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The Bird Man: what bird was its inspiration?
Article in Jamaica journal · August 2013
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Catherine Levy
Windsor Research Centre
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L I F E A N D H I STO RY
THE BIRD MAN
WHAT BIRD WAS ITS
INSPIRATION?
T E NE LEV
THE BIRD MAN
IN APRIL 1799, THREE WOODEN FIGURES WERE PUT ON
Archaeologica
April 11, 1799
1
as “deities” and states that they were
Archaeologica,
the artefacts were discovered in
Journal of the Institute of Jamaica in 1897,2
the cave in order to protect them from
THE ROLE OF THE CEMÍ IN TAÍNO
SOCIETY
In Caciques and Cemí Idols
3
In a Jamaica Journal
4
noted in Archaeologica to have the face
of a bird has come to be referred to as
9
comprehensive description of the Bird
He proposes
c. AD
of bird is represented; what was the
It is not
He proposed that it may be a type of
tears that stream from his eyes [which]
“There are no concrete data which
8
6
cohoba
24
7
or a
Cohoba
duho
Cemís were made from trees which
cohoba ceremony on
16
and that
‘they venerate one [cemí] more than
cohoba,
11
spirit from the tree form into its own
17
Colour
reinforce its association with the spirit
12
QUALITIES OF CEMÍ ICONS
18
Bird Man is a deity in the Jamaican
19
Wood
22
Equisetum
duhos,
and wisdom”
Tools and Finish
23
the hardness of the wood as the Taínos
13
native to the Caribbean and northern
21
sancto”14
PREVIOUS INTERPRETATIONS
OP P OSITE P AGE
THIS P AGE
Bird Man, front view
which bird was depicted in the Bird
Cohoba stand
25
Ears
THE WOODPECKER MYTH
the side of the head, yet the Bird Man
is the Bird
Man that is described as a “Jamaican
24
Teeth
Trochilus
often interpreted by an observer in the
These forms were neither men nor
women, nor did they have the sex
polytmus
29
How they found a solution so that they would be women
Melanerpes
inriri cahubabayael
This is evidenced by Christopher
the aforementioned bird and tied it
31
Navel
26
operito
FEATURES OF THE BIRD MAN
FIGURE
32
An Account
of the Antiquities of the Indians,
Shininess
Decoration
27
Arm and leg bands
28
Eyes
Beak
26
A.
Red-billed streamertail skull
B.
Jamaican woodpecker skull
C.
Jamaican crow skull
COMPOSITE PHOTO BY BRIAN K. SCHMIDT, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
33
BIRDS IN TAÍNO CULTURE
duhos and cohoba
HTTP://IBC.LYNXEDS.COM/
PHOTO/JAMAICAN-CROWCORVUS-JAMAICENSIS
34
Crows are not mentioned in
representation of them on artefacts,
44
was
The Jamaican Crow (Corvus jamaicensis)
more widespread than it is today when
36
Corvus
leucognaphalus
37
39
where there
Corvus jamaicensis
not
bajani
C.
palmarum
C. nasicus,
forth in sentences”,46 and is described
38
47
C. leucognaphalus,
41
It is an
invertebrates,42
voice is distinctive, varied and often
48
Buteo jamaicensis 49
43
TOP
The Jamaican Crow (Corvus jamaicensis)
LE FT Bird
Man's teeth
27
the endemic Jamaican boa, Epicrates
,
“patch” of feathers on the forehead,
these feathers
for veneration” in Jamaican Taíno
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
some societies the bird is seen as a
Boinayel, the Rain Giver
with “at
the interpretation that this deity had for
these observations seem to indicate
that the Bird Man may have been an
many other cemí icons, were
Man stands with hands and arms
cohoba
The
28
of the West Indies, Mona who prompted
NOTES
of South American Indians,
Archaeologica
in Jamaica”, Journal of the Institute of Jamaica
Crow” is Cathartes aura
Jones, Pre-Columbian Jamaica
Caribbean Quarterly
Corvus jamaicensis
Journal of Caribbean Ornithology
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
of Great Britain and Ireland
Corvus
Jamaica
Journal
The Tribal Image Wooden
Figure Sculpture of the World
of the Taino”, in Taíno: Pre-Columbian
Art and Culture from the Caribbean
jamaicensis”, Auk
Taíno
The Civil and Natural
History of Jamaica
Yamaye’s Gwabance: The Spirit of the
Hurricane
Time”, International Forestry Review
The Birds of Jamaica
Island Biology Illustrated by the
Land Birds of Jamaica
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art
History
Caciques and Cemí Idols,
Ancient American Art
Origins of the Tainan Culture,
West Indies
Birds of Jamaica
Auk
A Short Guide to the
American Antiquities in the British Museum
Caciques and Cemí Idols
Caciques and Cemí Idols
Pre-Columbian Jamaica
Caciques and Cemí Idols: The
Web Spun by Taíno Rulers between Hispaniola
and Puerto Rico
Origins of the Tainan Culture, West Indies
Current
Anthropology
Select Letters of
Christopher Columbus, with Other Original
Documents Relating to the Four Voyages to the
New World,
Caciques and Cemí Idols
Account of the Antiquities
Caciques and Cemí Idols
Ancient American Art in
Detail
Account of the Antiquities
Select Letters
The Peoples of the
Caribbean: An Encyclopedia of Archaeology
and Traditional Culture
Journal of Latin American
Lore
Historia General y Natural de Las Indias/
General and Natural History of the Indies
Biogeography of the West Indies: Patterns and
Perspectives
Antiquity
An Account of the
Antiquities of the Indians
Proceedings of the United States
National Museum
Talking Taino
Handbook
Check-list of North American Birds,
29
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