Usually found in funerary contexts, large jaguar effigy vessels with bold red and black designs on a light background were apparently highly desirable goods in ancient Costa Rica. Perhaps it was believed that objects depicting fierce predators such as the jaguar transferred their strength to the deceased. The selective placement of jaguar markings and imagery on this example suggests that the vessel represents a person and his jaguar alter ego. During trances Costa Rican shamans are believed to symbolically transform themselves into jaguars in order to move between natural and supernatural realms.

Usualmente encontradas en contextos funerarios, las grandes vasijas efigie con llamativos diseños en rojo y negro sobre un fondo blanco eran aparentemente muy cotizadas en la antigua Costa Rica. Quizás se creía que objetos que representaban fieros depredadores como el jaguar podían transferir su fortaleza al difunto. La posición selectiva de las marcas e imagen del jaguar en este ejemplo sugieren que la vasija representa a una persona y su alter ego jaguar. Durante los trances, se cree que los chamanes de Costa Rica se transforman simbólicamente en jaguares para moverse entre los mundos natural y sobrenatural.

Anonymous gift in memory of Dr. Harlow Brooks

Group of eleven arrows painted with black and red stripes and dots. Ten arrows have metal points.

This is a wood mudhead clown kachina with a wool skirt. Koyemshi Kachina (Mudhead) Clowns Koyemshi Kachinas, or Mudheads were created when the Zuni first entered the world. One brother and sister had improper relations so their ten children became Mudheads. Each Mudhead exhibits behavior opposite to what their name is. Thus “The Aged One” acts like a child, “The Invisible One,” thinks he is hiding if he only holds up a feather in front of his face, while the all-important “Speaker of the Sun” is really a witless daydreamer and rarely speaks. A troop of ten different Mudhead Kachinas appear in most Zuni ceremonies performing outrageous behaviors and interacting with the audience, making them laugh but also making people realize how wrong such behavior really is as the clowns are eventually chased away.

Town record or lienzo painted on a plain-weave cotton cloth which consists of nine four-selvaged cotton panels joined together to make one large sheet. This form of Spanish Colonial manuscript was made to provide visual information regarding the history of indigenous Mixtec communities in the Valley of Coixtlahuaca, in the modern state of Oaxaca, Mexico, and their relationships to each other. It is one of six major lienzos that were made for the towns in this Mixtec valley. All share the features of having many place glyphs; delineations of land represented by rectangular areas and often identified by glyphs; written glosses in several languages, including Nahuatl (most frequent), Choco, Mixe and Spanish; and royal genealogies that may encompass other communities as well. The Lienzo of Ihuitlan has all of these attributes, including twenty-one place glyphs, usually glossed in Nahuatl. In general, the glyphs are arranged around the circumference of the textile, and the glyph for Ihuitlan is farthest from the edge in the lower right corner. That glyph is distinguished by a drawing of the Dominican church of Santiago Ihuitlan which is adjacent. The glyphs parallel the locations of the communities in the valley which identifies the lienzo a map, with the uppermost section oriented to the north. Besides the church, the only other European element is the twenty-one names marked in Spanish script. In the center section, genealogies of community rulers and their place glyphs appear, however, not all the place glyphs have corresponding genealogies. The most extensive genealogies are those for Coixtlahuaca, Ihuitlan, and the two unglossed and unidentified localities that have been thought to represent Water and Texcalhueyac. The husband and wife of each generation are seated on a mat or jaguar skin, ancient signs of rank, with a name symbol painted beside each figure. There are 170 figures, arranged in columns according to dynasties and in some cases connected by rows of footprints to indicate how certain rulers were descended from those of other towns. Although one dynasty does not have place identification, through comparison to another lienzo, it is thought to be the Yucucuy dynasty. Three couples make up the rest of the dynastic list with the first relating to the sixth ruling pair of Yucucuy (as seen on the Lienzo Antonio de Leon). Footsteps descending from this couple are evidence that they are the parents of Female 8 Death of the founding pair of the first dynasty of Ihuitlan. The genealogical parts of the lienzo are divided into two sections with the bottom area containing a gloss but not a glyph and three pairs of ancestors; the center area contains the opposite iconography showing a glyph and not a gloss and fifteen pairs of ancestors. Although there are no footprints connecting the genealogies, in the Lienzo Antonio de Leon, the last couple of the first dynasty, Male 4 Water and Female 3 Grass, are represented as the parents of Male 6 Rain, the first ruler of the second dynasty. Genealogies in Mixtec lienzos are thought to validate the legitimacy of the rulers of the communities; however, in this lienzo they also illustrate the ruler's ownership of the community lands as a whole. This inclusion probably helped insure the preservation of the lienzo.

These arrows were made by non-Native anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing and are part of his personal Zuni outfit.

These arrows were made by non-Native anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing and are part of his personal Zuni outfit.

These arrows were made by non-Native anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing and are part of his personal Zuni outfit.

These arrows were made by non-Native anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing and are part of his personal Zuni outfit.

These arrows were made by non-Native anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing and are part of his personal Zuni outfit.