ZUNI
LINK
Your Link to Fine Zuni Fetishes
and Fetish Carvings
BUY WITH CONFIDENCE:
Satisfaction guaranteed on everything we sell
All purchases may be returned within 10 days of receipt
Frogs and bears and buffalos and corn maidens and
birds and horses
Mountain lions and wolves/coyotes and turtles
Call us
now at 800-305-0185 with
any questions .
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!
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 below 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
Introducing our Zuni Fetish Collector's Club.
Click here to learn more about our Zuni Fetish Collector's Club
Click here to read our Privacy Policy and Money Back GuaranteeWhat our customers say about us:
"She (the carving) is absolutely gorgeous and the immediate centerpiece of my maiden collection! Thank you" - M
Are you feeling lucky? Check below to find out if Fetish Luck is on your side.
Click
on the turquoise
fortune cookie
to
see the
close-up page for a fetish carving that is on special sale,
The item will change when the selected item is sold or
sooner, depending on the whim of the web master. So click here. You
won't know if you got lucky or not unless you click.
To subscribe to
our Tribal Artery blog, click on
this icon.
Sign up for the latest news from
the world of Indian art.
Consider
a gift certificate for the holidays
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.
For our periodic e-newsletter, Tribal
Artery, about all things tribal, including new additions to our inventory
and news about the world of tribal art. Save 10% off your next purchase
as a Tribal Artery subscriber.
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.
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 survival than 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.
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.
Today, owners of fetish carvings are expected to provide safe and comfortable care for them, including occasional feeding. It is said, "if you take care of the fetish, it will take care of you."
Click
here for the continuation of this essay
and more about Zuni fetish carving traditions.
such as pottery, jewelry or folk art, Inuit art, Australian Aboriginal art or African art, click on any of these links:
Native American Indian jewelry,
Native American Indian pottery,
Navajo folk art,
Arctic Inuit art,
Australian Aboriginal art,
African tribal art.
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.
© 2002 - 2008 Aboriginals: Art of the First Person, a member of the
Indian Arts & Crafts Association
and the
Southwestern Association for Indian Art
Principal Office - 15194 Harbour Isle Drive, Fort Myers, FL 33908
