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Notes
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This depicts the shaman or piaiman, as he is known in the Amerindian community. The piaiman ‘looks after everything in the community’. He forecasts or tells the fortunes of the community and plays pivotal roles in the healing activities within the Amerindian communities. The role of the piaiman is now diminished in many Amerindian societies but the belief in the magical powers held by these near-mythical human beings is still strong. The shaman appears in many tales and the artwork of the Amerindian people perhaps because his knowledge of the plants and animals and the inherent mystical powers and interconnections between the natural and the cultural are viewed as a general representation of the Amerindian worldview. A worldview that had seen the exertion of intense external and internal pressures and subsequent transformation.
Title
Shaman (Piaiman)
Date
before 2003
Medium
wood
Measurements
H 25 x W 5 x D 3.8 cm
Accession number
2003.433
Acquisition method
field work collection
Work type
Sculpture
Signature/marks description
carved into the base of the sculpture: R. Taylor
