GuanabaraBay

Bodies of water in general have great symbolic, spiritual, and practical importance for indigenous religions and cosmologies. Before European occupation, rivers, lagoons, mangroves, sandbank ecosystems, and the sea itself were understood not merely as natural resources, but as living entities, endowed with spiritual agency and integrated into the order of the world. Peoples of Tupi origin, such as the Tupinambá and the Temiminó, established their relationship with the landscape based on a worldview in which nature, ancestry, and spirituality formed an inseparable whole.

Image description: The image is an old engraving depicting a map. In the upper right corner, there is a title mentioning "La France Antarctique" and "Le Rio Janeiro." The map illustrates a coastal area with several locations marked by names in French. On the right, there is a distance scale and a compass. At the bottom center is the Tropic of Capricorn. Guanabara Bay is highlighted on the map, with several locations and place names marked.

In Indigenous cosmology, water was associated with the origin of life, the circulation of vital energies, and communication with the spirit world. Rivers and lagoons functioned as spaces of passage and transformation, linked to creation myths and the journeys of mythical ancestors. Guanabara Bay, for example, was not just a strategic geographic space, but a symbolic territory, marked by mythical narratives, ritual practices, and specific forms of occupation, where fishing, navigation, and collective rites reinforced communal and spiritual bonds.

Image description: This is a black-and-white engraving depicting a panoramic view of Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro. The image shows a mountainous landscape with several rock formations along the coastline. In the foreground, a human figure stands on an elevated point, observing the view. Moving toward the background, more mountains can be seen, along with the horizon where the sea meets the sky. At the top of the image, some shapes that appear to be birds in flight are visible. At the bottom of the image, there is an inscription that reads "Corcovado" and "Original de Théodore Galot."

This sacred dimension extends beyond the territorial limits of what we know today as the city of Rio de Janeiro. For example, the cosmovision of the Tukano, Desana, and other peoples of the Upper Rio Negro establishes Rio de Janeiro as the geomythological epicenter of the origin of life on Earth. For them, what we know as Guanabara Bay is the Lake of Milk (Diá ahpikõdihtaru or Opekõ Dihtará), the sacred place where the Canoe of Transformation (Pamürí yuküsiru) emerged after a cosmic crossing along the Milky Way. This "Snake-Canoe" brought the primordial human beings, and it was on the shores of this lake that the first malocas arose and the fundamental transformation of humanity took place.

Thus, Guanabara Bay is described as a bowl of milk or a basin of precious stones and gold, representing fertility and original nourishment. Its original name, Guajá-nã-bará, reflects its grandiosity as an "arm of the sea that looks like the ocean." If we look closely, the shape of the Bay resembles that of the female womb, which reinforces its character as a place where life takes shape.

Image description: The image is an old engraving depicting a coastal area. The spatial layout begins on the left, where a series of tall, extensive landforms can be seen, with various markings indicating mountains or hills. In the center, there is a large opening representing Guanabara Bay. On the right, the landscape continues with more elevated, extensive areas. In the background, a series of rivers or waterways stretch across the bay. The map is rendered in sepia tones, with red details marking the waterways. There is no legible text in the image aside from the names of the locations and rivers.

For these peoples, Guanabara Bay remains a living multidimensional crossroads, holding the memory of a sacred past that continues to nourish the spirituality of native peoples.