Anthropology Artifacts Collection | Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections

Collection Overview

Title: Anthropology Artifacts Collection

ID: WC-Anth/Main

Extent: 0.0

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The anthropology artifacts collection contains a wide range of items that document the material culture from around the world and was received as gifts. The artifact descriptions were created from existing information created near the time of acquisition as well as research conducted by students.

Box and Folder Listing

Item 50: CD-113-60-entry2 -- The Yaguas call the blowgun a "pucuna" (Waymire n.d..).

The blowgun is made of two rounded and hollowed out pieces of wood, bound together by thin strips of bark peeled from a root or tree. Some type of sealant or tar was applied at some time, but either handling or age has caused much of it to be worn off and the binding to begin unraveling. The mouth piece of the blowgun is missing.

Additional Information: For Pictures : http://www.amazon indians.org/page17.html. http://www.biobio.com/dock/Yagua.html. http://www.biopark.org/peru/yahua.html

For More Information on the Yagua: http://www.biopark.org/peru/yahua.html

For More Information on the Jivaro:www.riversideca.gov/museum/exhibit/jivarol.htm. www.galenfrysinger.com/ethnography.htm. www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~eschniter/AMAZONIA/ethno.html CD 113 60 (tag missing)

References Cited: Jett, Stephen C. 1970 The Development and Distribution of the Blowgun. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 60(4): 662 688. Pantone, Dan James n.d.. The Yagua Indians: Masters of Curare. Electronic document, http://www.amazon indians.org/page17.html, accessed October 11.

Steward, Julian H. ed. 1948. Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 3: The Tropical Forest Tribes. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Waymire, John n.d.. The Yagua and their blowguns. Electronic document, http://www.biobio.com/dock/Yagua.html, accessed October 11.

Culture: Yagua primarily, possibly Jivaro

Culture Area: Western Amazon Basin

Date Acquired: [Unknown]

Dimensions: 214.5 cm long, max. diameter: 3.2cm, min. dia.: 2.0 cm

Donor: [Unknown]

General Area of the World: South America

Material: Made of two pieces of specially shaped wood wrapped in strips of bark

Outline of Cultural Materials Code: 411 B Weapons, 224 B Hunting and Trapping, 322 Woodworking

Outline of World Cultures Code: [undetermined]

Use and Background: The blowgun is used by groups around the world, and is widespread through tribes in South America. It seems to have originated in Southeast Asia, and has since spread to the rest of the world (Jett 1970). This particular blowgun is nearly identical to blowguns produced by the Yagua people of the Peruvian Amazon. The Yaguas are known for their skill in making blowguns or pucunas, and the process for making them is an intricate one. They first must find two pieces of straight wood, which is most commonly of the Iryanthera tree (Waymire n.d.). These two pieces are bored out and then sanded. Grooves are then cut in it to help the darts fly straighter. The two halves are then bound together by strips of the roots of the chambira palm and then sealed with resin from the copal tree, Protium (Waymire n.d., Pantone n.d.). The mouthpiece is spool shaped and also wooden which is attached later and also serves to hold the blowgun together (Pantone n.d., Waymire n.d.). The Yagua also trade their blowguns and many other tribes in the Western Amazon Basin have blowguns that are very similar to the Yaguas. The Javiro are another tribe that has very similar blowguns and live in Ecuador. They use the blowgun for hunting small game, although now they tend to use shotguns when available (Steward 1948: 620 623).