Bones or skulls might be incorporated into sculptural zemis or reliquary urns. Ancestral remains would be housed in shrines and given offerings, such as food. Zemis could be consulted by medicine people for advice and healing.Corbett, Bob.
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Very small ceramic three-point zemis have been uncovered by archaeologists in the Lesser Antilles, as well as Colombia and Venezuela, dating back to 200 BCE. Small amuletic zemis would be worn on warriors' foreheads for protection in battle.Joyce, 193 Zemis are sculpted from a wide variety of materials, including bone, clay, wood, shell, sandstone, and stone. They are found in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean islands.
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Drawing of a Taíno three-point zemi Sculptural zemis, or "amuletic zemis", take many forms, but the most characteristically Taíno art form is the three-point stone zemi. One side of the stone might have a human or animal head with the opposite side having hunched legs. These are sometimes known as "frog's legs" due to their positioning. The fierce face of the creator god is often portrayed.
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Another god, Jurakán, was perpetually angry and ruled the power of the hurricane. Other mythological figures were the gods Zemi and Maboya. The zemis, a god of both sexes, were represented by icons in the form of human and animal figures, and collars made of wood, stone, bones, and human remains. Taíno Indians believed that being in the good graces of their zemis protected them from disease, hurricanes, or disaster in war.
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Japanese: or abbreviated Before seniors graduate, the groups they are affiliated with on campus (usually the zemis or various clubs) often have a send-off konpa for them. In this case the seniors are usually not required to pay any of the bill.
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Some are quite large, up to 100 cm tall. Some are effigies of birds, snakes, alligators and other animals, but most are human effigies. Even twin human figures are portrayed.Bercht, 8, 14, 18, 55, 92, and 123 Wooden zemis were preserved in relatively dry caves.
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Arawak/Taino Related Myths. Cuba Heritage. (retrieved 19 Sept 2009) During these consultation ceremonies, images of the zemi could be painted or tattooed on the body of a priest, who was known as a Bohuti or Buhuithu.Joyce, 195 The reliquary zemis would help their own descendants in particular.
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Two of the most elaborate surviving zemis are housed in European museums. One is a belt with a zemi from the Greater Antilles. The belt dates from circa 1530 and is made of cotton, white and red snail shells, black seeds, pearls, glass, and obsidian. It is housed in the Museum für Völkerkunde in Vienna.
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Taíno religion, as recorded by late 15th and 16th century Spaniards, centered on a supreme creator god and a fertility goddess. The creator god is Yúcahu Maórocoti and he governs the growth of the staple food, the cassava. The goddess is Attabeira, who governs water, rivers, and seas. Lesser deities govern natural forces and are also zemis.
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Bercht et al, 23 Boinayel, the Rain Giver, is one such zemi, whose magical tears become rainfall."Deity Figure (Zemi) Dominican Republic; Taino (1979.206.380)" In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000 October 2006; retrieved 22 September 2009 Spirits of ancestors, also zemis, were highly honored, particularly those of caciques or chiefs.
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Images of cemis carved from wood, stone, or clay. The Taíno had no written language but produced ornate sculptures from stone, wood, and clay that were used in many types of ceremony. Those that resembled gods were called cemis or zemis. They also created many other sacred objects including stone collars, ceremonial seats and axes, and varying types of amulet.
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The Tainos were influential in the belief system of Haitian Vodou, especially in the Petro cult, a religious group with no counterpart on the African continent. Characterized by the worship of the loa, the sect has influences from Native American folklore zemis. The entire northern area of Haiti is influenced by the practices of the Congo. In the north, these are often called Rites Congo or Lemba.
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The Dutch built triangular earthworks called Fort Flamand (Flemish Fort) near the site, which was taken over by the French in 1650, and renamed Fort Salé (Salt Fort or du Sal Fort after the governor). It remains the only known structure to survive from this early colonial period. Gudmund Hatt first discovered the site in 1923. Excavations revealed petroglyphs, human sacrifice remains, zemis, and stone belts.
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Japanese: The Japanese seminar course or zemi is a small focus group of students who, with a supervising professor, study a similar topic together in a course setting for two years and write a graduation thesis upon completion of the course. These students, with their professors, often go out to drink after a long evening of studying. It is common for a professor to pay for the entire amount or a large bulk of the bill. Some zemis will include alumni of the seminar course to offer job- hunting advice to students.
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For Life in all Directions, Roxanne Swentzell (Santa Clara Pueblo), bronze, NMAI Pai Tavytera traditional woodcarving, Amambay Department, Paraguay, 2008 Native Americans have created sculpture, both monumental and small, for millennia. Stone sculptures are ubiquitous through the Americas, in the forms of stelae, inuksuit, and statues. Alabaster stone carving is popular among Western tribes, where catlinite carving is traditional in the Northern Plains and fetish-carving is traditional in the Southwest, particularly among the Zuni. The Taíno of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are known for their zemis– sacred, three-pointed stone sculptures.
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Public Monument, Negro Aroused, Kingston Waterfront Jamaican art dates back to Jamaica's indigenous Taino Indians who created zemis, carvings of their gods, for ritual spiritual purposes. The demise of this culture after European colonisation heralded a new era of art production more closely related to traditional tastes in Europe, created by itinerant artists keen to return picturesque images of the "new world" to Europe. Foremost among these were Agostino Brunias, Philip Wickstead, James Hakewill and J. B. Kidd. Perhaps the earliest artist to take a more Jamaican-centered approach to the island culture was Isaac Mendes Belisario (1795–1849).
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They therefore served cassava (manioc) bread as well as beverages and tobacco to their zemis as propitiatory offerings. Maboyas, on the other hand, was a nocturnal deity who destroyed the crops and was feared by all the natives, to the extent that elaborate sacrifices were offered to placate him. Myths and traditions were perpetuated through ceremonial dances (areytos), drumbeats, oral traditions, and a ceremonial ball game played between opposing teams (of 10 to 30 players per team) with a rubber ball; winning this game was thought to bring a good harvest and strong, healthy children. The Taíno aboriginals lived in theocratic kingdoms and had a hierarchically arranged chiefs, or caciques.
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The former Arawaks had been chased by the Caribs coming from the north coast of South America a short time before the arrival of the Spaniards who followed in Columbus' wake. The Arawaks were agricultural people who fashioned pottery and whose social organization was headed by hereditary chieftains who derived their power from personal deities called zemis. The Caribs' territory was not completely conquered until the mid-17th century when most of them perished in the struggle between the French, English (later British), Dutch, Danes and Spanish for control of the West Indies islands around the Caribbean Sea. The Dutch first began to use the island's ponds for salt in the 1620s.
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