Caribbean figure pendants : style and subject matter : anthropomorphic figure pendants of the late Ceramic Age in the Greater Antilles / Vernon James Knight.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Knight, Vernon J., author.

Series:

Taboui ; Number 7.

Taboui ; Number 7

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Caribbean Area--Antiquities.

Caribbean Area.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Leiden : Sidestone Press, [2020]

Summary:

This work synthesizes art-historical and anthropological methods in the analysis of a large corpus of indigenous figure pendants, commonly called "amulets," from the Greater Antilles and Bahamas. Figure pendants, ubiquitous in Caribbean collections, are small carvings of spirit beings perforated for suspension against the body. The data are drawn from new photographs, measurements, and observations of 535 specimens compiled by the author during 2011-2018 in research visits to 34 museums and private collections in the Caribbean, the United States, and Europe. In analyzing this corpus, the author documents high stylistic diversity within the region, naming nine new figure pendant styles and situating these in space and time. This high diversity of local styles and subject matter suggests a previously undocumented religious pluralism in the ancient Caribbean, in accord with emergent understandings of cultural and political diversity within the region. The author finds that the subject matter of figure pendants is unconnected with elite cohoba spiritualism as documented ethnohistorically, which leads to a search for what the phenomenon represents socially and religiously. Figure pendants generally are far more common than the paraphernalia of cohoba, probably documenting the existence of a religious institution existing at the village level. The author hypothesizes that they were commissioned from pendant carvers by initiates of secret societies dedicated to healing or warfare. In this scenario, the supernatural subjects of the pendants were the patrons of regional sodalities with distinct histories.The book is intended for readers with interests in the indigenous art, religion and society of the ancient Caribbean and more broadly, Latin America.

Contents:

Intro

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Orientation

The genre

Nomenclature

Prior considerations of the genre

Use and function

Style and iconography

Indigenous religion

Cults and religious specialists

Divinities

Cultural context

Settlement of the Antilles

Rise of Antillean political complexity

Ethnolingistic diversity

Rationale

Approach to the present study

The corpus

Style and styles

Configurational analysis

Ethnographic analogy

The Puerto Plata Style

Preliminary iconographic notes

Raw materials

Archaeological context and dating

Geographic distribution

User modifications

Other Puerto Plata subjects

A second manifold being (Figure 2.12, upper row, left and center)

FGA023 (Figure 2.12, upper row, right)

IC186 (Figure 2.12, lower row, left)

IC135 (Figure 2.12, lower row, right)

Puerto Plata oddities

IC355 (Figure 2.11, upper row, left)

IC187 (Figure 2.11, upper row, right)

IC397 (Figure 2.11, lower row, left)

Puerto Plata Arms Aloft guise

The head

The torso and arms

The legs and genitalia

The back

Further notes on Puerto Plata Arms Aloft guise

Puerto Plata Frog-form guise

Puerto Plata Twinned guise

Further notes on Puerto Plata Twinned guise

Puerto Plata Standard guise, Format 2. Anthropomorph in cylindrical composition

Further notes on Puerto Plata Standard guise, Format 2

Puerto Plata Standard guise, Format 1. Anthropomorph in prismatic composition

Further notes on Puerto Plata Standard guise, Format 1.

Sequencing the Puerto Plata style

Analytical strategy

Interpretation of the output

Nonmetric multidimensional scaling of the raw data

The Yaguajay style

Further notes on the style

Details of execution

The torso and upper limbs

The lower limbs and genitalia

The Madre Vieja style

Raw material

Madre Vieja-related oddities

FGA051 (Figure 5.3, upper row, center)

FGA060 (Figure 5.3, lower row, right)

FGA057 (Figure 5.3, lower row, second from left)

FGA056 (Figure 5.3, lower row, second from left)

SC024 (Figure 5.3, lower row, left)

FGA059 (Figure 5.3, upper row, right)

AM009 (Figure 5.3, upper row, left)

Madre Vieja marginalia

IC106 (Figure 5.2, upper row, right)

IC256 (Figure 5.2, upper row, left)

IC320 (Figure 5.2, middle row, left)

IC323 (Figure 5.2, middle row, right)

IC099 (Figure 5.2, lower row)

The Comendador style

Archaeological contexts and dating

Comendador marginalia

FGA150 (Figure 6.4, lower row, right)

IC261 (Figure 6.4, upper row, left)

IC157 (Figure 6.4, upper row, right)

IC373 (Figure 6.4, lower row, left)

Another subject?

Comendador anthropomorph, Format 2

Comendador anthropomorph, Format 1

The Cibao style.

Preliminary iconographic notes

Cibao oddities

IC264 (Figure 7.5, upper row, left)

IC062 (Figure 7.5, middle row, right)

IC145 (Figure 7.5, upper row, right)

IC366 (Figure 7.5, middle row, left)

IC093 (Figure 7.5, lower)

The Luquillo style

Geographic Distribution

Other subjects

IC272 (Figure 8.3, upper row, left)

IC335 (Figure 8.3, upper row, right)

IC268, IC337, and IC339 (Figure 8.3, lower row. IC339 not illustrated)

Luquillo snouted, armless hybrid

The torso

Luquillo frog-form hybrid

The torso and limbs

The genitalia

Further notes on the Luquillo frog-form hybrid

Imbert and related styles

The Imbert style

Another subject: anthropomorphic hybrids

Style Group 2 (Figure 9.3, lower row)

Style Group 1 (Figure 9.3, upper row)

Imbert-related marginalia and other subjects

IC043 (Figure 9.1, lower row, right)

Los Arabos (Figure 9.1, lower row, center)

Miniatures

La Caleta, Altagracia, and other styles

Miscellaneous miniatures

IC083 (Figure 10.3, upper row, left)

IC285 (Figure 10.3, upper row, middle)

IC152 (Figure 10.3, upper row, right)

IC111 (Figure 10.3, lower row, left)

IC390 (Figure 10.3, lower row, middle)

IC160 (Figure 10.3, lower row, right).

Miniature Style Group 4

Miniature Style Group 3

The Altagracia style

The legs

The La Caleta style

Same subjects, additional styles

Frog-form hybrids

IC361 (Figure 11.5, upper)

IC026 (Figure 11.5, lower)

IC162 (Figure 11.6, upper row, left)

IC069 (Figure 11.6, upper row, right)

IC265 (Figure 11.6, middle right)

IC025 (Figure 11.6, lower row, left)

IC056 (Figure 11.6, lower row, center)

IC065 (Figure 11.6, lower row, right)

Snouted, armless hybrids

IC001 and IC301 (Figure 11.4, upper row, left, right)

IC107 and IC130 (Figure 11.4, lower row, left, second from left)

IC038 (Figure 11.4, lower row, third from left)

IC048 (Figure 11.4, lower row, right)

Emaciated or partly skeletalized anthropomorphs

IC092 (Figure 11.3, upper row, left)

IC206 (Figure 11.3, upper row, right)

IC047 (Figure 11.3, lower row, left)

IC234 (Figure 11.3, lower row, middle)

IC233 (Figure 11.3, lower row, right)

Fully-fleshed anthropomorphs

IC044 (Figure 11.1, upper row, left)

IC354 (Figure 11.1, upper row, right)

IC191 (Figure 11.1, middle row, left)

IC159 (Figure 11.1, middle row, right)

IC367 (Figure 11.1, lower row, left)

IC173 (Figure 11.1, lower row, right)

IC244 (Figure 11.2, upper)

IC219 (Figure 11.2, lower row, left)

IC257 (Figure 11.2, lower row, right)

Comparisons

Connecting elements

Squatting and the frog-form base

Matters of iconography

Major figural characters

Minor figural characters

Genital bulge and the faceted triangular wedge

Armlessness

Hemispherical eye concavities

Elliptical slotted eyes.

Mask eye surround

Bird-form ears

Coronet

Headpiece with side-by-side buns

Lines descending from eyes

Bared teeth in a wide band

Supranasal chevron element

"Reptilian roll" nose

Arm and hand positions

Plain necklace-like element

Navel

Exposed ribs

Constrictions at upper arms, lower legs

Modes of squatting

Ankle bumps

Downcurled toes and fingers

Excised palmar and plantar elements

Incised meander motif

Conclusions

A cult institution

The nature of crafting communities

Disconnect with the cohoba rite

Figure pendants were discarded as refuse

Figure pendants could be modified and could reach distant places

Figure pendants occupy a middle ground of social exclusivity

Styles are linked to subject matter in definite ways

Styles are geographically restricted

Styles and their subjects were not fully contemporaneous

Horizon I, channelback period. Suggested dates: 900‑1200 AD.

Horizon II, period dominated by elbow-style perforation. Suggested dates:1200‑1350 AD.

Horizon III, period dominated by transverse perforation. Suggested dates:1350‑1500 AD.

Discussion

Bibliography

Figure Pendants from the Database

Appendix 1

Figure Pendants from the Sala de Arte Prehispánico, Fundación García Arévalo

Blank Page.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

90-8890-872-9

OCLC:

1154545895