MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE PEOPLE OF SOUTHEASTERN 



PANAMA, BASED ON SPECIMENS IN THE UNITED 



STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



By Herbert W. Krieger 



Curator, Division of Ethnology, United States National Museum 



INTRODUCTION 



Southeastern Panama is historically the oldest region of conti- 

 nental America. Here, early in the sixteenth century, in so-called 

 Darien, the country extending from the Chepo or Bayano River on 

 the Pacific slope near the Canal Zone southeastward to the Atrato 

 River on the Caribbean slope near the Colombian border, were 

 made the first Spanish explorations and settlements. Within a few 

 years, indeed as early as 1518, the Spanish were forced to leave 

 Darien because of conflict with native tribes and, later, with English 

 buccaneers and freebooters. They then established themselves at 

 Panama City, more than 100 miles farther west along the Pacific 

 coast. 



History of collections from southeastern Panama in National Mu- 

 seum. — Ethnologically, southeastern Panama has remained practically 

 unknown. It is therefore the object of this handbook to catalogue 

 and to describe the several ethnological collections from this region 

 now in the United States National Museum. Aside from the Wil- 

 liam Markham collection in the Tioga Point Museum, Athens, Pa., 

 partially described in the Bulletin of Tioga Point Museum, January, 

 1925, and the A. Hyatt Verrill Collection in the Museum of the 

 American Indian, New York, described in Indian Notes, October, 

 1924, no catalogue of collections illustrative of the material culture 

 of the native tribes of southeastern Panama has been published. 



Collections of W. M. Gabb. — The western half of the Pana- 

 manian Republic, from the Canal Zone westward to Costa Rick, is 

 better known anthropologically, and several well-known studies rela- 

 tive to the archeology and ethnology of the aboriginal tribes have 

 been published. As early as 1873 Dr. W. M. Gabb had studied the 

 Bribri, Talamanca, and other tribes of Costa Rica and had forwarded 

 to the United States National Museum a collection of necklaces, 



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