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Unknown Amazon
Funeral urn
The people of ancient Maracá on the Lower
Amazon made pottery human figurines like this to hold the bones of
their dead relatives, helping the living to keep in contact with
their spirits.
For
Amazonians, death was the last stage through which a person passed
during life, changing once again their relationship with their
relatives. In the Maracá region, as elsewhere, a dead body was
first allowed to decay and then the bones were gathered and stored
where their living relatives could pray for help and support for
their spirit.
The urns are
shaped like a seated man or woman, according to the gender of the
dead person. The formal pose of the figure, with body upright and
hands resting on the knees, is the way people sit in the company of
someone they respect, perhaps showing the importance of proper
etiquette in dealings between the living and the dead. These
particular urns were stored in caves, where some were discovered in
the late nineteenth century, half buried in soil which had
accumulated over the centuries. Others were found during further
research in the late twentieth
century.
Other
Views: The Caretas Cave, where more than
one hundred such urns were found.