Page 577 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

Spaniards prized cassava bread because it kept The broad mouth and circular eyes of the figure
well in the hot and humid tropical climate of the depicted on the three-pointer are typical. Other
West Indies (Arrom 1989, 67-73, P^ 4^/ Rouse, examples clearly show bent arms and hands at
forthcoming). I.R. andj.j.A. one end, as if digging the earth, and bent legs and
feet at the other end, as if pushing through the
ground. These features may be related to the
functions of the god. The bases of most specimens
are concave; their tops are conical and slightly
411 asymmetrical. I.R. and J.J.A.

CHIEF'S STOOL (Duho)

Taino
wood
jS x 40 (jo5/8 x i$3/4) 4*3
Musee de I'Homme, Palais de Chaillot, Paris HUMAN EFFIGY FIGURE

Tamo
Chiefs, priests, and other important personages ceramic
sat and reclined on stools crafted from single
pieces of wood or, less commonly, stone. The 40.5 (i57/s)
Tamos called these objects duhos. Columbus National Museum of the American Indian,
likened them to the thrones he knew in Europe. 412 Smithsonian Institution
The Italian humanist Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, as
well as the Spanish chroniclers Oviedo and Las CARVED THREE-POINTER This piece, found in a cave in the Dominican
Casas, admired their beautiful designs and highly Republic in 1916, has been repeatedly described as
polished surfaces. Most examples are in the shape Tamo a "humpbacked clay idol/' It is in reality a beauti-
of hammocks, which the Tamos used in place of stone ful, brooding human figure with a mythical turtle
beds. Geometric figures are engraved on the backs 17.5 (6%) on its back, which can be connected with the
of the more elaborate specimens, and heads of Museo del Hombre Dominicano, Santo Domingo creation story related by Fray Ramon Pane in
zemis are sculptured on their fronts, as in this his account of Tamo mythology (Arrom 1988).
example from Haiti (Arrom 1989, 107-108). Three-pointers vary greatly in material, size, and According to Father Pane, a male quadruplet
I.R. and J.J.A. decoration. The smaller and plainer specimens are named Deminan asked his grandfather to teach
said to have been buried in the fields in order to
improve the growth of crops. Because larger stone
pieces like this one from the Dominican Republic
are so beautifully carved and exquisitely finished,
they are thought to have been kept in their
owners' houses and worshiped as zemis. Arrom
(1989, 17-31) has shown that these objects repre-
sent the Tamos' supreme deity Yucahu Bagua
Maorocoti, god of agriculture, fishing, and
seafaring.

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