Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology

The Ceramic Art of Agricultural Groups in the Antilles / 151
We also see individuals represented together in one or two pairs, sometimes
accompanying the main turtle-head image, sometimes without it. These ¤gures
may refer to one of the mythical stories mentioned by Pané (1990 [1498]).
In this myth, Demanián Caracaracol, one of the four mythical caracaracol
twin-heroes, carries a turtle on his back. After removing her, the four twins
live with her and take her as a mate. They and their descendants may represent
the original turtle-people.
We should be able to assume that the society that created these images
generally agreed upon their symbolic signi¤cance. These ¤gurative ceramic
handles can be characterized as a popular channel for the transmission of messages
and themes in a sociocultural communication between originators and
receivers (Moles 1973). Among the typology of handles already mentioned, in
cases where part of the vessel has survived, the turtle is present in a supine
position, perhaps as a metaphor for the common sexual position of females
among humans. This is in contrast to the myth, where the turtle is above
Demanián. As is well known, the association of turtles with women is a recurrent
theme in mythologies throughout the Americas. Perhaps one reason
for this is because of the great reproductive capacity of turtles. The sexual
relationship between the turtle and the caracaracoles twins is seen in Caribbean
myth, an issue discussed extensively by Stevens-Arroyo (1988). In terms
of the feminine symbolism, López Baralt (1977) has argued that the female
turtle extracted from Demanián’s back is a mythical response to the lack of
women and the need to create a new generation after the “great ®ood” produced
by the caracaracoles twins. In the myth, this new generation is born
after intercourse with the turtle.
While at the end of the story presented by Pané the twins build a house
and care for the turtle, in the version presented by Pedro Mártir de Anglería
(Pané 1990 [1498]:103), a woman is born from Demanián’s back, and it is with
her that the twins procreate. Based on these associations, Arrom’s (1975:142)
argument that the turtle represents the “mythical mother of humanity” seems
plausible.
However, another possibility arises. It should be kept in mind that indigenous
people preferred to capture turtles on the beach during spawning by
turning them face up so that they were immobilized, just as they are observed
in the pottery. Therefore, if I apply the approach of Lévi-Strauss (1970) who
says that objects reach their de¤nitive existence by means of the integration
of their decorative and utilitarian function, then the vessel is the turtle itself
that zealously guards its symbolic signi¤cance in the antithesis death-life. This
duality is expressed in the position of their capture (death) and in the vessel