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Portfolio Category: Animal Effigy Vessels

Effigy vessel

Effigy vessel
A frog effigy vessel from Taino culture. This culture had its origins in Northern south America. In the impoverished fauna of the Antilles, lacking the large and impressive reptilian predators of the Amazonian and Orinoco floodplains, like the anaconda and the black cayman, the small and humble frog comes to occupy an important iconographic place…
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Stone frog

Stone frog
The conventionized image is that of a frog with fore and hindlegs bent inwards, as if preparing to jump. In La Hispaniola the frog was associated with females and females functions. In the South American mythology, children were turned into frogs while calling toa toa what means mother, at the same time this is the…
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Ceramic Vessel with tortoise representation

Ceramic Vessel with tortoise representation
Many Taino objects are in the shape of turtles, an important animal in Taino creation myths. The female tortoise, a feature common to other universal myths, takes on a human role and becomes the Taino Eve.
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