TRADITIONAL BELIEFS
The Miskito people were originally animistic in there belief system. After the Moravians and Catholics introduced Christianity in 1800’s, the Miskito learn to adapt their worldview without significantly changing it.
There are various kinds of super-natural beings that have existed in the Miskito worldview for centuries. Many of these beings still exist today in the worldview of many Miskito people and can affect such things as sense well-being, crop failures, bad hunting, capsized boats, and other accidents.
In general, there are four semi-hierarchical classes of beings that exist in the Miskito cosmos:
1. Wan Aisa (great spirits, benevolent almighty powers of the higher world)
2. Lasa nani (‘owners’ of the forest, water, wind, and swamp);
3. Yumuh nani (spirit or shadows of animals)
4. Insingni nani (souls or ghosts of the recently departed).
Only the sukia (spiritist) can mediate between these spirits’ and their earthly manifestations.
WAN AISA (Great Spirits)
In the highest order of spirits there are four great spirits:
1. wan aisa (great father),
2. dama alwani (grandfather thunder),
3. kuka (grandmother), and
4. yapti misri (great mother scorpion).
When the Miskito die, they travel to pura yapti by crossing a great river in a pipanti (small dug out canoe) propelled by bullfrogs, or toads, (butku nani). For this reason, the Miskito never harm toads, a matter of sharp distinction between them and the Mayangna who, according to the Miskito, formerly ate toads.
LASA NANI (Spirits)
The next class of spirits is termed lasa nani, written ‘ulassa’ by the Moravians and typically ‘woolesaw’ in early English sources. Unlike the four great spirits who are benevolent, these lasa can only do harm. Early writers typically equated the lasa with the Christian devil because the Miskito feared them. The lasa can be divided into two main categories:
1. Nature Spirits
1. Unta dukia, also called aubia (the owner of the forest),
2. Liwa (the water’s owner),
3. Prahaku or waihwan (the owner of the wind)
4. Uhra (the owner of swamps).
2. Creature-like Spirits
1. Wakambai, a man-like creature with a single eye, but with feet turned sideways or backwards,
2. Ulak, a hairy big-foot creature who unlike wakambai can be killed,
3. Duhindi nani, forest dwarfs,
4. Swinta, the owner of the deer, typically a short man with a lasso.
5. Aubia can appear as a jaguar, but most often looks like a multicolored, white, or black man. He makes his home in between tree buttresses where he bangs his elbows making a distinctive au sound said to be heard in the forest.
6. Liwas of which there are several. These are spirits all related to water.
The most commonly narrated is liwa mairin, the female owner of the water, now generally equated with the Spanish sirena, or mermaid. Liwas live in underwater cities, below waterfalls and some rapids where they can cause boats to capsize and people to drown.
YUMUH NANI (Spirit of animals)
The spirits of animals are the most commonly encountered or invoked spirits in everyday life. The often appear to hunters and foretell success or warn against excessive bounty. Crossing the shadow of a yumuh can cause sickness, with certain animals causing specific ailments. Yumuhs can also act as mess engers for the lasas. For example, if the owner of the wind wished to send a message to unta dukia, the yumuh of a certain bird would deliver the message. Animal spirits generally pertain to the domain of the lasa who ‘owns’ their habitat. Yumuhs can also be good, and one could evoke a certain yumuh to achieve a goal, such as winning the heart of a lover, or to have a good harvest.
INSINGNI (Soul o ghost of the deceased)
Nine days after one dies the insingni (spirit) of a corpse must be caught by the sukia and sent to pura yapti. If this fails, the soul of the departed can bother relatives by mounting their backs, or haunting its former dwelling place. In the past, the Miskito often abandoned homes due to mischievous insingni. Great drinking festival using fermented cassava, maize, plantains, and pineapples, called misal (signifying the drink and the festival) often accompanied insingni death rites. Wakes, often held the following year, called sihkru, complete family vigils.
Spirits dwelling in the landscapes of the cosmos govern Miskito well-being. The Miskito have no word for ‘sickness,’ although now the transliterated word “siknis” can be commonly heard. To be in bad health would be saura taka, which is to be out of balance with nature (wan kaina kulkaia). Revealing one’s bad feeling implies noting a possessing spirit: lasa prukan (seized by a lasa) or yum uh alkan (held by a yumuh).
These spirits take a person’s lilka, literally photo or figure, but meaning the sense of vigor or drive. In addition to having one’s lilka removed, a person can become ill by encountering or passing by buried ‘poison’ in the landscape. To have an illness or poison driven out (kangbaia saika) a healer must deal with the possessing spirit, the force that is upsetting the spirit through incantation and massage. The sukia assesses the effected body parts and, in the case a yumuh is suspected, would call or sing to several yumuhs in their language until one provides a sign. Specific animal yumuhs create certain symptoms; the snake affects the stomach, the deer the kidney, and so on. Other healers such as the yapi kakaira (dreamer) or yumuh yabakra (whistler) might be called upon instead of a sukia, but these individuals overlap with sukia abilities. Today, given Christian suppression, many ‘sukia-type’ healers go by the Spanish word curandero, healer, or more commonly by corruptions of Christian terms such as spirit, spirit person (typically older church women), or prapit (prophet, typically older church men).
The powerful spirit beings of the Miskito world affect only the Miskito people. Not only are white men apparently adverse to the possessing effects of the Miskito spirits, the missionaries harbor the protection of their particular owner spirit, God. Buried or wafted poison cannot hurt a missionary. Poison never hurt their master. Since most missionaries have a fairly good knowledge of drugs, therefore they are ‘poison masters’ of a superior order!
Although the Miskito believe that foreign doctor can cure common sicknesses and do seek western treatments, ailments caused by a lasa or yumuh must be treated by a sukia via Miskito laka (Miskito way or custom).
Today, Christian influences have modified how the Miskito people understand and respond to the traditional beliefs. Despite obvious differences, the Miskito and the Christian belief systems contain several parallels that were exploited by the Moravians and Catholics when translating unfamiliar concepts to the Miskito people. While this facilitated the Miskito acceptance of Christianity, it created a syncretistic worldview.
Also the role of the Revered (parsin) as interpreter and mediator of God’s will correlates with the role of the Miskito sukia, a relationship infinitely reinforced since most missionaries were also healers. While it might seem obvious that missionaries symbolically replaced the sukia in Miskito society, then only produced nominal change among many traditional belief, and more to the point, sukias continue to practice. As the Miskito people accepted the figures and practices of Christianity, they recreated their traditional belief system to fit the Christian terminology.
Wan Aisa became the Christian God.
The place of pura yapti became the place of heaven
The lasa became Satan and his demons.
The missionaries and then the Revered became another kind of sukia.
Protection from the powers of the lasa took on new possibilities.
The syncretism of the two belief systems linked Miskito identity to a wider Christian community, but it also created a uniquely Miskito variant of Christianity that makes up the Miskito world view of today. It is a Christianity adapted to fit their previous pagan culture and to reconcile maintaining many of their former practices.