Dark Green Bear With Medicine Bundle [SOLD]

Small stone carvings or fetishes have been made at Zuni for hundreds of years. Until the twentieth century, they were used strictly for hunting, healing or ceremonial use in the medicine societies. When the tourists, traders and ethnographers arrived with the railroad in the 1880s this began to change. Outsiders were enchanted by the little creatures and began to collect them. Within the last 30 years as a result of the encouragement of museum people and gallery owners, the ceremonial art has become secular. Fetish carving has provided many families at Zuni an opportunity to turn talent into a livelihood.

Fetishes are carvings believed to have a spirit within them, which can help the current owner if they are used properly and respectfully. They may be used for hunting, the diagnosis and cure of disease, initiations, warfare, gambling, propagation, spells, and good luck and usually assume the shape of an animal.

The most frequently carved animal is the bear. The bear is associated with healing. In fact, the adopted symbol for the University of New Mexico Cancer Center is a bear. The bear is considered to be the protective animal of the West. This Zuni bear is shaped in an elegant and simple manner. He has a medicine bundle on his side, which is considered to be a gift to the spirit of the animal inside of the stone.