Kanaimé, the great killer

Sumario: The objective of this work is to present the way in which the Taurepáng, Carib people who live in the north of the state of Roraima in Brazil, interpret the actions of the Kanaimé. According to the literature, it is a category of witchcraft that involves specific mutilation and murder techniques widespread in the lands adjacent to Mount Roraima and, in addition to a spectral phenomenon, originating from the malevolence of outsiders, also concerns an aggressor who can be surrounded, assaulted and killed. In view of the increase in Kanaimé’s tensions and accusations in taurepáng communities that are in the Venezuelan savannah, their leaders chose an unprecedented initiative: the creation of a prison for Kanaimé. However, instead of mitigating the conflicts between the relatives of the murdered victim and the relatives of the accused Kanaimé, this measure had the opposite effect and ended up reinforcing taurepáng’s understanding of who lives in a “place of death”.