From the physical to spiritual world (the shaman)
Doe / Shaman
The Doe Shaman (above) is such a figure. She is from the Greater Nicoya area, comprised of parts of modern-day Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Unlike Mesoamerica and the Central Andes, there was no empire-building in the area we now call Central America. Instead, small egalitarian bands and larger chiefdoms were the primary political units. A characteristic of such small societies was their desire to clearly distinguish themselves from their neighbors, with whom they often fought, competed for resources, married, and traded. A product of this competition was remarkable innovation in material culture styles, meant to create distinct wares that announce and confirm social identity. The red and black slip painting burnished to a high sheen and fine incised lines all characterize the particular local style (called Rosales Zoned Engraved) that the Doe Shaman’s people used. However, it is what the artistic style depicts that was of central importance. What is slip?
Upon closer inspection, it also becomes clear that this woman does not just have human features. Instead she is being portrayed as someone in between the human and animal worlds: a shaman transforming into her animal self in preparation for a journey to the spirit world. Her features are a mixture of those of a human and those of a white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus).
Several parts of her body reveal this subtle transformation, most especially the knobby protrusions on the sides of her head, the split in her lower lip, and the fact that her hands lack fingers and instead look like hooves. The protrusions on her head mimic the pedicels, or antler stumps, of deer, from which antlers grow and then are shed. The pedicels reference the regenerative nature of antlers, endowing the shaman with their property of death and rebirth.