Origin of the Pitch Lake: An Amerindian Myth from Trinidad

Summary

Although Trinidad is referred to in various myths of the Warao and Arawak of the Orinoco delta and the Guiana coastal zone, only one mythical tradition is known which was documented among the Amerindians formerly living on the island. Explaining the origin of the major asphalt seepage known as the Pitch Lake in southwest Trinidad, this myth appears to be closely related to part of a mythological cycle related by the Lokóno (Arawak) of Guyana and northwest Suriname which narrates the vicissitudes of Arawanili, the first Arawak shaman, believed to live on an island, kaieri, in primordial times. Besides, there exists a systematic correspondence between the Lokóno myth of Arawanili and the mythological cycle centering on the culture hero Guahayona, recorded by Pané among the ‘Taíno’ as early as the 1490s. Clearly, the ‘Taíno’ myth is derived from the Lokóno one or, more likely, from a prototype to both. They illustrate the close relationship, most likely going back to Saladoid times, between the cosmological views of the Lokóno (Arawak) of the mainland and the ‘Taíno’ of the Greater Antilles.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• The Caiman’s (and Frog’s) Revenge: Intersecting Papers in Honor of Peter G. Roe

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 13200