Caipora

Caipora
Protector of the woods and its beings
General Information
Species	Elf-like being
Sex	Female
Powers & Abilities	Imitate animal sounds;
Abodes	Forests
Moral alignment	Good
Relationships
Enemies	Hunters
Languages
International Phonetic Alphabet	[kajˈpɔɾɐ]

Caipora (Portuguese pronunciation: [kajˈpɔɾɐ]) is an entity of the Tupi-Guarani mythology in Brazil. The word "Caipora" comes from tupi and means "inhabitant of the forest".

Description

Caipora is represented as a dark-skinned, small Native American, naked with a very long red mane, smoking a cigar and very mischievous. Sometimes Caipora is depicted as a girl and other times as a boy. The representation of the creature varies among the different regions of Brazil, and is sometimes confused with Curupira, which is another mythological creature who protects the forest. Curupira is often depicted as a boy with red hair, who has his feet turned backwards in order to deceive trackers.

In some regions, the indigenous tribes believed that the Caipora was afraid of the light. For this reason, they would walk around the forest protecting themselves using firebrands. Some say it rides a great peccary holding a stick. In some other areas of Brazil, the Caipora is considered to be a cannibal and would eat anything, even the smallest insects.

According to a popular belief, its activity intensifies on those days in which hunting is not supposed to take place, therefore on Fridays, Sundays and the religious days. Religious beliefs prohibited hunting on certain days, but there are claims about ways to trick the protector of the forest. It is known that the Caipora likes smoke, so on Thursday nights, the hunters would leave smoke by the trunk of a tree and say "Toma, Caipora, deixa eu ir embora" (meaning "Here you go, Caipora, let me leave" in Portuguese) The good luck of hunters is also due to the propitiatory gifts that were offered to the creature.

Derivatives

In the northeast area of Brazil, they say that being Caipora means that you are going through tough times, with bad luck and unhappiness.

Some Brazilian writers, which include Machado de Assis and Aluísio de Azevedo, used the words "Caipora" and "Caiporism" to identify a state of misfortune.

The word "Caipora" has also been used to describe the slaves who had escaped into the forests.

Modern Depictions

Literature

• In Harry Potter, the Caipora protect the magical school Castelobruxo in Brazil. They are described as small, furry, and extremely mischievous.
• Artes do Caipora em Cordel, an illustrated children's book written by the poet and folklorist Marco Haurélio and illustrated by Luciano Tasso, was published in 2013. The story accounts as a hunter who disobeys his father by going to hunt on a holy day; he finds the Caipora, who resuscitates all the animals that he slaughtered.

Television

• In the children's TV series Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum, Caipora is a regular character. In This version is characterized as a female creature with a big red fur and a black mask. She has the ability to teleport when hear whistles and sometimes demonstrates wild aspects.
• The character has also made an appearance in a TV adaptation of Sítio do Picapau Amarelo, but being a male creature.

Video Games

• In the MMORPG AdventureQuest Worlds, Caipora appears as a monster from the Myth Perception location in both male and female variations. Aside from being described as being responsible for "protect[ing] the living beings threatened by intruders", they bear little resemblance to the mythical version of them.

Gallery

References

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Caipora (view authors). As with Myth and Folklore Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported).