Our collection features one of the finest ceramics traditions to be found in Amazonian South America. Canelos Quichua pottery resonates deeply with the culture, history, mythology, cosmology, ecology, and contemporary lives of the Quichua-speaking people of eastern Ecuador.
This collection from Pastaza Province, Ecuador, was purchased from the Sacha Runa Research Foundation by The Ohio State University in 2015. Ethnographic information on the ceramic collection was provided by Norman Whitten, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology & Latin American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Curator of the Spurlock Museum, Senior University Scholar, Editor of UI Press series “Interpretations of Culture in the New Millennium.”
“Canelos Quichua bowl in which to serve capisum red pepper (uchu manga). Made by the late Eucebia Aranda, Sarayaquillu of Sarayacu.” -Dr. Norman Whitten.
“Regular size Canelos Quichua mucawa (drinking bowl). Made by Marlene Ushigua Santi, Pacayacu. The motif is the “backbone-rib” of the black anaconda.” -Dr. Norman Whitten.
“A Canelos Quichua ceramic figurine depicting the Shiwai supai warmi. Made by Esthela (Estela) Dagua, Puyo. Shiwai supai is a very dangerous spirit, and especially so in feminine form. Very few potters depict such figures from the dangerous spirit world.” Dr. Norman Whitten.
“Small Canelos Quichua mucawa (drinking bowl) with base formed as a tapir foot. Made by Rosario Mucashigua, Curaray, Amazonian Ecuador. The motif is an elaborate zigzag with filled “hill” black triangles framing a turtle motif.”- Dr. Norman Whitten.
“Small Canelos Quichua ceramic storage jar, white, with black designs. Made by the late Virginia Santi, Montalvo. Called “sicuanga manga,” toucan jar, these jars are filled with very special women’s things, including money, and hung inside the house in the rafter where they cannot be seen by anyone not knowing their location.” -Dr. Norman Whitten
“Small Canelos Quichua ceramic storage jar with foot in the form of a tapir, and pellet rattles inside. Made by Rosario Mucashigua, Curaray. This storage jar may also be used as a festival serving vessel for masticated manioc mash, called asua. It is unusual (only very skilled potters do this) in that it has a few pellets for a shotgun inside to give it a rattle effect when shaken. Top is turtle motif with zigzag inserted, bottom (shoulder) is anaconda motif.”
-Dr. Norman Whitten.
“Canelos Quichua ceramic figurine depicting the Wayalumba supai. Made by Esthela (Estela) Dagua after she learned that Norman Whitten had been told the story of this unusual spirit back in the mid 1980s. Wayalumba is a black spirit living on the outskirts of indigenous settlements. He plays a drum to a different rhythm from that of indigenous people. The attempt is to lure young women or girls from their homes to accompany him in the forest, from which place they usually do not return, but if they do they are somewhat ‘crazy.’” -Dr. Norman Whitten.
“Canelos Quichua ceramic figurine depicting the coati mundi (cucuchu). Made by Apacha Vargas in the late 1970s, Nuevo Mundo. Apacha made a set of these forest creatures during a very creative spurt of activity lasting over a month, and then never made one again” -Dr. Norman Whitten
“Canelos Quichua ceramic figurine depicting the coati mundi (cucuchu). Made by Apacha Vargas in the late 1970s, Nuevo Mundo. Apacha made a set of these forest creatures during a very creative spurt of activity lasting over a month, and then never made one again” -Dr. Norman Whitten
“One Canelos Quichua callana (eating bowl). Made by Faviola Vargas Aranda, Campo Alegre of the Comuna San Jacinto del Pindo.” -Dr. Norman Whitten.
Master potters bring into physical representation spirits and beings of the forest and through their exquisite craftsmanship they manifest their agency as sinchi muscuyuj warmi (strong visionary woman) and the careful process behind their work as sumaj kawsay (proper, meaningful existence).
The symbolic language of the ceramic patterns in Canelos Quichua pottery is best documented in the work of Norman and Dorothea Scott Whitten over the course of more than five decades. Female master potters interpret the visions of powerful shamans, bridging mythic and contemporary world events as they relate to the Canelos Quichua people in a self-empowering story of their community.