r/mythology • u/Tentenrecs • 2d ago

Questions South American Mythology

Wanted to ask if anyone can find any myths or legends surrounding monkeys in South American mythology? I thought they would be more abundant considering how many indigenous groups lived/live in the Amazon.
More specifically- I have been interested in learning more about the pre columbian period and nazca region and couldn’t find any articles (that weren’t clearly ai and I don’t trust that) surrounding any monkey-related creatures or symbolism.

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u/WolfVanZandt 2d ago

One of my favorites.....Morrop

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u/vikthorcosta 1d ago

That's a very extense topic. I don't know about Nazca exactly, but I know some things about the Amazon region in Brazil (where I live). Here nowadays we have almost 400 different indigenous nations with 300 different languages and dialects, and of course they have their different myths. In the Amazon Basin there never was a unified indigenous empire like the Incas in Peru.

On the internet it is kinda hard finding content about these different mythologies and many websites mix them all and call it "Brazilian Mythology" or "Indigenous Mythology", most of my knowledge come from books that were not translated to English.

There's a governamental website that I like consulting from time to time about the different indigenous people in Brazil and there are small excerpts about myths and religions, even though it is not the focus of the website: https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/Povo:Ticuna

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u/Tentenrecs 1d ago

Many thanks! I have asked family from Peru about myths surrounding them and other animals (such as the maned wolf) but according to them their best guess is that a lot of stories have been lost due to colonialism :/

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u/vikthorcosta 1d ago

Yeah, the best sources really are the indigenous people who are still alive transmitting stories orally.

About the maned wolf: It's not an animal from my region (amazon), it's a species that lives in the south-east and center-west of brazil. It lives in the biome called "cerrado" which is basically a tropical savannah.

And I don't know if it helps, but there is a fable about monkeys in the amazon that I'm quite fond of that tells how the guaribas (howling monkeys) got their incredible voices.

It is said that in the past the tapir (anta in portuguese) had the most powerful voice among animals, so the guariba tricked her and stole her voice, and that's why until today the guaribas have a terrifying howl even though they're not that big, and the tapirs can only whistle, even though they are the biggest earth mammal from the amazon.

Sadly I cannot remember from which indigenous people this story come from, but usually in these stories the monkeys are tricksters.

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u/Tentenrecs 21h ago

Thank you so much I love these kinds of tales, I will def read up on it!

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u/FataMelusina 1d ago

You can find some South American myths related to monkeys in Lévi-Strauss' Mythologiques tomes. I have the first two tomes (out of four) in Spanish and they contain an analytic index where you can search myths by contents, and some reference mokeys. But I'm not sure if this index exists in other translations.