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Portfolio Category: Materials

Shell Cup

Shell Cup
The indigenes elaborated cups using shells. The rounded form of the Charonia variegata gives a good possibility to make a cup. This shell is frequently present in Caribbean waters and is a good stuff to eat and for making tools, ornaments and so on. Cups were part of the household and were made for containing…
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Wood Daily Life Instruments

Wood Daily Life Instruments
Wood was used for making many things which went from ceremonial to household artifacts, canoes for transportation and houses. One of the techniques for working wood was to burn the inside out of the piece you would prepare. The trick was to keep the fire burning in the right places by blowing on it. When…
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Daily life instruments

Daily life instruments
The indigenous people had no nails, no screws, no sticky tape, and no good glue, so they used string and rope to hold things together. They picked up things like roots, berries, oysters, clams, and other shellfish for eating and they used baskets for bringing home what they had gathered. Unfortunately, baskets or strings do…
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Decorated stone mortar

Decorated stone mortar
The stone was first battered into general shape with irregular, discoidal or rectangular hammergrinder. Then it was pecked to create the grit. A large amount of knowledge and experience was needed to create such stone mortars. The artisan had to be familiar with the characteristics of the stone fracture zone and its hardness. In the…
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Shell scraper for food preparation

Shell scraper for food preparation
This shell scraper was a part of the bivalve codakia orbicularis. This was utilized in natural shape, taking advantage of the round end of the bivalve. With this the indigenous people peeled of the rind from the manioc before shredding the root, extracting its poisonous juice, and cooking it on a flat, clay griddle. The…
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Decorated human skull

Decorated human skull
Human skull decorated with reptilian figure representing a lizard. Shamans were individuals incharge of communicating with the gods, in order to predict the future, help the people to take group decisions and healing ailments. Shamans looked to obtain positive qualities from animals which would help them communicate with the gods during their visionary trips. We…
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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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Body ornaments

Body ornaments
Part of an Shell bracelet manufactured from a shell of the ´Strombidae family. This family is composed of several genera found in Antillean waters, which have been widely used by the indigenes. Multiple techniques were known to them for breaking, cutting and polishing the shell achieving thus the desired shapes. Bracelets make part of the…
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Bone spoons

Bone spoons
Spoon made of bone with anthropomorphic decoration. This artefact was part of the Cohoba ceremony helping to transfer the ground hallucinogen powder from the grinder to a small saucer. From there the powder was snuffed off with an inhaler. The decoration usually represented the zemi that helped the shaman reach a state of ecstasy.
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