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Post by Montezuma on Jul 31, 2022 13:53:12 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 31, 2022 14:22:07 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 31, 2022 14:26:28 GMT -5
Inscribed in 2008 (3.COM) on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (originally proclaimed in 2001)Title ES: Figure of the Andean bear or also called by the indigenous 'jukumari' has a mythical character, in whose fable he kidnaps young married women.
ich.unesco.org/en/photo-pop-up-00973?photoID=10763
"Other non-European characters, such as the Andean Condor and the bear, also play a role. The dance typically occurs in the course of the parade, with marching bands playing musical scores dating back to the 17th century."
"This mask represents the bear, or jukumari, and dates to the 1960s. It was made by the then-usual technique of putting felt or linen cloth over a fired clay mold, then applying plaster and letting it set. Lightbulbs were painted and used for eyes, and alpaca fur gives the bear a realistic look."
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 31, 2022 14:38:44 GMT -5
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Post by oldindigosilverback on Jul 31, 2022 16:11:00 GMT -5
Out of all posters here, Montezuma is the bear cultural expert .
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 2, 2022 2:06:33 GMT -5
Here is another proof that Spectacled bears were admired for courage and strength among the native andean indians as warriors transformed into bears! "In puna ch’ajwas, where lines of warriors may confront each other with slings or fall to grappling hand-to-hand, men are sometimes said to take the shapes of wild animals (khuru): the frontiers between humans and wild animals become blurred and unstable. Transformed into bears (jukumari), owls (juku) or pumas (puma), predatory aggression by warriors who have become wild animals replaces their transformation during tinkus into the fiercest of domestically-reared animals, fighting bulls."
journals.openedition.org/jsa/12817?lang=en
"Each costume honors a spirit or is an expression of a folk legend. The Jukumari bears for instance, fought against the plagues brought on by Wari, a feared God. The bears ornate masks are painted with plague imagery, like snakes, insects, and ants."
www.wired.com/2014/08/welcome-to-the-bolivian-mountains-where-magical-realism-is-a-way-of-life/
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 3, 2022 17:17:14 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Dec 3, 2022 2:08:17 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Dec 3, 2022 2:24:12 GMT -5
Coatimundi is a small animal and Quindio is City of Columbia.
"The few ceramic and metal effigies from Quindio , show only the spectacled bear and the coatimundi".
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Post by Montezuma on Dec 3, 2022 3:01:42 GMT -5
Bears, Birds and Human debris: Imagining Bears in the Andes
books.google.com.pk/books?id=_gx5CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA229&dq=bear, Here is a great topic by the book describing that what a significant and high role the Spectacled Bear occupied in Native Inca and pre-inca times. Page 2 was missing on google books, but i took it from another website. Starting from Page 2:
"The Andean bear has been central to the cultures of various peoples of South America for centuries. The Andean bear has great religious and historical importance: “In any society, there are particular ways of envisioning the sur-rounding reality that animals and plants played important role in Andean communitites." (Torres)
This is certainly true for the Andean bear in South America. The bear is sometimes viewed as a threat, a sacrificial victim, “kin” to humans, or in the case of the Yukpas in Colombia, as embodying the protective spirit of Mashiramo, and in fact they have named the bear Mashiramo in their native language. The bear’s connection to strength and virility is widespread: Pre-Inca tribes worshipped the bear, as did the Tomebamba in Ecuador, and there are ceremonial sites and textual references demonstrating the bear’s sacred nature among numerous indigenous peoples throughout Peru (Paisley 250). In a legend from the U’wa culture in Columbia, the bear is regarded as an “older brother” who watches over the people, and thus, it is forbidden to kill the bear, who is understood to be the favorite son of Sira, the creator (Torres). The Inca understood the Andean bear to be a link between Earth and gods. In parts of Peru, evil people—“condemned souls” (bosses who exploited natives, corrupt priests, the incestuous, those disrespectful towards their parents)—“may only gain access to the afterlife if they have been killed by the bear” (Torres). Quechua beliefs, despite the infusion of Christianity (sincretismo), hold bears to be mediators “between the upper world (the gods) and the inferior world (human),” and to signify salvation for souls—even if these souls belong to people who “committed a mortal sin” (Torres). Within the Quechua worldview, the bear remains an agent of redemption. The bear is also believed to be endowed the ability "to maintain order when chaos emerges" and is viewd as human's benefactor in chaotic times. (Toress)"
brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004293090/B9789004293090-s023.xml
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Post by Montezuma on Dec 3, 2022 4:51:33 GMT -5
From Page 3:
Moreover, the Andean bear is endowed with a variety of attributes in native cultures, and is connected with many beliefs in different parts of the Andes, where the bear may be seen as:
• dangerous, requiring extermination (held by various rural people of mixed race ancestry)
• hunting of rituals (by Yukpa people of Perij mountain chain, Venenzula, whose many rituals and taboos accompany the Andean Bear)
• an ancestor (the U'wa people of Colombia believed they decsended from bears)
• a human being transformed into a bear (the legend 'Uncle Tom' comes from the Bolivian andes that a black slave from colonial times flees in mountains and becomes a bear)
• the protector of the forest (the Yukopa people of Perij mountain relate the bear with the Mashiroma, the forest protecter spirit)
• the divine-human inter-mediator (this belief originates from the Quechuas in Peru)
• an element of native natural calender (among the original Quechuas of people, who have belief that the bear is an indicator of time passage)
• a symbol of strength, knowledge, virility and conservation (among Peru, Bolivia and Venenzula) (Torres)
• kin, able to make close relations with human being (thoroughout Andes and in Venenzula as told in the story of 'El Salavjo')
The story of a Spectacled bear who raped a women and then both lived together just like humans.
"In this story, we can see that bears and humans are viewed similar enough to share a life, breed and have childern, and those human-bear childern are undistinguishable from any human being."
books.google.com.pk/books?id=_gx5CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA229&dq=bear,
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Post by Montezuma on Dec 3, 2022 5:16:56 GMT -5
"Indigenous people tended to hold bears in high esteem - powerful, kin and as an intermediatory between man and divine."
Now down in these two pages is a very new thing of which many of us, including me, were unfamilar. That, when the Spanish conquistadors came to South American to they declared the Spectacled bear as the "symbol of native american religions" and thus declared it "Pagan". Note the similarities that just like Roman catholics in Europe in Middle ages, the Brown bear was an important symbol of pagan tribes in Germania, England, Celts, Slavs and other non-Christian europe nations in their religion. In order to prevail christianity over those, the Roman Catholics declared bear as "demon, pagan, ignorant who rapes women". Just like in South America, the catholic spanish missionaries wanted to make natives as christians but they noticed that they should first symbolize bear as a "demonic pagan" (just like brown bear in europe) since andeans bears held high place in native culture as did the European brown bear. And here we go, the spanish missonaries did the same as the roman priests did. So as we can see that, same happened with the spectacled bear in late 1500s as it was alrradily done with brown bear in late 200s. The only difference is the Spanish focused on eliminating the bear from culture by killing them while it wasn't much practised in europe for the same aim.
Since it would be very tough for me to write the pages here, please click on the images or read through the link.
books.google.com.pk/books?id=_gx5CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA229&dq=bear,
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Post by Gorilla king on Dec 3, 2022 8:50:50 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Dec 3, 2022 13:27:41 GMT -5
Recently, i emailed the Great Bear Conservation society website about Spectacled bears in native culture and they gave a very great answer.
Hello,
I am an admirer of your work and always curious to know about spectacled bears. Just want to know a little thing; that, do spectacled bears occupy a large role in native andean and amazonian mythologies like serpents, birds and felines?
Your sincerely,
I hope this note finds you well. Thanks for your message and interest in our work. With respect to your question, the answer is yes! Especially, as it pertains to the Quechua indigenous people of the Andes. This excerpt is from a recent proposal submitted to ICFC by our field partner ‘Conservación Amazónica’ (Peru), “The spectacled bear (‘Ukuku’ in Quechua) is a cultural icon for the Quechua indigenous people because its movements replicate the seasonal migrations of the ancestral Quechua and traditional groups like the Keros Quechua, who migrate with the seasons to move crops and livestock into different life zones.”
To highlight the cultural importance of spectacled bears to the Quechua indigenous people, please see attached a few images from an Andean Bear festival (the 'Ukuku Raymi' in Quechua) held in Challabamba on December 2021. The event was attended by 400 local community members.
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Post by Montezuma on Dec 3, 2022 13:51:01 GMT -5
Spectacled Bear in iconic imagery of ancient Panama and ColombiaBy Mary W. Helms
From page 149,
www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/29j5z6jp&ved=2ahUKEwik9Yv07OD7AhUDVqQEHVPUDtUQFnoECCwQAQ&authuser=1&usg=AOvVaw1NL7Hg-CqjCt9VcKo_eesO
I have been searching and searching for this article since a very long time; and, finally, found it. Its a great article, believe me. Since it covers about a lot of information about Spectacled bear role as a divine or royal animal n Ancient Panama art and iconography. Its writter, is a very great and famous archeologist who specializes in panama art and icongrapgy studies; so do not underestimate her suggestions or guesses.
"Dr. Mary Helms earned her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1967. She joined the UNCG department of Anthropology in 1979. She retired in 2004. Her research interests include the art and iconography of pre-Columbian Panama."
libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/clist.aspx?id=4977#:~:text=Mary%20Helms%20earned%20her%20PhD
Here is her aim:
I also suggest that the spectacled bear may have served as the zoological prototype for certain design motifs found on various expressions of pre-Columbian art from Panama and Colombia. My position rests initially on the logical argument that an animal accorded so much ideological attention elsewhere in the world might be expected to receive comparable attention here. More specifically, I argue that certain physiological characteristics of the spectacled bear may be identified in the iconography associated with San Agustin, Colombia, and Code, Panama. Further support for the spectacled bear as a symbolically significant animal may be found in the scattered ethnographic comments and fragments of tales and myths that I have en - countered in the ethnographic literature.
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Post by Montezuma on Dec 4, 2022 12:16:35 GMT -5
Oh, how could i forget the pictures of ukukus the Great Bear Conservation send me in email. Here are they:
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Post by Montezuma on Dec 4, 2022 12:41:09 GMT -5
Now lets start from Helms research.
"The bear, frequently anthropomorphized (Peyton 1980:647), also has figured in tales, myths, and legends, and can be accorded a degree of ceremonial significance. Body parts, too, are considered to have some curing value as charms or medicine (Weinhardt 1993: 136)."
"Data on these topics (which are of particular interest as evidence of ideological and symbolic contexts that might underlie artistic representation of the bear) are few but suggestive. Gilmore states that the bear of the high eastern Andean slopes "seems to be an important animal in legends in the southern part of its range, and many fantastic qualities and even shapes are attributed to it" (1950:376). Speaking of the fifteenth century Cafiari of southern Ecuador, Murra says that bears were "mentioned among deities" (1946:801). According to a late sixteenth or early seventeenth century Augustinian friar, "the Indians of the Andes, who live in the lands behind snow-capped mountains, where it always rains and where it is very hot (like in Panama and Cartegena), and the Indians who live in the mountains, worship Tigers, Lions, Bears and Serpents, b'ecause there is an abundance of these species in their countries. Those [people] of Guanuco [worship] a rampant Lion, .... those of Tomebamba [the present-day city of Cuenca in Ecuador] a Bear ... " (quoted in Zuidema 1985:234, parentheticals by Zuidema, my italics)."
"Urton reports, with reference to the twentieth century southern Peruvian Andes, that, while few villagers have actually seen a real spectacled bear, or ukuku, they are nonetheless "among the most common animals represented by dancers in Andean villages;' the dancers always being unmarried (that is, unsocialized) adolescent men (see note 2; Urton 1985:270, 271-272).' In this region, there are also numerous myths about bears (many of which are similar to Spanish tales), including the allegation that ulculcus will run away from men but not from women, and tales about women being raped by, or having sexual intercourse with, bears and subsequently giving birth to bear-human children (Urton 1985:271). Because of their combination of human and non-human (wild, natural) traits, bears (like adolescent males) are regarded overall as representing the boundary between true humans and true animals (Urton 1985:272, 274)."
"Further north, contact-era accounts by Europeans note that, among the indigenous chiefdoms of northern Venezuela, "some of the most distinguished warriors were clad in puma or bear skins, with the animal's mouth placed over the head" (Kirchhoff 1948:489). Among the Muisca of highland Colombia, the bear is said to have been the patron of drunkards, weavers, and cloth dyers (Labbe 1986:155), while in postcontact Panamanian (Kuna) tales, the bearis briefly mentioned as a "brother" (along with a number of other animal brothers) of the culture-hero Ibeorkun (Nordenskiold 1979:281, 283). Twentieth century native herbalists and healers of southwest Colombia (the widely traveled Inganos) include among their wide assortment of medicines and charms "dessicated paws of the jaguar and the bear" (Taussig 1980:23 7). In mountain towns, bear fat may be sold to treat rheumatism (Taussig 1987:272)."
"Also speaking of the Ingano and Kamsa peoples of southwestern Colombia (ancient residents of the Sibundoy Valley), McDowell says, "There are no longer any bears in the Sibundoy Valley, but the elders still remember seeing them there, and what is more, the bear has left behind quite a presence in the lore of the native communities of the valley. In mythic narra - tive among the Kamsa and Ingano people, the bear figures as a somewhat oafish character, often the blundering victim of tricksters like the rabbit and the squirrel. In another guise, known generally as the 'Juan Orso' tale, the bear as a animalperson shows an unwarranted interest in human females" (McDowell 1989:51)."
"McDowell also mentions a favorite story episode concerning the bear and the trickster squirrel in which the physically strong, but apparently not very intelligent, bear (also portrayed as the gobernador, political leader of the community) is tricked and outwitted by his wily opponent (1989:55). In another Sibundoy tale, an origins myth in which the bear is portrayed in a more flattering light, an ancestral hunter acquires the necessary spirit power to become a Master of Animals, "one which is able to transform himself into the jaguar or the bear" (McDowell 1989:119; my emphasis). The U'wa (Tunebo) of the Sierra Nevada de Cocuy also recognize shamanic transformation into jaguar, bird, or bear as a result of hallucinogenically induced visionary power (Osborn 1990:151)."
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Post by Montezuma on Dec 4, 2022 12:57:02 GMT -5
"Finally, there is the elusive boraro or kurupfra, a fearsome creature of the forest known among many Amazonia tribes and described by Reichel-Dolmatoff for the Desana. The boraro is suggestive of the bear in many respects, although descriptions also seem to combine bear and jaguar motifs such that Reichel-Dolmatoff queries whether a single basic concept may ultimately be involved. Basically, however, the essential creature seems very bear-like. As a supernatural being, the Desana described the boraro as "a tall naked man with a hairy chest, short hair cut horizontally, and a huge penis. His eyes are red and glowing, and he has large, curved fangs like those of a jaguar" (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971: 86). A more generalized description, focusing on the basic characteristics of the boraro common to many tribal accounts, describes him as "a monstrous man-lil<e being, covered with shaggy black hair, with huge pointed fangs protruding from his mouth'' (ReichelDolmatoff 1975a: 182-190 ). The boraro's name comes from its roar, likened to that of an enraged jaguar. Its ears are large, erect, and pointed forward, and it has various physiological anomalies, such as feet that are twisted backward and no knee joints."
"This comment is interesting in light of the ethnographic data mentioned above where dessicated paws of both bear and jaguar are peddled by traveling curers and also is in accord with observations by Levi-Strauss (1978:427) concerning the interchangeability of the bear with felines (as well as with large deer and horned snakes) in North American mythology."
"Although there are no confirmed sightings of spectacled bears from twentieth century Panama, it seems reasonable to suggest that a thousand years ago the range of Tremarctos ornatus may well have included cordilleras of the Isthmus. At the very least, ancient Panamanians would have known of the bear from their extensive Colombian and western Venezuelan contacts. Assuming that the spectacled bear was known to Panamanians, and given the symbolic and cosmological significance accorded the bear in other regions of North and South America, it also seems reasonable to assume that the bear would have been considered a very special animal relative to humans in Panamanian ideology, especially to hunters and to others, such as chiefs and shamans, associated with cosmologically "outside" (including forest) phenomena."
"Special supernatural qualities very likely were attributed to the bear, and it is quite conceivable that indigenous Panamanian belief systems recognized shaman-bear transformation (among other forms) or identified the bear as a type of Master or Mistress of Animals. In fact, given the virtually universal attribution of special qualities to bears wherever they have been known, it would be strange indeed if such were not the case not only in pre-Columbian Panama but also in the adjacent northern Andes. Evidence for such attributions may exist in the pre-Columbian indigenous art of the Isthmus, for there are several motifs that suggest that the spectacled bear may have served as the zoological prototype for creatures depicted in both ceramic and metallurgical art associated with prehistoric Panama. The materials I consider are known primarily from excavations in central Panama, at the Sitio Conte, involving caches and burials of high-status individuals dating from approximately AD 500 to 1100 (Lothrop 1942; Cooke 1985; Hearne and Sharer 1992). Let us begin with metallurgical art, focusing on depictions embossed on several gold sheet plaques probably worn on the chest. The designs on these plaques depict a four-limbed, Figure 11.2 Design on embossed gold plaque from Sitio Conte. The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, no. 40-13-26. Drawing by Mary Helms."
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Post by Montezuma on Dec 4, 2022 13:09:41 GMT -5
Figures from Panamic art show creature which have very close resemblence to Spectacled bears.
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Post by Montezuma on Dec 4, 2022 13:18:40 GMT -5
More art probably depicting Spectacled bears. Note the body parts and connect them with those of bears.
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