Group of fifteen figures "nuchu", slingshot and two bird ornaments ·  Panama, Kuna · ID: 3035178

Description

wood, male/female pair of figures with movable arms and fine carved facial features, the female with silvermetal earring, missing parts (both foot tips), h: 23,5 cm/24,5 cm; two large figures, rep. (right foot tip), missing part (left foot tip), h: 32,5 cm/34,5 cm; two anthropomorphic figures with simplified bodies, h: 26 cm/17,5 cm; one half figure, h: 19 cm; eight zoomorphic figures of various forms, composite beings, h: 10,5 cm - 18,5 cm; two ornamental depictions of birds, h: 13 cm/18 cm; a kind of slingshot with figurally carved handle, h: 12,5 cm;
the Kuna are animists: They believe in a creator God who now is far away from them and that the “poni” (=“groups of malevolent spirits”) roam the earth entering peoples bodies causing sickness and disease. They use the “nuchus”, small dolls carved out of balsa wood, to protect them from the “poni”. Therefore no sacrificial offering and no ritual treatment of illness is made without a bowl where cacao beans are roasted on glowing coals.