Yúcahu

Yúcahu,^[1] was the masculine spirit of fertility in Taíno mythology,.^[2] He was one of the supreme deities or zemís of the Pre-Columbian Taíno peoples along with his mother Atabey who was his feminine counterpart.^[3] Dominant in the Caribbean region at the time of Columbus’ First voyages of Discovery, the peoples associated with Taíno culture inhabited the islands of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the Lesser Antilles ^[1] .^[2]^[3]^[4]

Meaning

"They call him Yúcahu Bagua Maórocoti" is the earliest mention of the zemí taken from the first page of Fray Ramón Pané's Account of the Antiquities of the Indians.^[5] As the Taíno did not possess a written language, the name is the phonetic spelling as recorded by the Spanish missionaries, Ramón Pané, and Bartolomé de las Casas. The three names are thought to represent the Great Spirit's epithets. Yúcahu means spirit or giver of cassava. Bagua has been interpreted as meaning both "the sea" itself and "master of the sea." The name Maórocoti implies that he was conceived without male intervention.^[6]^[7]^[8]

He was also later known as "El Gigante Dormido", or "Sleeping Giant".

Yúcahu was believed to live and have a throne in the mountainous tropical rainforest 'El Yunque', now known as the Caribbean National Forest. He resided in the same manner of the Greek gods residing in Mount Olympus. El Yunque is a large mountain located at the reserve, that diverts hurricanes from hitting the island. The people said that Yúcahu fought with his brother Huracán (or Juracán), the hurricane god, to protect his people.

Yúcahu is also known as the god of agriculture, as well as the god of peace and tranquility, he represented goodness. This was contrasted greatly by his evil brother and Huracán. Huracán was responsible for storms, earthquakes and bad crops. He was associated with the more aggressive Caribs.

Yukiyu was also the Taino name for the region where "El Yunque" resides within. Today, it is known as Luquillo.

Notes

^ ^a ^b Fray Ramón Pané 1999, p.4
^ ^a ^b Stevens-Arroyo 2006, p.221
^ ^a ^b Rouse 1993, p.13
^ Rouse 1993, p.5
^ Fray Ramón Pané was the first European missionary to arrive in the New World and the first to learn the native language. He was the first person who studied the beliefs of an indigenous people, and his account was the first book to be written by a European on American soil.
^ Pané 1999
^ Stevens-Arroyo 2006
^ Rouse 1993

References

Fray Ramón Pané; Translated by Susan C. Giswold (1999). José Juan Arrom. ed. An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians. Durham, NC ;London: Duke Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-2347-1. "A New Edition, with an Introductory Study, Notes, & Appendixes by José Juan Arrom"
Arroyo, Antonio M. Stevens (2006). Cave of the Jagua : the mythological world of the Taínos (2. ed. ed.). Scranton [u.a.]: Univ. of Scranton Press. ISBN 1-58966-112-5.
Rouse, Irving (1993). Tainos : Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus (New ed. ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-05696-6.
American Anthropologist. Original from the University of California: American Anthropological Association. 1909. pp. 354–356. http://books.google.com/books?id=8HV0AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA356&dq=Yukiy%C3%BA#PPA354,M1.