If you are looking for
a specific Zuni fetish animal or a Zuni fetish carver not listed below,
you can search the entire site by using the
Google search link. Simply type into the search window
a word or phrase associated with your search. You will receive a list
of links to the pages on which those items appear. Please be sure
to keep the indicator on ZuniLink or you will transferred to the entire
web.Happy hunting!
Are you new
to Native American fetish carvings?
You can start on this page and learn about the history of Zuni fetish
carvings, Zuni fetish carvers and the materials used in carving Zuni
fetishes.
If you are an
experienced collector, click on any of the links to visit pages devoted
to specific Zuni, Navajo or Cochiti or other pueblo carvers or specific
fetish animals.
ZuniLink is owned and operated by
Susanne and William Waites, dealers
in tribal arts for 26 years.
Email us at sanibelart@comcast.net
or telephone 800-305-0185
Can't find exactly the Zuni fetish
carving you are looking for?
ZuniLink offers gift certificates in what ever denomination you prefer.
Purchase them now to give before the holiday and let the recipients
choose the Zuni fetish carving that is right for them.
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Tribal Artery, about all things tribal, including new additions to our
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Imagine a universe where all things interconnect, sharing a
common spirit. From the center of the earth to the outer reaches of
the cosmos, everything from humans and animals
to lumps of clay is an extension of the life spirit. In some
objects, the spirit is animated. In others it is dormant, but nonetheless
present.
How Zunis View their World.
This approximates the
life-view of the Zuni people (and other native tribes of North America.)
For the Zuni, this interrelationship has created a hierarchy of being.
Humans are both the smartest and the most distant from the Creator and,
therefore, the most susceptible to danger. Animals, are the most natural
and, therefore, closest to the Creator, with the immediate access to
the power of the Creator.
As might be expected in a culture with primarily an oral history, there
are variations on the Zuni creation story. Common to most appears to
be the belief that the Creator placed the Zuni on a land
that was swampy and dangerous,filled with animals that were more adept at survivalthan
humans and threatening to the Zuni. Through the use of lightning bolts,
Zuni cosmology believes, the two sons of the Creator made the land dry and
habitable and turned many of the animals to stone.
The spirit of the animal remained in the stone, like the life
force remains in a seed. Stones that resembled animals, found on the ground,
were believed to retain the power and characteristics of the animals they
resembled. When consecrated by a Zuni priest or medicine man, they were
believed to be formidable mediums for contacting the Spirit world and powerful
allies for the hunter or for individual or collective protection.
From Finding to Carving
In the sweep of time,
Zuni carvers came first to modify the stones to better resemble the
animal and then to carve distinguishable animal shapes in stones that
were shapeless.
As carving was refined and
the available materials expanded, the carving of "fetishes" grew into
an art form. Such carvings still can become formal fetish objects if
blessed by a sacred tribal leader or informal fetish objects if invested
with power by the owner of the carving. The power and protection of
the carving largely depends on the faith and belief of the person who
owns it, and the respect with which it is treated.
Traditional fetish carvings were
kept in fetish bowls with a hole in the side so that they could be "fed."
Ground corn or corn pollen and pulverized turquoise would be placed in
front of the fetish. After a suitable interval, during which the fetish
was able to absorb the spirit of the meal, the meal would be taken away
and buried.
To search all of our web
sites in one search,
enter your keyword or phrase in the field below:
Zuni Link is operated by Aboriginals:
Art of the First Person, Fort Myers, Florida
For more information, or to contact
us by email, send to sanibelart@comcast.net
or by phone at 239-482-7025 or 800-305-0185
from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM Eastern (US) time
For more information about Zuni
Pueblo, Zuni carvers and Zuni traditions,
click this link to visit a
page of book
selections like this one.