2: Museo del Oro - Zenú

Today we visited Museo del Oro in Cartagena, which is a museum about the Zenú people and their gold crafts. In this post we have highlighted some information and added some photographs that we found particularly interesting for the project.

THE WEAVE

The weave is linked to all aspects of Zenú culture. The world view of the Zenu people resembles a woven net of everything - humans, animals, plants etc. This can be seen in the patterns they create in their crafts. The weave as a pattern is not only used on actually woven items but also on jewelry and ceramics: “Open baskets, closed ones placed on benches, vessels decorated with net designs or goblets with weave motifs carved into the clay, all bear witness to the importance and influence of the weave in different aspects of their culture.” (1). The Zenú people have worked with many different materials and techniques: Cotton, gold, caña flecha, clay, bees wax, seeds for coloring, and bone. In all their works they have incorporated symbols from the diverse wild life and natural resources that have had great importance to them.

In Zenú society women have traditionally had very important roles: “The fact that female power reached beyond politics seems to be demonstrated by the bewildering predominance of female representation in figurative ceramics.” (2, p. 10). The Zenú people have originally been settled in the lowlands of Northern Colombia with different settlements along the Magdalena River, Senú River and San Jorge River. They have controlled floods by creating channels resulting in great agricultural results. Even in the structure of these thousands of channels, the weave pattern is visible.

A key activity in pre-colonial times has been trading of their goods. The Zenú people have traded with salt, gold, conchs, jewelry and crops. Thus, the land they have inhabited has been rich in resources. The North Colombian Zenú tribes have a 2000 year history of remarkable cultural development until 1534 when conquerors arrived.

QUESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REFLECTION

What does the world view of the weave mean for the Zenú community practices?

How are Zenú communities/society organized, politically and socially?

How is the trade organized between indigenous communities and non-indigenous?

What does displacement mean for their production of crafts - material, quality, artisans, techniques and amount produced?

What has industrialization meant for the Zenú crafts industry?

SOURCES

(1) Museo del Oro Zenu, Cartagena, Colombia.

(2) Cabra, E., S., 2008. Zenu/Uraba. Banco de la Republica, Colombia.