Dulemola (Women's Blouse Panel) with Paliwiduru (Eagle Spirits)

Writing is incorporated into this contemporary cut-and-sewn dulemola made by the Guna people from the northern coast and Caribbean islands off Panamá. In the top center a version of the letters “IHS” can be seen, the monogram abbreviated from IHΣΟΥΣ, Greek for “Jesus.” However, it is important to note that the Christogram is shown backwards. The other imagery in this piece helps to explain why this might be so. Although they may look like Christian angels, the two winged, kneeling figures flanking the letters also have eagle heads and deer antlers. The Guna call these spiritual beings Paliwiduru and they believe that they call the soul of the recently deceased out of his or her body, instructing it on how to begin its afterlife journey. Thus, the artist of this piece has combined Christian elements with those of the ongoing indigenous religion.

The letters for Jesus, whom the missionaries have told the Guna they will meet after death, are probably shown reversed to indicate that the scene with the Paliwiduru is taking place on the Other Side, in the Land of the Dead. In indigenous American cosmology, the afterlife is a reversed realm relative to the world of the living. Since the scene is looking from the point of view of “the Beyond,” the name of Jesus is written backwards. Although the missionaries and colonists imposed their system of writing and religion on the Guna, indigenous people incorporated it into their pre-existing worldview. European-style letters, and angels in Heaven are eclipsed by the overriding traditional concept of the Paliwiduru.

Writing is incorporated into this contemporary cut-and-sewn dulemola made by the Guna people from the northern coast and Caribbean islands off Panamá. In the top center a version of the letters “IHS” can be seen, the monogram abbreviated from IHΣΟΥΣ, Greek for “Jesus.” However, it is important to note that the Christogram is shown backwards. The other imagery in this piece helps to explain why this might be so. Although they may look like Christian angels, the two winged, kneeling figures flanking the letters also have eagle heads and deer antlers. The Guna call these spiritual beings Paliwiduru and they believe that they call the soul of the recently deceased out of his or her body, instructing it on how to begin its afterlife journey. Thus, the artist of this piece has combined Christian elements with those of the ongoing indigenous religion.

The letters for Jesus, whom the missionaries have told the Guna they will meet after death, are probably shown reversed to indicate that the scene with the Paliwiduru is taking place on the Other Side, in the Land of the Dead. In indigenous American cosmology, the afterlife is a reversed realm relative to the world of the living. Since the scene is looking from the point of view of “the Beyond,” the name of Jesus is written backwards. Although the missionaries and colonists imposed their system of writing and religion on the Guna, indigenous people incorporated it into their pre-existing worldview. European-style letters, and angels in Heaven are eclipsed by the overriding traditional concept of the Paliwiduru.

Central America, Guna Yala (San Blas Islands/North Coast of Panamá)