Shaman's Staff Featuring An Anthropomorphic Couple - Northwestern Colombia - Circa 1900

SHAMAN'S STAFF FEATURING AN ANTHROPOMORPHIC COUPLE
Emberá Culture, Chocó, Northwestern Colombia
Circa 1900
Wood
H: 73.5; W: 4.5 cm

This wooden staff with a red patina features two anthropomorphic figures carved in the round: a female and a male figure standing back-to-back. Their faces feature eyebrow arches that meet at a short nasal ridge, reminiscent of a stylized heart motif. The dual representation of the man and woman echoes the shaman.

The shaman’s staff of the Emberá culture is an object imbued with special power. Indeed, according to anthropologist Erland Nordenskiöld, these staffs—imbued with benevolent spirits—“help the medicine man drive out demons.”
The term “medicine man” refers to the jaïbaná: the shaman among the Emberá people.

This individual—who could be either a man or a woman—played a vital role in society: he or she was both the piache, the healer, and the intermediary, the physical link between humanity and the spiritual realm, between the visible world and the invisible world.
He alone had access to the jaï, the spirits.

Tradition dictated that the aspiring shaman, trained by an elder, carve his first staff himself. Once he had attained the status of jaïbaná, he was presented with a second staff. A shaman could thus accumulate a large number of staffs throughout his life.

Historian Mircea Eliade reports three prerequisite conditions for a man to become a shaman. First, he had to have a calling—an inner inclination. Second, the initiate had to be descended from a parent who had already been a shaman. Finally, he had to be chosen by the clan. Once these three conditions were met, the future jaïbaná had to embark on a journey of initiation where secret languages, mythology, ecstasy, dreams, and dreamlike states were taught to him.

Ref.: 6758

Text and photos © FCP CORIDON