Paper short abstract:

This paper compares sculptural forms in the Lowlands of Central and South America as instantiations of the past

Paper long abstract:

Nuhukana are carved wooden anthropomorphic statues used in healing rituals by shamans among Kuna people of Panamá. This paper addresses the question of why nuchukana, although dealing with different forms of alterity, including illnesses, death, animals and demons, are not themselves the instantiation of ancestors. I discuss nuchu in comparison with the wooden logs at the core of the Kwaríp death ceremony of the Upper Xingu (Brasil), arguing that woodcarving and 'sculptural forms' in the Atlantic coast of Panamá and in Central Brasil deal with different regimes of past. I suggest looking at the place of 'sculptural forms' in the contemporary lives of Lowland Central and South American indigenous people, in order to understand how they conceive the relationship between past and present, and between life and death