Yankuna Club

[Tim Simmons]

Now I have had it in my olive oil hands it is looking more like it sould after drying out hanging on a wall. Much more in line with collector taste. Shown with some other South American heavy weights. The ring decorated club is from the Shavante much further south in the Brazilian Amazon. The other two are from Pemon speaking people a Carib language of which there are many sub-groups in Venezuela, Guyana and northern Brazil. Aging these things is not so easy, patina can be applied and indeed was for late 19th and early 20th century collectors. I am not saying thes example are truely antique, however if you were to peruse the NMAI database you will see many antique club with little to no patina. I think these pieces are most likely mid 20th century when these people still lived in considerable isolation with mainly mission contact.

Is this new item a weapon are a symbolic totem? Well it is heavy but held point forward and the other hand on the waisted part with fibre decoration it is a fine two handed club like a fighting staff. You would not want the spike in face or body then a quick smash in the face or head with the blunt end. I leave it up to you. Im happy.

Quite probably a spiritual weapon. Used in healing and other activivities where shaman are fighting the bad spirits in the spirit world while influenced by hallucinogens. A practise before missions.

The post with a link to British pathe news no longer works but if you press the link and wait for the Q block, just enter Makiritare then the film comes up.

AI suggestion

If you are following this thread with any interest, I know not everyones cup of to, then this link will illustrate how things have changed since the 1964 pathe link. Quite intersting not like visiting Amsrerdam.

https://era.org.uk/streaming-service...-sanema-tribe/





Traditional Material Culture & ContextPre-Contact Defense: Physical weapons of the Ye'kuana traditionally included palm-wood bows, poisoned arrows, and heavy wooden clubs used for community defense rather than shamanic proxy.

So as I said a two handed staff like club?