CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Figure
Stone figure, 1200 - 1500
About the object
The stylised squatting figure has been carved out of blackish brown stone and has been polished until smooth. It is typical representation of a zemi in which aspects of a human and animal being (toad or frog) coalesce. Dominant is the oversized head with a broad, teeth-baring, grinning mouth, huge oval eyes, triangular nose and pendulous, plugged ears.
In the polytheistic worldview of the Taino, zemis are gods or ancestral spirits related to natural phenomena. Their images were worshiped in special shrines, among other places, used in ceremonies with the hallucinogen cohoba and smaller versions worn as amulets for protection in combat or against storms and bad weather. Each Taino had several zemis that stood for his ancestors, among other purposes.
In the polytheistic worldview of the Taino, zemis are gods or ancestral spirits related to natural phenomena. Their images were worshiped in special shrines, among other places, used in ceremonies with the hallucinogen cohoba and smaller versions worn as amulets for protection in combat or against storms and bad weather. Each Taino had several zemis that stood for his ancestors, among other purposes.
When Christopher Columbus landed on Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) on 6 December 1492, he encountered the Taino. The culture of these Arawakan speakers is thought to have developed there from the 6th century onward. The Spaniards effectively annihilated them and, after a few decades, the Taino people were considered extinct. Genetic research at the beginning of the 2000s proved that the descendants of the Taino are in fact an indigenous people of the Caribbean. Culturally and in terms of their identity, they refer explicitly to their ancestors.
Contrary to Columbus's opinion that he had come across a non-religious people who would be easy to convert to Christianity, the Taino had developed a complex polytheistic system that revolved around the zemís – gods, spirits, ancestors. Each zemí was attributed power over a particular natural phenomenon. Myths harnessed these entities to explain the phenomena of nature, the creation of the world and life and how it flourishes. The most important zemís were associated with the main crop cassava and fertility in general. Also the images carved into rocks or ceramic vessels and cut from stone, bone or shell were called zemí. Each had its own form of representation, in which anthropomorphic features were often fused with zoomorphic counterparts (frog, snake, turtle, dog, etc.). The stone images were individual sacred objects and were kept in special niches in the house. The village chieftain's zemís were considered to belong to the whole village and were worshipped in temples.
Author: Eva Gerhards, Translation: Timothy Connell
Contrary to Columbus's opinion that he had come across a non-religious people who would be easy to convert to Christianity, the Taino had developed a complex polytheistic system that revolved around the zemís – gods, spirits, ancestors. Each zemí was attributed power over a particular natural phenomenon. Myths harnessed these entities to explain the phenomena of nature, the creation of the world and life and how it flourishes. The most important zemís were associated with the main crop cassava and fertility in general. Also the images carved into rocks or ceramic vessels and cut from stone, bone or shell were called zemí. Each had its own form of representation, in which anthropomorphic features were often fused with zoomorphic counterparts (frog, snake, turtle, dog, etc.). The stone images were individual sacred objects and were kept in special niches in the house. The village chieftain's zemís were considered to belong to the whole village and were worshipped in temples.
Author: Eva Gerhards, Translation: Timothy Connell