Bochica
Bochica is the bearded civiliser of Muisca tradition in the Colombian highlands, who taught the arts of settled life and, in the later story, shoulders the sky so that its shifting causes earthquakes.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Colombian folklore
- Region
- South America (place of origin)
- Trait family
- The Land-Shapers
- Symbols
- Stranger
Near this figure
and 4 more
Symbols
Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.
- Stranger is image-domain The stranger denotes the unknown arriving at the threshold, feared as contamination and received as sacred, and often the god or the future in disguise.
why
Bochica belongs to the Muisca of the Colombian highlands, and appears in the colonial-era accounts as a bearded stranger who arrives from the east, travels among the people, and teaches them — weaving, agriculture, the making of things, and the ordering of law and worship.
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Form
- Colossal terrain shaping giant
why
In a further strand he is said afterwards to bear the sky upon his shoulders, and earthquakes are explained as the movement he makes when shifting that weight. The two roles sit somewhat awkwardly together — the travelling teacher who departs, and the permanent bearer fixed under the sky — and different sources emphasise one or the other.
- Bears the world on its back
why
bear the sky upon his shoulders
Behaviour
- Culture bringer teaches crafts
why
Bochica belongs to the Muisca of the Colombian highlands, and appears in the colonial-era accounts as a bearded stranger who arrives from the east, travels among the people, and teaches them — weaving, agriculture, the making of things, and the ordering of law and worship.
Utility powers
- Knowledge bestowal
why
Bochica belongs to the Muisca of the Colombian highlands, and appears in the colonial-era accounts as a bearded stranger who arrives from the east, travels among the people, and teaches them — weaving, agriculture, the making of things, and the ordering of law and worship.
- Terrain shaping
why
A hostile figure causes the waters to rise over the plain where the people live; Bochica appears, strikes the rock at the edge of the plain with a staff, and opens the great falls through which the water drains, saving the survivors.