Large Sitting Cacique Cemi

SKU: TNSCEMI359

Ashtonishing large cemi in gray marble. Features a Taino figure sitting in a duho (a Taino chair) with the figure's hands resting on top of the knees.

It features linear and circular decorations on the chest, head, hands, legs, shoulders and ribs. Traditional grainy eyes, mouth, glutes, shoulders and spine. On the back it features a very well detailed spine and ribs.

This is a cemi of a chief (also known as cacique) As the figure is sitting on a Duho (A traditional Taino chair usually used by chiefs), two chair legs can be seen from the back of the figure.

The figure is obviously male as a small penis of about a quarter of an inch can be seen from the front.

Cemis like this one adorned the areas where special rituals and ceremonies took place. A Cemi is a sculpture inhabited by a god, deity or ancestral spirit of the Taino people and used by the shamans to commute with the spirit for guidance. Cemi is also the term used to refer to the deity or ancestral spirit itself.

This piece comes from a Taino antique collector in Puerto Rico.