Kurupi

Curupi (Curupí) or Kurupi is a figure in Guaraní mythology, known particularly for an elongated penis that can wind once or several turns around the waist or torso, or wrap around its arms, and feared as the abductor and rapist of women.

He is one of the seven monstrous children of Tau and Kerana, and as such is one of the central legendary figures in the region of Guaraní speaking cultures.[1] The curupí is one of the most widespread myth in the region.[3]

## Contents

* 1 Myths
* 1.1 Early record
* 1.2 Elongated phallus
* 1.3 Absence of phallic exaggeration
* 1.4 Abductor
* 1.5 Protector or prankster
* 1.6 Parallels
* 1.7 Children of Tau and Kerana
* 2 Curuzú-yeguá ritual
* 3 Kurupi of the Guianas
* 3.1 Other phallic parallels
* 4 In popular art
* 5 See also
* 6 Explanatory notes
* 7 References
* 7.1 Bibliography

## Myths

The modern so-called "Paraguayan" variety of Curupi/Kurupi[4][5] is said to be short or small-bodied[6] (like a child or be agéd[7]), ugly,[4][8] and hairy[8] (or naked[4]), and marked by its disproportionately long penis wrapped around the waist.[4] This curupí's backward-pointing feet.[4] will confuse anyone following its tracks and lead humans into the thicket or underbrush[9] (which is also characteristic of the curupira). It is also regarded as a protector of nature.[10]

The profile synthesized by Paulo de Carvalho Neto [es; es](1992) adds that it has bronze-tanned skin with black eyes and straight hair,[11] while other sources give it "scaly skin" and large ears.[12] According to some informants, it has the power of invisibility, and uses it as a form of defense, and kidnaps women and children using its penis as a lasso.[4]

Other embellishments which have appeared are that it has a body without any joints (articulation), and that some consider it to be a duende with one hand made of lead and another hand made of wool.[10]

### Early record

The purported existence of the Curupi was logged in the 1793 diary of the explorer Juan Francisco Aguirre [es; es; Juan Francisco Aguirre].[6] Aguirre received information secondhand from a Friar Henrique Ruano who allegedly witnessed several Curupis who had been captured by the Mbayá people. These curupí were diminutive in size compared to ordinary humans, and had peculiar genitals:

> "These [Curupis] are pygmies to the extreme, and their reproductive parts are extraordinary: for the female, her vulva forms a natural T figure, [like] the Roman letter; and for the male his "[male] member is so deformed that on his small body it extends once around the waist and reaches [the front]".[14]

Father Ruano (not Friar Ruano, the eyewitness) was one of those who considered the existence of the Curupí to be ridiculous, as did Aguirre himself,[lower-alpha 1][13] having understood the Curupi to be another (fabulous) tribe of deformed Indians.[5]

### Elongated phallus

Curupí's most distinctive feature is the penis which could wrap once around the waist, as attested by Aguirre in 1793.[15]

While the long penis feature and identification as a fertility symbol[17] is ubiquitous in written sources,[18] only a small percentage of Guaraní informants elocuted to the Curupí being equipped with such "a long penis which he can twine around his arm", according to a 1977 statistical study by Martha Blache.[7][lower-alpha 2]

The poet Eloy Fariña Nuñez (1926) has attested to the lore that the Curupí binds (enlazar) or lassos[8] women with his elongated penis, and the women are able to make a getaway by cutting it off.[20] The Curupí loses all his special powers when that happens, because that is where his source of power lies.[21]

On the authority of Fariña Nuñez, it is extrapolated that this penis must be long enough to wrap around the body several times.[22] Thus in the modern exaggerated telling, Kurupi's humongous penis winds several times around his waist like a belt.[23]

### Absence of phallic exaggeration

Pai Tavytera woodcarving of a Curupi (or perhaps rather the Mboguá Vusú[24]).―Amambay Dept., Paraguay

Not all indigenous peoples ascribe this extraordinary size or length to the phallus of the Curupi. As aforementioned, the 1977 study found only a couple of informants familiar with this stereotype.[7]

In fact, the qualification "Kurupi of Paraguay" (paraguayo) has been used to denote the Kurupi with the attached attribute (of the exaggerated penis).[5][4] Cf. § Kurupi of the Guianas

Anthropologist Alfred Métraux referred to the curupí without any such mention.[25] Nor is the elongated penis part of the profile of the Curupi among the Mbyá Guaraní people.[25]

For the Paï-Cayuä (Pai Tavytera) people of the Ypané River basin, Paraguay, the Curupi, often called ipiry, is not a phallic figure either, but is a guardian of wild beasts. For these people, the Curupi counterpart is called Mboguá Vusú,[24] who has such a large penis he can only cohabit with females of his own kind.[25] It is more fully called Mboguá Vusú ñe-mo-mitä meaning "Great Mboguá who becomes a child". The term "Mboguá" is not a native Pai word, but borrowed from Mbayá and means something like "demon".[5]

### Abductor

Kurupi, one of seven monstrous siblings (cf. § Children of Tau and Kerana), is the kidnapper of women.[16] The Kurupi is often blamed for unexpected or unwanted pregnancies.[21]

Kurupi's penis is said to be prehensile, and owing to its length he is supposed to be able to extend it through doors, windows, or other openings in a home and impregnate a sleeping woman without even having to enter the house. Kurupi was a scapegoat used by adulterous women to avoid the wrath of their husbands, and by single women to explain their pregnancies, including in cases of rape. Children fathered by the Kurupi were expected to be small, ugly and hairy much like their father, and if male to inherit something of their father's virility. In some cases, Kurupi is blamed with the disappearance of young women, supposedly stealing them away to his home in the forest for use in satiating his libidinous desires (rape).[citation needed]

Nowadays, the legend of Kurupi has faded somewhat, and figures more often as part of old tales. Rarely is he blamed with impregnating women anymore, although he is sometimes used to try and frighten young girls into being chaste.

### Protector or prankster

While for some the curupí is nothing more than a terrible satyr that abducts maidens and teens (guainas) who wander into the jungle in the night, or at noon-tide.[9][26] But according to others, the curupí is a guardian spirit of the love-stricken man and the pregnant woman who blindly follows him. While the pregnant woman is in transit through the forest, the curupí keeps spiders, vipers, and wild beasts at bay.[9]

Still others characterize the curupí as a playful mischievous spirit, along the lines of a Perú Rimá or Pedro Urdemales.[9]

### Parallels

The curupí may just be a sub-class of curupira, as it has been suggested that the name "Curupí" is merely a contraction of "Curú-piré" meaning "pimply-skinned" by Basílio de Magalhães [pt; pt; Basílio de Magalhães] (1928).[19]

Kurupi is said to be somewhat similar in appearance to another creature, the Pombero, said to be hairy with reversed feet.[27] Pombero is also part of Guarani tradition, and also held responsible for impregnating women unbeknownst to the victims.[28]

The Jasy Jatere (var. jasyjateré) is another creature likened to it.[27]

### Children of Tau and Kerana

According to Guaraní mythology Kurupi was one of seven offspring engendered by the evil spirit Tau who abducted Kerana, daughter of Marangatú and begot seven monstrous sietemesinos, i,e,, children born after only 7 months of gestation: Teju Jagua, Mbói Tu'ĩ, Moñái, most famously Jasy Jatere, then Kurupi, Ao Ao and the dog Luison.[16][29]

## Curuzú-yeguá ritual

The creature Curupí is believed to be closely associated with the Guaraní ritual of the curuzú-yeguá (Guaraní: "adorned cross").[30] The notion that curuzú-yeguá originated as a pre-Christian ancient cult of Curupí was espoused by Goicoechea Menéndez and Natalicio González (1938?)[31] In the ritual, a cross is decorated with manioc flour bread called chipás. Enough is baked to go around to all attendees, who choose to eat breads of various shape like ladders and snakes. Carvalho Neto [es; es; es] psychoanalyzes these as phallic symbols, i.e., more modest representations of the Curupí which can take on a more overtly sexual form.[30]

## Kurupi of the Guianas

See also: Curupira

There are also spirits called the Kurupi or Kulupi known to the Kaliña people of the Guianas, characterized by a large scrotum. It has a protruding forehead that prevents it from looking upward (cf. Cabeça de Cuia). It is hairy all over, with flowing long hair trailing behind; it has clawed fingers and toes, feet turned backward, and "in the place of buttocks [he] has a fire-hearth with glowing embers". The Kurupi roaming the forests noisily "kicks or knocks the tree buttresses".[32] (cf. curupira § Sounds and smell re sapopema). It can raise strong gusts of wind when angered and is considered the lord of winds by the Kaliña[32] (cf. saci)[lower-alpha 3]. The spirit is recorded as Kalupi in Suriname and is capable of endowing blessing of the hunt and fishing.[33]

Goeje considered this Kurupi to be a cognate of the curupira of the Tupi people of Brazil, etc.[32]

The "Marana ywa" among the Tenetehara is also said to be a cognate, as it is described as a small man with enormous testicles.[35]

### Other phallic parallels

The Hebu spirits of the Warao people of Western Guayana also are said to be gifted with scrotal enormity.[36] The Hebu spirit also possesses, in the place of buttocks, a "fire-hearth with glowing embers", earning them the nickname Huta-kurakura or "Red-back".[37] Hence the "Hebu" and the "Kurupi" of the Guyanas are considered completely equivalent.[38]

The Ýoši spirit of the Selknam on Tierra del Fuego also has an abnormally large phallus,[39] while the Kamiri, a forest spirit of the Apurinã people, has an penis only 1 centimeter long.[40]

## In popular art

Ernesto Morales has written a cycle of works on the Curupí theme, entitled "Amante generoso", "El Curupí y la mujer curiosa", "El Curupí buen amigo", etc.[10]

## See also

* Unsolved:Curupira
* Unsolved:Trauco - Humanoid creature in Chilota mythology
* Unsolved:Pombero
* Religion:Priapus - Greek god of fertility and male genitalia

## Explanatory notes

1. ↑ Aguirre introduces Curupi as rather like the stories about the "Guayaquiles" Indians, also said to be diminutive with monkey-like habits, which he deemed preposterous.
2. ↑ That is to say, of 26 respondents, only 16 (62%) even knew of the Curupí, and only two (8%) gave the long penis response. It is also noted "most informants who evinced a desire to disown their Indian heritage".[18]
3. ↑ Note that Basílio de Magalhães (1928)'s commentary on Curupí is placed under the section on "Sacy".[19]

## References

1. ↑ "Mitologia". Archived from the original on 2007-05-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20070512163642/http://www.guarani-raity.com/html/mitologia.html.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Reseñas Bibliográficas" (in es). Folklore americano (57): 198. 1994. https://books.google.com/books?id=7pjWAAAAMAAJ&q=Curupí.
3. ↑ "Es éste uno de los mitos más difundidos en la región".[2]
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Carvalho Neto, Paulo de (1992). "Folklore Extraterrestre III Los Actos y los Perfiles" (in pt). Folklore americano (54): 14. https://books.google.com/books?id=3pVCAQAAIAAJ&q=Curupi.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Cadogan (1968), p. 156.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Carvalho Neto, Paulo de (1956) (in es). Folklore y psicoanálisis. Editorial Psique. p. 268. https://books.google.com/books?id=xPQMAAAAYAAJ&q=Curupí.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Blache (1977), pp. 84–85.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Cardozo, Efraím (2007). Apuntes de historia cultural del Paraguay (8 ed.). Servilibro. pp. 191–195. ISBN 9789995300395. https://books.google.com/books?id=A297AAAAMAAJ&q=lazo.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Perkins Hidalgo, Guillermo (1963). "Leyendas y Supersticiones del Iberá" (in es). Cuadernos del Instituto Nacional de Antropología 4: 257–258. https://books.google.com/books?id=S74RAAAAIAAJ&q=curupí.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Blache, Martha (1982). Estructura del miedo: narrativas folklóricas guaraníticas. Plus Ultra. https://books.google.com/books?id=fKENAAAAYAAJ&q=plomo. "Curupí como a un pequeño ser antropomorfo de pene largo , con el cuerpo sin articulaciones y con los pies vueltos hacia atrás . Actúa hostigando y raptando a jóvenes , como protector de la naturaleza o como un duende tra- vieso con una mano de plomo y otra de lana"
11. ↑ "Bronzeado, de olhos negros cabeleira lisa".[4]
12. ↑ "Curupí , que es un demonio de piel escamada , grandes orejas y pies para atrás".[2]
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Aguirre, Juan Francisco (1949). "Diario del Capitán de Fragata D. Juan Francisco Aguirre, 1793" (in es). Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional (Buenos Aires: Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno (Argentina)) 20: 156–157. ISSN 0326-2375. https://www.bn.gov.ar/micrositios/revistas/otros/revista-de-la-biblioteca-nacional-t-20-no-49-50. (snippet@google)
14. ↑ Aguirre: "Son pigmeos en estremo y las partes generativas, extraordinarias: en la hembra hace la vulva una figura de T natural, caracter romano; y en el varon el miem-bro es tan disforme q[u]e alcanza en su pequeño cuerpo a dar una vuelta a la cintura".[13] Partly quoted by Carvalho Neto (1956).[6]
15. ↑ Carvalho Neto (1956)[6] citing his own yet unpublished Folklore del Paraguay (1961)
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Alvarez, Mario Rubén (2002) (in es). Lo mejor del folklore paraguayo. Editorial El Lector. p. 61. ISBN 9789992560174. https://books.google.com/books?id=_vTZAAAAMAAJ&q=Kerana.
17. ↑ e.g., Alvarez (2002): "Kurupi es el que tiene un falo que se lía por su cuerpo. Símbolo de la fecundidad y secuestrador de mujeres (Kurupi is the one with a phallus that wraps around his body. Symbol of fertility and kidnapper of women)".[16]
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Blache (1977), p. 92.
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Magalhães, Basílio de (1928). "IV. Mythos Primarios, suas transformações e sobrevivencias : c) Sacy". O folcore no Brasil: com uma coletânea de 81 contos populares. Braslia: Imprensa Nacional. p. 77. https://books.google.com/books?id=-7vjAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA99&q=cúia. 1939 edition, p. 81
20. ↑ Fariña Nuñez (1926a) "Los mitos guaraníes". Revista do Instituto historico e geographico brasileiro. Tomo special: Congresso internacional de historia da America (1922), 2: 311–331", quoted by Basílio de Magalhães (1928)[19] reprinted Fariña Nuñez (1926b), p. 215.
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Ocampo, Mauricio Cardozo (1989). Mundo folklórico paraguayo. 2. Editorial Cuadernos Republicanos. p. 57. https://books.google.com/books?id=VaENAAAAYAAJ&q=embarazo.
22. ↑ Montalto, Francisco Américo (1989). Panorama de la Realidad Histórica Del Río de la Plata Y Paraguay. 2. Asunción, Paraguay: Imprenta Cromos. p. 82. https://books.google.com/books?id=Ty8sAAAAYAAJ&q=kurupi. "Eloy Fariña Nuñez ([1926b], p. 215ff) lo describe con rasgos dionisíacos, caracterizado por un falo enorme que lo sujeta en varias vueltas al cuerpo y con el cual puede enlazar a las mujeres, especialmente a las niñas que se aventuran a penetrar solas en los montes."
23. ↑ "Personajes Mitológicos". Archived from the original on 2007-05-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20070527005143/http://www.ateneoguarani.edu.py/index.php?content=personajes_mitologicos.
24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Cadogan, León (6 December 1962b). "Aporte a la etnografia de los Guarani del Amambái, Alto Ypané Revista de antropologia" (in es). Revista de antropologia 10 (1–2): 74. doi:10.11606/2179-0892.ra.1962.110425. https://www.revistas.usp.br/ra/article/view/110425/108962. (Google version)
25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 Cadogan, León (1962a). "Fragmentos del folklore guaireño" (in es). Cuadernos del Instituto Nacional de Antropología 3: 102. https://books.google.com/books?id=ju9PAQAAMAAJ&q=curupi.
26. ↑ Encounters at "noon" elocuted by informants in 1977 study also.[7]
27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Villalba Rojas, Rodrigo Nicolás (2022). "Ñande guarani ha umi ava: literatura paraguaya,“raza”e indígenas desde fines del siglo XIX hasta la Guerra de Chaco". in Peris, Carlos. Revista Estudios Paraguayos 2018. 2. CEADUC. p. 104. https://books.google.com/books?id=Xel8EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA104.
28. ↑ MacDonald, Margaret Read, ed (2013). "Traditional Storytelling Today: An International Sourcebook". Traditional Storytelling Today: An International Sourcebook. Routledge. p. 491. ISBN 9781135917142. https://books.google.com/books?id=i8RdAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA491.
29. ↑ Encina Ramos, Pedro (2005), Tau y Kerana- Escultura del Museo Mitológico, http://www.portalguarani.com/967_ramon_elias/8883_tau_y_kerana__escultura_del_museo_mitologico_ramon_elias.html, retrieved May 30, 2018
30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Carvalho Neto, Paulo de (1972). Folklore and Psychoanalysis. University of Miami Press. pp. 191–195. ISBN 9780870241673. https://books.google.com/books?id=xPQMAAAAYAAJ&q=Curupí.
31. ↑ Cadogan (1961), p. 40 citing Carvalho Neto (1956), pp. 266–269. Earlier citing Natalicio González (1948) [1938?] Proceso y formación de la cultura paraguaya
32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 Goeje (1943), p. 50.
33. ↑ Westoll, Andrew (2009). The Riverbones: Stumbling After Eden in the Jungles of Suriname. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. p. 215. ISBN 9781551993317. https://books.google.com/books?id=qE65Bx7_t1AC&pg=PA215.
34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 Zerries, Otto (1954) (in de). Wild- und Buschgeister in Südamerika: eine Untersuchung jägerzeitlicher Phänomene im Kulturbild südamerikanischer Indianer. A. Schröder. p. 272. https://books.google.com/books?id=CHxKAAAAMAAJ&q=Parallelgestalt.
35. ↑ Zerries, citing Wagley-Calvão (1949), p.102.[34]
36. ↑ Zerries, citing Roth (1915), p.173.[34]
37. ↑ Roth, Walter Edmund (1913). An Inquiry Into the Animism and Folk-lore of the Guiana Indians. Annual report of the Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology 2. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 173. https://books.google.com/books?id=hF8uAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA173.
38. ↑ Magaña, Edmundo (1988). Orión y la mujer Pléyades: simbolismo astronómico de los indios kaliña de Surinam. CEDLA. p. 169. ISBN 9789067651783. https://books.google.com/books?id=vBfXAAAAMAAJ&q=kurupi.
39. ↑ Zerries, citing Gusinde (1931), pp. 997–998.[34]
40. ↑ Zerries, citing Ehrenreich (1891), pp. 67–68.[34]

### Bibliography

* Blache, Martha (1977). Structural Analysis of Guarani: Memorates and Anecdotes. 1–2. Indiana University. https://books.google.com/books?id=EEEeAQAAMAAJ&q=Curupí.

* Cadogan, León (December 1961). "Curuzú Yeguá (Apostilla a la interpretación psicoanalítica del Culto a la Cruz en el folklore paraguayo" (in es). Revista de antropologia 9 (1–2): 39–50. doi:10.11606/2179-0892.ra.1961.110412. https://books.google.com/books?id=BN4WAQAAMAAJ&q=Curupí. (Downloadable at ResearchGate)
* Cadogan, León (1968). "Chonó Kvbwirá: aporte al conocimiento de la mitología Guaraní" (in es). Suplemento antropológico de la Revista del Ateneo Paraguayo 3 (2): 55–158. https://books.google.com/books?id=dpZfAAAAMAAJ&q=kurupí.

* Fariña Nuñez, Eloy (1926b). Conceptos estéticos, Mitos guaraníes. Buenos Aires: Talleres gráficos, Mariano Pastor. https://books.google.com/books?id=pDJZAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA215.

* Goeje, C. H. de (1943). Philosophy, Initiation and Myths of the Indians of Guiana and Adjacent Countries. Brill. https://books.google.com/books?id=bicVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA50.

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