The Mapinguary tradition in Amazonian ethnography

Record summary

Mapinguary is a large, dangerous forest being described in Amazonian Indigenous and regional traditions, often associated with a strong odor, unusual anatomy or a backward-facing foot. Accounts collected during the first half of the twentieth century are useful for studying translation, contact folklore and later cryptozoological reinterpretation. The tradition is not a single incident report: names and attributes vary substantially across communities and publications. Researchers should distinguish Indigenous narrative contexts from twentieth-century claims that the being represents a surviving giant ground sloth.