ofa duality that eventually drives him from the Earth. Wanadi appeared on the Earth three times, each one asa separate incarnation of the damodede of that other invisible Wanadi who lives in Kahufa: “He sent his messenger, a damodede. He was born here to make houses and good people, like inthe Sky Place. That damodede was Wanadi's spirit. He was the Earth's first Wanadi, made by the other Wanadi who lives in Kahuita. That other Wanadi never came down to the Earth, The one that came was the other's spirit. Later on, two more damodede came here. They were other forms of Wanadi’s spirit" (de Civricux 1980: 21). In each of these manifestations Wanadi's work is deemed by him a failure, leading to his return to Heavenand the end of thecycle. Instead of recreating Kahufa on Earth as he sets out to, Wanadi's efforts result in an ever-increasing rift between the previously united worlds of the visible and supernatural. Where no dualities originally exist, Wanadi’s creations inadvertently beget them, Time after time his efforts backfire, producing the opposite effect for which they were intended. Finally, bereft and threatened by the monster he has made -Odosha- Wanadi admits defeat and returns to Heaven forever. In what is the great tragedy (and irony) of the Watunna, Wanadi must ultimately reject his own creation. He now becomes a deus otiosus, indifferent to the problems of the world he has made and playing no further part in it. Yet the imperfection of Yekuana creation is not without the hope of redemption. Upon his departure, Wanadi promises the eventual arrival of another cycle, an apocalyptic fourth one in which a new damodede will come to reunite ° Heaven and Earth: “T'm going,” he said. "I'm going back to Heaven. I can’t live here anymore. Odosha has made himself Master of the Earth. There's fighting, war, sickness, death, evil of every kind.” “I'm going, I'll return soon, Odosha will die. When Odosha dies, the Earth will end. Then there will be another one, a good one. The sun, the moon, the stars are all going to fall on the Earth. This sky is going to fall. It'sa bad sky, a false one. Then you'll see the good Sky (Heaven) again, thereal one, like in the beginning. When the sun falls, Wanadi’s light will come back and shine. I'l return. I'll send you my new damodede, the new Wanadi. It will be me with another body, the Wanadi of the new Earth” (de Civriewx 1980: 161). As indicated, the fourth cycle will once again return the Earth to the original state of perfection in which Wanadi first discovered it. At that time it was simply an extension of Heaven, a single infinite space filled with cternal light. There were no material forms, and if Wanadi wished to create something he merely dreamed it. Hence the name of his first incarnation, Seruhe Ianadi, "The Thinker.” Whenever he made something, he just took his maraca and tobacco and thought it. This is exactly