Traditionally, Kuna women wore only skirts, and adorned their upper bodies with painted geometric or organic designs. When the Christian missionaries arrived to the region in the sixteenth century, they required women to wear blouses; the mola patterns may have been an adaptation of traditional body painting to colonial circumstances. The making of molas is an exclusively female task, and it is a tradition that is passed on through the family and by generation.
Women begin to learn to make molas when they are just girls, and continue to produce them throughout their lives. Specific molas may be worn for housework, as nightgowns, for going out in public, or for particular celebrations; while other designs are reserved for special occasions.
Old molas are sometimes recycled as rags, or when they are very worn out, molas might be sold. Molas made for the tourist industry very popular souvenirs from Panama and Colombia! Remarkably, the market sale of molas now rivals that of coconuts and crayfish, the two primary exports of the region. Crouch, Edith. The mola: traditional Kuna textile art. Atglen: Schiffer Publishing, Kapp, Capt. Kit S.. Mola Art from the San Blas Islands.
Cincinnati: Earl D. Viewed from the perspective of the historian, the body painting of the 17th century and the fabric creations of today show how Kuna women, through their designs, capture unique images of the world in which they lived.
Growing world demand for their creations convinced Kuna women to produce molas for the global market. Because of the need for revenue, the Guna have complied.
For example, one buyer wanted snowmen. Although the women had no idea of what a snowman was, where he lived, or what he ate, they sewed snowmen.
Unfortunately, the popularity of molas has stimulated a large industry that churns out copies of Guna designs on everything from fake molas, i.
Despite Panamanian legislation passed in to protect its folk art, imitations of Guna molas and design continue to flood the market. But the marketing of molas should not obscure their real purpose as an expression of cultural identity. Women sew molas to generate revenue, but they wear them to express something specific, from social or political commentary to the depiction of an event. Tice states that, in the latter example, the Guna mother wanted to impress on her children the dangers posed by certain animals.
However, the purchase of molas by Panamanians became significant after the invasion of Panama by the United States in Buying and wearing molas, which represented something that was indisputably Panamanian, became a quiet form of national protest against the forceful foreign policy of their northern neighbor. And, in the s, what had been an expression of national pride became acceptable as fashion. Responding to the high praise for molas outside Panama, the upper classes of the country have also accepted them as fashion.
Molas, then, have historically served a variety of purposes. They have expressed Guna traditions and independence and have protected Guna culture; they have commented on Guna society and expressed opinions about Panamanian politics and politicians; and they have expressed the national pride of all of Panama in the face of an interventionist United States.
Although many are still intensely personal, most are now rather impersonal items for sale abroad; for the outside world as well as for Guna women, they have become fashionable.
But to appreciate fully and understand them, we must see them first and foremost in the traditional. Our roots date back thousands of years ago. We have a long and rich history that left us with a body of wisdom and life teachings to lead our nation and to defend Mother Earth.
These pearls of wisdom were bequeathed by great personalities, men and women, who left us the Anmar danikid igar, the awareness of our own path. As we already saw, Guna Yala is a narrow strip of land along the Panamanian coastline - km from the border with Colombia, overlooking the Caribbean Sea - and includes what once was known as the Archipelago of San Blas: over coral island and cays in a lucky Caribbean zone of astonishing beauty, free from hurricanes the Guna say there are islands, one for every day of the year, but it's a joke.
The Guna people make up 51 Comunidades different communities : 49 in 49 major islands and 2 on the mainland. It gives you an idea of the north-western coral reefs and its uninhabited cays.
The Dutch Keys are located 15 km from the mainland, being the farthest islands in the entire archipelago, and can be reached only by sailing ship or motorboat. There are no hotels in the Dutch Keys, but visitors can camp on some islands where there are very basic huts.
Nothing else. Small beaches of white sand, waving palm trees, untouched coral reefs, and pure crystalline to turquoise waters are not a characteristic of the Dutch Keys only: they are everywhere in the Guna Yala archipelago. The most saleable of all paradises, however, is not on sale: the Guna people do not allow anyone to build resorts or tourist facilities on their land.
Two more videos give you you an idea of the Gunadules, their land, and the wilderness along the mainland rivers. All the Gunadules travel among their islands and fish by using a hand-built dugout canoe, called cayuco in Spanish and ulu in Dulegaya.
All men, women, and children are expert sailors and handlers. Each canoe is made from a single tree trunk, hollowed out by hand. The hardwood comes from the mainland. They carved cayucos of different sizes and shapes: canoes for rivers, cayucos with a keel for sailing trips, small boats for fishing, or for medicinal baths inaulu.
It's an expensive, essential resource: it can cost approx. You can find miniatures cayucos both as baby's toys and grave goods, placed next to the corpse as a means of transport for the journey to the abode of Baba-Nana. Una oscuridad tan tensa, como si le apretaran a uno los ojos con dos manos. Aiban Wagua, , see Bibliography.
At the beginning, there was darkness. A darkness so thick that all looked the same as when you press your hands on both eyes. There was no sun, no moon, and no stars were born. When Baba formed Mother Earth, he also lit the sun, the moon and the stars. And he illuminated the Mother Nature's face. The earth is therefore an image and a trace that spoke of Baba's presence, of Nana's presence. Bana-Nana created the Mother Earth and gave her many names, including that of Nabgwana.
The old sages sailagan sing that Baba-Nana before sending the first human being Wago to earth, created all plants, rivers, animals, and trees, created the air and the wind to make Nabgwana habitable, welcoming, generous. That's why Wago recognizes all living beings as his brothers. Did you inherited from your aunt a tribal mask, a stool, a vase, a rug, an ethnic item that you have the faintest idea what it is?
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Insert your e-mail. Four different Guna cotton molas from the early 20th century. Guna cotton mola from the early 20th century, The British Museum, London. Size: 47 x Two Kuna cotton molas depicting plants, both from the s. Mola panel, cotton cloth, Collected by photographer and author Dr.
Louise C. Agnew , probably between and ; inherited by her daughter Bettylee Marquis-Kral A baffling representation of leafy creatures. Not on display. Vintage and used Guna mola sized 41 x Kuna cotton mola depicting a rooster, from the s, purchased in by Paul and Irene Hollister, Hanover, New Hampshire; given to the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Guna mola cotton blouse, before , The British Museum, London.
The next panel featuring octopuses among corals?
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