Shamans, Supernaturals & Animal Spirits: Mythic Figures From the Ancient Andes

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Fragment from a Tunic (left, bottom)
Staffbearer
North Coast culture (Huarmey style)
AD 1000-1476
Camelid wool; tapestry
3¾" x 2½"
The conventional standing staff-bearer (of Wari parentage)
is given a novel treatment by being compressed into a
frog-like being with webbed feet.
An oval motif (navel? pectoral?) set within the truncated torso
suggests a wide-open mouth, generating a secondary enlarged
face.
260
Miniature Pouch (above)
Anthropomorphic Toad or Frog
Chancay culture
AD 1000-1476
Cotton, camelid wool; complementary
weft weave? brocade?
3" x 4¼"
Literature
Rowe 1977, 44, fig. 44a.
As noted in many historical accounts, toads had an ominous
aspect in addition to their more positive role in heralding
the arrival of rain. The indigenous Chronicler Huamán Poma,
for example, spoke of sorcerers fashioning toad fetishes and
using toad or snake venom to kill people.
Perhaps such connotations were evoked by this linearstyle
anthropomorphic frog, whose posture is a twist on the
traditional Andean gesture of awe and veneration.
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