pishtaco

pishtaco

English

Etymology

From a Quechua language term meaning "cut the throat of, cut up".

Noun

pishtaco (plural pishtacos)

1. A mythical white male demon (or a member of a race of such demons) in South American folklore, who steals and eat indigenous South Americans' body fat, or cuts up their flesh to turn it into food.
   • 1969, Journal of American Folklore:

     They are often told that the pishtaco is going to carry them off if they do not behave. Thus, they are taught to fear the mestizo and white man at an early age. The pishtaco also maintains conformity among adults. Individualism is not a norm ...

   • 1997, Milos Kokotovic, Confronting Postmodernism:

     However, the pishtaco is not an Andean Minotaur. It is, rather, an indigenous Andean folk symbol of Spanish, and later criollo, colonialist oppression. Pishtacos are represented as white foreigners, ...

   • 2005, Don Kulick, Anne Meneley, Fat (→ISBN):

     For this part of the operation, the pishtaco is said to import specialized equipment from the United States, Germany, or Japan.

   • 2008, Jennifer McLagan, Fat (→ISBN), page 217:

     This explains why the first pishtaco figures in the legend were priests and soldiers. As the power structure changed, so did the pishtaco figure. In later versions of the story he rode a horse and wore leather chaps like a rancher, ...

Alternative forms

• pishtaku