Gift of Ingeborg de Beausacq

Gift of Ingeborg de Beausacq

Gift of Ingeborg de Beausacq

Gift of Ingeborg de Beausacq

Gift of Ingeborg de Beausacq

Gift of Ingeborg de Beausacq

Gift of Ingeborg de Beausacq

Museum Expedition 1904, Museum Collection Fund

This Kachina represents Kokopelli, who has a hump back. He has several functions and appears during Ang'wa, the Kachina night dances held in March during the religious cycle. He appears either by himself or with mixed Kachinas. He represents a fertility spirit, for assisting the growth and sustaining abundant life for all -plants and humans. Normally represented as wearing no clothes as seen here. His penis is normally shown as a mark of respect for his fertility powers. This Kokopelli has the rounded form with a humpback (representing the seeds he carries. Helmet style mask, black with pointed nose, oval eyes open on the sides and dots for eyebrows. PR arm is raised; PL arm has been broken off and pinned back on. His chest and back are primarily yellow with red legs and painted black boots.Orange feathers on top of his head.

Elaborate incensario or incense burner lid in the form of a male bust wearing a spectacular headdress with three discs, two feathered quetzal eyes and three bundles of spear ends. The figure wears large circular ear spools and a removable trapazoidal talud-tablero style nose ornament. He carries a blade-like object in the left hand and a bundle of spear ends in the right, suggesting a warrior figure. White, buff, yellow, ochre and red paint are still visible throughout the piece. Teotihuacan-style incense burners usually consist of two basic sections: an hourglass-shaped base (missing) and an elaborate chimney lid. Incense burners from Escuintla, Guatemala generally have unadorned bases and elaborate lids. The presence of Teotihuacan-style incensarios on Guatemala's Pacific coast (about 900 miles away from the Valley of Mexico), attest to the success of Teotihuacan expansion throughout Central America. The original molds for the decorative elements were probably brought south from Central Mexico, but assembled in a local manner typical of Escuintla.