CULTURE OF PEOPLE OF SOUTHEASTERN PANAMA 41 



inch above the adjoining handle surface and one inch in length. The 

 diamond-shaped guard knob at the top of the handle is similar in 

 size and outline form to another figure on the surface of the handle 

 at its center (pi. 5, No. 3). The diamond-shaped elevation of the 

 surface of the handle is found in pestles made by tribal groups in 

 Panama other than the Tule. The geometric series of diagonally 

 incised lines on a raised section of the handle is simple enough to 

 have been hit upon by almost any primitive people working with 

 similar material; however, in Darien. it is employed alone by the 

 Tule and occurs in several of their wood carvings. 



A large wooden stamper or pestle (Cat. No. 327506, TJ.S.N.M.),. 

 carved by the Mountain Cuna of the village of Sucubti from 

 a block of heavy brown hardwood 40 cm. (15.7 in.) in length 

 with a basal diameter of 6.3 cm. (2.4 in.), is in general use 

 for domestic purposes, such as the mashing of ripe plantains. 

 Cruder in workmanship than similiar implements in use by the coast 

 tribes, it reveals the same design and technique. A like statement 

 may be made regarding Cuna pottery and other products of their 

 material culture as well. To ascribe this inferiority in the crafts- 

 manship of the Cuna potter and wood-carver to the lack of prox- 

 imity to channels of trade is to make the broad generalization that 

 primitive arts improve with racial and cultural contacts. History T 

 to the contrary, usually records, after such contacts, a deterioration 

 in art design and in the industrial arts of the more primitive cul- 

 ture. The Cuna of the interior and the Tule are alike in their de- 

 sire for and success in the curbing of the intrusive ethnic and cul- 

 tural elements. We should therefore rather look for a geographical 

 or historical basis as causal in explanation of an inferior culture 

 whenever or wherever it exists. 



A wooden pestle for mashing plantains, in use by the native San 

 Bias coast group, and locally known as "orsala" (Tule), is 50.5 cm. 

 (19.8 in.) in length and 9.2 cm. (3.6 in.) in diameter at its base (Cat. 

 No. 327508. U.S.N.M.). Similar in its general outline (pi. 5, No. 6) 

 to the pestle in use by the Cuna of the interior, it is more smoothly 

 curved and polished than the corresponding implement of the Cuna. 

 There are two disk-like projections encircling the pestle at its center 

 circumference. The Cuna carve but one disk on their pestles (Cat. 

 No. 437507, U.S.N.M.) (pi. 5, No. 7). 



A type of pestle carved from hardwood and shaped like an hour- 

 glass with a central hand hold and either end suitable for use as the 

 working basal end is employed by the Choco for miscellaneous uses 

 as a stamper and in threshing out rice from the paddv. (pi. 35, 

 No. 2). 



Methods of food preparation. — In obtaining oils and fats the Tule 

 boil the milk of the coconut until the oil therein rises to the top, 



