Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 45

Pre-Columbian Religion in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is between the region dominated by the Mayas and that of the Incas.  The indigenous people had their own culture, less well known than those larger empires.  Above is one of the sacred stone spheres in Costa Rica, unlike anything else in the world.  These spheres range in size from a few inches to over 6 feet in diameter.  It is thought that the spheres are a spiritual representation of the universe in the Diquis culture.

But they didn't just carve spheres.  Above is a large stone phallus, 3x3x10 inches, thought to have been used in fertility rituals.

All of today's images except the stone sphere are Mesoamerican objects from Costa Rica in the large collection of the Barakat Gallery.

Another phallus used in fertility rituals, this one made of terra cotta.  The hole in the tip goes all the way through to the back end.  The museum says the hole "may have had a specific purpose in the ceremony."  I take that to mean that the fertility ritual may have involved a white liquid coming out of the hole.

Shamans interposed between the people and the gods.  Above is a Diquis gold pendant of a shaman in saurian costume, wearing a crocodile mask.  The crocodile was a sacred animal.  Note that the shaman is wearing some kind of breastplate, but he is naked down below.  We'll see what nudity meant to them later.

Gold Mesoamerican artworks are rare, because the invading Spaniards seized all the gold they could find and melted it down into coins and ingots.

A sculpture of a saurian deity, part man, part crocodile, and also naked.

To us, this 3 foot tall terra cotta figure looks pornographic, but it was probably a fertility god.

At first this piece of pottery seems to depict a bat, another sacred animal.  But on closer examination, it appears to depict a man, perhaps a shaman, with an erection, dressed in a bat costume, possibly for some ritual ceremony.

This basalt sculpture depicts a man offering a libation to the gods.  Is he naked because he's too poor to have clothes?  No.  Mesoamerican culture was radically different from European culture, especially on the subjects of nudity and sex.  People who did manual labor such as working in the fields had to wear clothing to protect their genital areas.  Being nude was a luxury, an indication of being high class.

We end with perhaps the greatest difference between Mesoamerican and European culture, the attitude toward homosexuality.  Sex was regarded as a way to transmit energy from one person to another, especially from warrior to warrior.  A strong, masculine warrior would fuck another warrior of lesser power to transfer his strength and virility.  The lesser warrior would willingly participate.  This may have been done in a public ceremony.  This Costa Rican sculpture commemorates one such event.

These artifacts, passed down to us through the centuries, show us how much our judgment of what is right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable, depends on the culture that we were raised in.