Artefact of the Week: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"

Taken from Cubaheadlines.com

Ídolo del Tabaco, Museo Antropológico Montané, Havana.

Last week I talked about an interesting pipe from the historic town of Port Royal, Jamaica. There I argued that pipes were a far more interesting smoking “artefact” than cigarettes or cigars. I forgot to mention, however, that the cigar holds a much more important place in the history of the Caribbean than the pipe. Therefore for this week’s  artefact of the week I 'll talk a bit about the biggest cigar of them all.

Of course, economically speaking the cigar was and arguably still is the most important export product of the Greater Antilles. However, its cultural value should not be underestimated, either, especially in the case of Cuba. The U.S.A. still has an embargo on Cuban cigars, which has a cultural as much as an economic motivation — their loss, I would say. Before the Cuban revolution the famous Cuban anthropologists Fernando Ortíz discussed the nation’s colonial history and cultural spirit using its two biggest export products: cigars and sugar. Where sugar is grown in huge number and produced through the large-scale processing of hundreds and hundreds of tons of sugar cane — a process that, before mechanization, relied solely on slave labour —, cigar tobacco stands for the free-spirited and careful process of  planting, selecting, picking and hand rolling of quality brand cigars by various specialists. The production of sugar and cigars shows, according to Ortíz, the three cultural forces at work in Cuba: a combination of Western and African culture in the form of mass-production and the import of humans and crops from Africa and entrepreneurship combined with an indigenous, Pre-Colonial “tobacco ideology,”  respectively.

This artefact of the week, aptly named the Ídolo del Tabaco, is perhaps the most famous example of this Pre-Colonial Cuban “tobacco ideology.” It is not difficult to see that it resembles a big cigar with a face on it. Many believe that the fact that this idol is shaped like a giant cigar is not coincidental. While in other parts of the America’s pipes were also used to smoke tobacco with, in the Greater Antilles we only know of tobacco consumption in the form of cigars or by burning it like incense. The few ethnohistorical sources do not mention any particular god or spirit that was connected with the consumption of tobacco, but many think that this idol is a representation of some cigar god, hence its name.

Still, if it was directly involved with the intake of tobacco the fact that the Ídolo de Tabaco has a flat top would actually seem suggestive of burning tobacco like incense rather than smoking it as a cigar. The problem with this interpretation is that platters on the head of an idol like this one are best known for their use as “snorting tables” for the ingestion of another Pre-Columbian drug, commonly known as cohoba. This cohoba contained a mixture of the crushed seeds of the Anadenanthera peregrina, a tree that is still quit common in the Caribbean today, and the chalk from crushed shells. By snorting this drug up through the nose and together with fasting and a lot of vomiting this could induce powerful hallucinations.

These drug-induced hallucinations were thought to be the domain of the shaman, who was called behique among the indigenous people of the Greater Antilles. This person, perhaps in combination with the chief, was the spiritual advisor of his community — I am not being chauvinistic here, but there is, as of yet, no evidence for female behiques. Using trance and hallucination he would communicate with other than human beings and use that to, for example, tell the future or communicate with the dead. Cohoba was not the only drug used for this. As many who smoked a good strong Cubano can vouch for, tobacco can be another very effective means of entering these trance-like states and we know that this was another drug the Antillean behiques used regularly.

So, although we see a big cigar with a face when we look at this idol,  a cohoba-snorting, tobacco smoking behique probably saw a spirit in material form. Perhaps it was even an actual cigar-spirit that could be communicated with when in trance, which is the case among some contemporary societies of the Guyanas. It is not unlikely to think that idols like this one were perceived to be influential friends and helpers of the behique, who was a respected and feared member of his community for just that reason. Nowadays smoking a cigar with friends in high places is often a good way to climb the social ladder, the Ídolo del Tabaco, avatar of all Cuban cigars, shows that this was not much different in the past.

Tobacco and networking, they tell me it is a winning combination…

“Ceci n'est pas seulement une pipe” Update

New info on the date, origins and maker of the pipe. This comes from Lia Schouten, who is a specialist on pipes from Gouda and a contact of my good friend Daan. He went through all the trouble of contacting her for me, so thanks a lot for that — he has recently quit smoking, so he is still a little bit fixated on tobacco-related artefacts.

The pipe probably comes from the late 19^th or early 20^th century and was made by an — apparently — famous French company by the name of “Gambier.” Gambier was a really big player in the pipe-making business, producing over 26 million pipes of various designs each year. There is still a small chance that the pipe comes from Gouda, though, because Gambier sold their old moulds that had gone out of fashion in France to Gouda pipemakers. It seems like the French are “avant-garde” in everything and the rest of the world gets stuck with yesteryears fashion…

Artefact of the Week: “Ceci n'est pas seulement une pipe”

This week I feature an artefact from historic times, which is in the private collection of mr. George Lechler. George Lechler has run a “blasting company” in Jamaica for a long time and because of his work has encountered many different artefacts, collected them and built an interesting and extremely diverse assortment of objects from the recent to distant Jamaican past. I visited him to photograph his collection of Pre-Columbian artefacts, but when he showed me this pipe head I couldn’t resist taking a picture.

One of my grandfathers was a pipe smoker and perhaps because of that I have always been fascinated by them. I don’t really collect them and hardly know anything about them, but I think they are really an underappreciated artefact category. Smoking has been important to many people in many times and still is. Also, rather than disposable smokes like cigarettes or cigars, this is an artefact that sticks with you, making it an important part of your every-day life. Your pipe potentially says a lot about who you are.

So what does this particular pipe say about its previous owner? Well he — perhaps saying that it was a he is cutting corners, but I am just thinking like a male chauvinist here — was certainly a lecherous smoker, but there is more. According to what George told me, he got it from someone who found it in Port Royal. Some of you might know Port Royal from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and indeed — at least this part of the movies is true — Port Royal was a place of ill repute, until it was destroyed by a big quake in 1692. After that Port Royal cleaned up its act.

Very likely the pipe came from overseas — perhaps even from Gouda. It's clay, but well-made, so it would neither have been terribly expensive nor cheap to buy. Judging from the style of the pipe, I am guesstimating it dates from the early to middle 19^th century. So, although we can discount a sexist pirate because of its late date, I have the feeling it must have belonged to a sailor. Makes sense… when you’re out on the open sea with no real women aboard (that’s bad luck), at least you’d have your pipe head woman staring at you in ecstasy. 

Tobacco and sex, they tell me it's a winning combination...

Angus's Artefacts of Week 3 2011

The famous Atabeyra as photographed by Joost Morsink.

In the two posts before this, I presented two artefacts that are believed to be representations of some form of Caribbean Mother Goddess. There are those who wish to go further than that by stating depictions like these are representations of “Atabeyra.” Atabeyra is one of the several names of a deity-like being that is mentioned as the mother of the creator spirit in the accounts of Fray Ramon Pané. Depicted here is one of the central figures of the famous petroglyphs (carvings in stone) at the ball court at Caguana, Puerto Rico that was identified as Atabeyra. Since then the petroglyph and Atabeyra have gained a prominent status in Puerto Rico as a symbol of national pride, especially for those Puerto Ricans who are in favour of Puerto Rican cultural and political independence from the United States.

Taken from Mason's 1936 book on the Archaeology of the Santa Marta.

Recently, Puerto Rican archaeologists Reniel Rodríguez Ramos has pointed out the similarities between elements of Greater Antillean representations of “Atabeyra” and Pre-Colonial Colombian depictions of a figure that is perhaps some kind of sun deity, such as can be seen in this turtle bone plaque. It does seem that many elements — like posture, frogs (the figures have frog-legs and the plaque is shaped like a frog with its two huge eyes at the top) and birds being depicted (birds are easily visible on the plaque and Rodríguez Ramos has suggested that the earspools and hands of the Puerto Rican Atabeyra are shaped like two big-beaked birds) — of the two figures are the same, which leaves us with some interesting questions. Why is there such a similarity between two cultures that were geographically separated by a huge stretch of water? Were there perhaps regular contacts between the Greater Antilles and the South American mainland? This would be no mean feat seeing that sailing didn’t exist yet in Pre-Columbian times; all transport between islands had to be done by canoe.

Photo courtesy of Arie Boomert.

On the other hand it also leaves us with some interesting problems on what constitutes evidence for cultural contact in situations in which we have no written sources. Traditionally, archaeologists have always stressed “style” as one of the most important indicators of cultural contact, but there seems to be no correspondence in styles between the two regions. Still, many feel that in this case the similarities in form and symbolism between the two representations are too great to be explained as a simple factor of chance. We should not forget, however, that the frog has been an important symbol in many different places and times in the Caribbean. For example it is clear from the archaeological record that the frog is one of the most important symbols of migrant groups that came from the Mainland into the Antilles some centuries before the birth of Christ. Perhaps this means that the frog and its symbolism is just a Caribbean-wide phenomenon and that there were no contacts between the Greater Antilles and Colombia? On the other hand, in the absence of “memory banks” such as books, it is extremely rare for symbols and traditions to remain the same for more than thousand years.

To put it short, we do not know yet how exactly the figure that we recognize as “Atabeyra” in the Greater Antilles is connected through the different times, places and cultures of the Caribbean or what this connection means. Any ideas?

Angus's Artefact of Week 2 2011

Froglegged Lady depicted on the Sevilla la Nueva Pillars at the National Gallery of Jamaica.

Sevilla la Nueva was the first Spanish settlement of importance on the island of Jamaica. It was settled in 1510 AD, but abandoned on the order of the King in 1534. Although it wasn’t really successful as a settlement it represents an important episode in the early colonial history of Jamaica.

Although its locations had been forgotten for more than 4 centuries in the late thirties of the last century local archaeological enthusiast Charles Cotter succeeded in uncovering architectural remains that were probably part of the Governor’s house or of the first stone Christian church in the Americas (paid for by the well-known Peter Martyr of Anghiera who never visited the island, but still was Jamaica's " bishop at a distance").  The column that is this Artefact of the Week is one of several such columns found by Cotter.

From Charles Cotter 1948's publication on the pillars

It is done in a typical European style called platteresque, depicting lush foliage and four Grotesques (mythical creatures). When I visited the National Gallery of Jamaica I immediately noticed that the centre figure had much in common in terms of form and symbolism with the famous frog-legged Mother Goddess that is known as Atabeyra (see last week’s Artefact of the Week for more info). After consulting with my sister (an art history student) it turned out that the form of this Grotesque is unknown from this period in Europe. It also turned out that these pillars were probably crafted by the original inhabitants of Jamaica as part of the services they were required to deliver under the encomienda-system.

We therefore suspect (and will explore this possibility in an upcoming paper) that this figure is indeed a syncretistic variation on the Caribbean frog-legged mother that was done in a style that was recognizable to the Spaniards, but with a symbolism and form that was distinctly Caribbean.

Next week the last of my triptych on the Caribbean frog-legged mother goddess!

Angus's Artefact of Week 1 2011

The Atabeyra of Holguín, Cuba

A clay figurine of a woman that is either pregnant or giving birth. This particular object was found in a field in the Banes area and is now in the Museo Indocubano Baní. It is one of several of such type of artefacts in East Cuba. It is notable that a number of these artefacts can be found here, because female figurines are rare in the other Greater Antilles.

It is said that this particular type of figurine represents Atabeyra, who is a Precolumbian type of mother goddess according to eye-witness accounts from Hispaniola made by Fray Ramon Pané in the final years of the 15^th century. Whether this figurine actually represents Atabeyra or some other type of fertility figure remains unknown, but it is striking that figurines such as these also played a prominent role in the establishment of the syncretic (Indigenous, African and Catholic) cult of the Virgen del Caridad del Cobre, which is Cuba's Patron Saint.

Next week more on mother goddesses in the Caribbean!