The crabman is a mythical hybrid demon in the mythology of the ancient culture [circa 1-750 CE] of the Moche people of Peru.
Description
The “Ulluchu Man”, a figurine about 50 cm tall representing an odd-looking half-crab half-anthropomorphic deity, was found in level 1 of the burial site of the Lord of Sipán. The Lord was a high-ranking shaman, or a priest, a warrior-priest, a spiritual leader, or a bit of this all, found in an impressive Moche burial ground, near Chiclayo, in Peru.
References
- Bourget, Steve: Sex, Death, and Sacrifice in Moche Religion and Visual Culture, Austin, University of Texas Press, 2006
- Bourget, Steve, Kimberly L. Jones : The Art and Archaeology of the Moche: An Ancient Andean Society of the Peruvian North Coast (Editor)
- Bussmann, Rainer W. and Sharon, Douglas: Naming a phantom – the quest to find the identity of Ulluchu, an unidentified ceremonial plant of the Moche culture in Northern Peru, Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, Vol. 5, 31 Mar 2009 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/5/1/8