Known for their beautiful textile art; the Kuna of Panama have been scrutinized by anthropologists for decades. Perhaps surprisingly; this scrutiny has overlooked the magnificent Kuna craft of nuchukanamdash;wooden anthropomorphic carvingsmdash;which play vital roles in curing and other Kuna rituals. Drawing on long-term fieldwork; Paolo Fortis at last brings to light this crucial cultural facet; illuminating not only Kuna aesthetics and art production but also their relation to wider social and cosmological concerns.Exploring an art form that informs birth and death; personhood; the dream world; the natural world; religion; gender roles; and ecology; Kuna Art and Shamanism provides a rich understanding of this societys visual system; and the ways in which these groundbreaking ethnographic findings can enhance Amerindian scholarship overall. Fortis also explores the fact that to ask what it means for the Kuna people to carve the figure of a person is to pose a riddle about the cultures complete concept of knowing.Also incorporating notions of landscape (islands; gardens; and ancient trees) as well as cycles of life; including the influence of illness; Fortis places the statues at the center of a network of social relationships that entangle people with nonhuman entities. As an activity carried out by skilled elderly men; who possess embodied knowledge of lifelong transformations; the carving process is one that mediates mortal worlds with those of immortal primordial spirits. Kuna Art and Shamanism immerses readers in this sense of unity and opposition between soul and body; internal forms and external appearances; and image and design.
2006-03-02 2006-03-02File Name: B00BD95W00
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. More than Willin to read this!!!By Rebel Flower GirlWhat a great read about one of my favorite bands of all time!! I loved reading how the Feats connections to Linda Ronstadt; Bonnie Raitt; Jackson Browne; Warren Devon; the Grateful Dead and so many musicians happened. Thanks Ben Fong Torres for collecting and putting all this incredible history together in such a fascinating page turner... If youre a Little Feat fan; or have had the thrill of seeing them live; youll love this fascinating story! This book is crammed full of so many memories; I loved it!! Wow; wow; WoW!!! I loved reading how Zappas "Mothers Of Invention" not only helped form; but also provide their name via Mothers drummer Jimmy Carl Black saying Lowell had "ugly little feet"; haha. Heard that somewhere; but I was so young I had Lowell so many Feats were alumni of the Mothers; or connected somehow. My husband is reading this next; hell love it too; as will anyone else. Interesting that Little Feat like the Dead are a California band who found their biggest audience on the East Coast; that is so weird. Ive always loved them both Im 5th gen California born raised; really makes me wonder.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. ... I heard there was a bio out on my favorite all time bandBy Jake LukeWhen I heard there was a bio out on my favorite all time band; I was excited. When I heard it was written by famed Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres I bought it. In short it is the story of the best band in the world that never made it big. Filled with familiar names to any rock fan you are compelled through both the arc of time for Feat; and we view sidelong; their contemporaries; the country and the music business. Its a fun and semi tragic story in which we both the beautiful the ugly side of very talented people trying to find their goal of both respect and success.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Memories; the "perfect imperfection"By Chris MitchellLiked the interviews; not sure time favors exact memory of conversations. I suppose that is the variable in as-told-to writing.Time does not love a hero; time creates heroes and as surely can unmake them.Ultimately; I prefer to remember the band as I saw them those several times. Take them as a whole; a sum of the parts; each iteration of the band unlike its predecessors as members come and go.