Neologisms and Negation: The Representation of the Virgin Mary in the Cumanagoto Language (Venezuela, 17th-18th Centuries)

Abstract

This article traces the translation of the concept of the Virgin Mary’s virginity into the Cumanagoto language during the 17th and 18th centuries. Drawing on Franciscan and Capuchin missionary texts, it analyzes the linguistic and stylistic strategies used to express an idea that had no cultural equivalent. Whilst there were terms such as guaricha to describe young women, the missionaries opted for expressions like eutacapuin (‘unpierced woman’) as what might have been a culturally accepted euphemism. This choice reflects not only a linguistic adaptation but also an attempt to impose Christian concepts through language, reshaping indigenous understandings of the female body and its meanings. In this study, I explore the function of these strategies in the broader process of cultural and linguistic negotiation in Eastern Venezuela.