Know anything about South American tortoise myths?
December 11, 2018 9:13 AM Subscribe
We have a wonderful children's book by Gerald McDermott called "Jabutí the Tortoise: A Trickster Tale from the Amazon." I think the story would make a great play for a children's theater that I work with, but I cannot find the source, and Mr. McDermott is dead, so I cannot ask him.
The story is about how Jabuti got a cracked shell, by asking the Vulture to carry him up to meet the King of Heaven for a festival. The Vulture drops him because he is jealous of Jabuti's flute playing.
Searching for "jabuti" mostly gives me results for his book, and excluding his name from the search has given me no luck so far. Any experts on South American/Brazilian/Amazonian folklore out there who could help me out?
The story is about how Jabuti got a cracked shell, by asking the Vulture to carry him up to meet the King of Heaven for a festival. The Vulture drops him because he is jealous of Jabuti's flute playing.
Searching for "jabuti" mostly gives me results for his book, and excluding his name from the search has given me no luck so far. Any experts on South American/Brazilian/Amazonian folklore out there who could help me out?
Response by poster: I did find that Tortoise Myths paper on WikiSource, but it did not have the myth I was looking for. Thanks for the other pointer.
posted by starvingartist at 10:06 AM on December 11, 2018
posted by starvingartist at 10:06 AM on December 11, 2018
Best answer: It's looking like this is a variation of a Brazilian children's fable "A Festa no Céu" [The Party in the Sky] which in its various guises features a party in the sky where either the toad, or the tortoise, or both, conspire with the vulture in order to attend.
"The party in the sky is a very old fable and very popular in Brazil. Cascudo and other folklorists classified it as an etiological tale, that is, a tale invented to explain the reason for certain characteristics of an animal, such as the monkey having the big tail, the turtle having the patched shell, and so on.
The tale to the party in the sky, is also part of the Portuguese folklore. In some regions of Brazil, instead of the frog there is a turtle or a jabuti"
posted by drlith at 10:21 AM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
"The party in the sky is a very old fable and very popular in Brazil. Cascudo and other folklorists classified it as an etiological tale, that is, a tale invented to explain the reason for certain characteristics of an animal, such as the monkey having the big tail, the turtle having the patched shell, and so on.
The tale to the party in the sky, is also part of the Portuguese folklore. In some regions of Brazil, instead of the frog there is a turtle or a jabuti"
posted by drlith at 10:21 AM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: So I guess I'll start looking for translations of The Party in the Sky. What I still need to know is if McDermott's version is one he made up based on the original, which would probably fall under copyright, or if the major plot points of his story came from the public domain fable. I would love to use the same base story that he did, but if I can't then I will have to make up my own adaptation.
posted by starvingartist at 10:31 AM on December 11, 2018
posted by starvingartist at 10:31 AM on December 11, 2018
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These stories are in the public domain. Copyright protects a specific expression of an idea, not the idea itself. So if you want to adapt any of these into a play, you have the right. I would be careful, though, to avoid any specific phrases that could be found in McDermott's book (except for the title, which is not protected).
posted by ubiquity at 10:02 AM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]