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Tuesday 7 February 2012

Moche "Monkey-Man"

A Possible Peruvian Moche "Monkey-Man" to go with the Mayan ones:

http://www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/ia/images_large/15_01.html



Moche stirrup-spout pot in shape of monkey with lime
in gourd for mixing with coca leaf (reproduction).


Introduction to Archaeology
Nancy White

Last updated: 01/23/2004 17:30:26

© 2003 MATRIX
Project Director: Anne Pyburn
Indiana University Bloomington

It seems this pot depicts something much more human-like than the usual "Mystery Monkeys" also depicted in ancient Peru, and this one is wrapped in a blanket and chewing cocaine out of coca leaves! The depiction is close to some of the Mayan "Monkey Men" and it could be another case of a "Wildman" being so described (The defunct term "Pithecanthropus" used for Homo erectus was another term originally used for a type of Wildman) The more modern descriptions of the type in Peru speak of it as being a "Kind of a Satyr" and the Wildman in this instance could be thought of as a more highlands type of "Maricoxi." For a comparison I found a half-faced Neanderthal reconstruction and made a fullfaced view of it (Without the hair to give a better impression of the form of the face)        Best Wishes, Dale D.


3 comments:

  1. BTW the creature on the pot is shown with human hands and feet

    ReplyDelete
  2. Somebody just sent in a comment which said "Why can't it be an imaginary combination of human and monkey features?" Not in those words-In fact I found his tone to be offensive and so deleted his original message. But the answer is simple enough- because there are no monkeys locally that actually look anything like that!

    Best Wishes, Dale D.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think that most native American Imagery is associational based on the essence of the animal. It is quite likely that the Monkey represented a storm because it occupied a level between the earth and the sky. When monkeys are hunted they often urinate on the hunters below and this behavior may have invited the metaphor. the monkey is holding a gourd of lime and a stick used in attaching the lime from the moisture of the mouth. This was used in coca chewing and still is to this day. The gourd was, cosmologically, used as a metaphor for the earth. Thus the monkey-storm is placing moisture into the earth.

    ReplyDelete

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