Materials Archives - Page 5 of 6

Little bone zemi with skull head

The Taíno placed strong importance on ancestor worship. They believed in afterlife and great care was given to the dead. Skull designs represent dead ancestors. Zemies who represented ancestors were objects of great power and were perceived as supernatural beings who could help the person who possessed them.

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Fragment of ceramic vessel that shows a zoomorphic decoration applied just under the rim of the bowl. It represents the head and arm of a batrachian, interpreted as a frog. This animal figures the woman in South American indigenous mythology. The style suggests that this fragment belongs to the Meillacoide culture, distributed through the northern…

Axes were objects with different uses: daily use, for war and for religious purposes. The monolithic axes were manufactured from one piece of stone and show important ornamentation. Generally they were used by high hierarchic groups of the Taino society in magic-religious ceremonies.

Fragment of ceramic vessel that shows an anthropomorphic figure. It represents both eyes and a double nose which can also be seen upside down. It is a dual face representing the double EGO. Dualism is a quintessentially Amerindian conception and it appears in most of the Caribbean cultures.

The “small faces” frequently appear as handles of ceramic vessels. They represent zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures, sometimes accompanied by smaller arms and legs, while the face was the most important feature. They appear in pairs on both extremes of the vessel. Their style is different in each Amerindian culture; however they exist in all of…

This is an artifact similar to several others which have been specifically found in northern Haiti, however their purpose is still unknown. It is a stone which was carved into an oval shape. Its inferior part has four legs and there is a sculpted figure on its front. The stone is a medium to fine…

Here is a wooden burial urn decorated with a human figure. We think it is a result of a cultural mix between Indian and African. During the colonial period, as has been reported by the Spaniards, both groups ran away to the highlands to escape bad working conditions and cruel treatment by the Spanish and…

Taino craftspeople regarding shell and bone. Their techniques are matched only by those of the Inuit carvers in Alaska. These Objects often appear to have ritual functions. They obtained the raw material from fishing and sea gathering activities because the ground fauna was poor and humans bones were seldom used.

Portfolio Category: Materials

Little bone zemi with skull head

Ceramic Vessel

Frog

Ceremonial Axes

Anthropomorphic Figure

Small Faces

Stone carved in a oval shape

Axes

Mortars

Amulets

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