::01

Like other Tupi-Guarani groups of the region, the Suruí believe in Mahyra, the mythical hero, father of the twins Korahi and Sahi (sun and moon). It is these twins who complete the work of separating nature and culture, begun by Mahyra, the civilizing hero par excelence, for it was he who stole the fire from the vulture and gave it to men. Few myths have been collected among the Suruí, which requires new research on the subject.

Shamanism is present among the Suruí: Mussenai, the old chief, and Kuarikwara, who succeeded him, were pai'é [shamans], similarly with Uassaí and Mikuá, two of the oldest survivors of the epidemic. It is no different from the shamanism found by Eduardo Galvão (1961) among the Tenetehára. The most important ritual, the Tokasa, occurs soon after the cutting of the gardens, when a small cerimonial hut is built in the center of the plaza. At night the men - female participation is forbidden - led by the shaman seek to enter into contact with the spirits of their ancestors, who are named in the songs they chant.

An immense cigar, made of tobacco leaves, is used by the shaman to facilitate transe. It was customary to blow smoke over outsiders with the smoke of this cigar.

As happens among other Tupi-Guarani groups, the dead are buried inside the house. When the house becomes full of the dead, it is abandoned; at least that was what happened in the period of the flu epidemic. In normal circumstances, the house and the dead are abandoned when the village moves as a result of the exhaustion of agricultural lands. The spirits of the dead are called owera, but the major concern is with the karuara, a form of spirit that never was a human being and that has the power to provoke sicknesses. Tupã is considered the demon of Thunder and Lightning, for that reason being greatly feared by the Suruí.