04-Mqt. Stéfen RostainINGLESE.

qxp_Mise en page 1 06/06/17 09:44 Pagina 48

From the Moon to the Earth:

The Kichwa Women Potters
of the Ecuadorian Amazon
Stéphen Rostain

In Memory of Estela Dagua,

a famous Canelos Kichwa potter.
Estela Dagua, Canelos Kichwa potter.
04-Mqt. Stéfen RostainINGLESE.qxp_Mise en page 1 06/06/17 09:44 Pagina 49

49
04-Mqt. Stéfen RostainINGLESE.qxp_Mise en page 1 06/06/17 09:44 Pagina 50

Exactly forty years ago, in the small South American

country of Ecuador, someone identified what seemed
to be the most fabulous discovery of all time.

he Argentinian-Hungarian Juan Moricz The English geologists on the team had no

T had just visited an enormous cave

hidden on the edges of the forest on the
border of Ecuador and Peru. Its ceiling and
walls, almost flat, suggested to him that this
Cueva de los Tayos had been carved by higher
beings, infra- or extraterrestrials, to establish
a subterranean city there some 250,000 years
ago. Archaeologists were at each other’s
throats, each hoping that a bit of the glory of
that astounding revelation would spatter on
them. But it still lacked scientific validation and
the blessing of an international authority. A new
expedition was organized. But who, in 1976,
was famous enough and might have
a trustworthy opinion of extraterrestrials? Neil
Armstrong of course, still wreathed in laurels
from being the first to walk on the moon.
Against all odds, the astronaut agreed to join
the outlandish mission and ended up jousting
with the stalagmites in the Amazonian jungle.
recourse but to invalidate the fabulous find,
noting it was merely classic rock
formations of the “organ-pipe” kind. Upon
his return, the spaceman, never short on
original quips, reportedly declared with the
assurance of an innocent: “That’s one giant
leap for mankind’s knowledge of the
underground world.”
It was during this same time that the Canelos
Kichwa women potters of the region
fashioned a strange pot depicting Neil
Armstrong with his helmet (fig. 1). They had
been profoundly impressed by this
extraordinary man, who had walked on the
moon, a particularly important heavenly body
in their mythology and pottery. It is in fact Fig. 1. Inverted Canelos Kichwa pot from Ecuador
through ceramics that the artisans render their representing the astronaut Neil Armstrong
vision of the hereafter. with his helmet, produced during his glory days.
Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg, Sweden.

It was during this same time that the Canelos

Kichwa women potters of the region fashioned
a strange pot depicting Neil Armstrong
with his helmet.

50 From the Moon to the Earth: The Kichwa Women Potters of the Ecuadorian Amazon — Stéphen Rostain
04-Mqt. Stéfen RostainINGLESE.qxp_Mise en page 1 06/06/17 09:44 Pagina 51

Fig. 2. Pastaza Valley, at the foot of the Andes, gateway

to Ecuadoran Amazonia.
Ceramics is an essential feminine art in
Amazonian society, and the craft confers on
the women who practice it a special status.
Mastery of the technique is a major advantage
in the negotiation of alliances and marriages.
Colonial chronicles even record kidnappings of
women potters. Such abductions and the
assimilation of foreign women into the clan
may have given rise to new stylistic currents
within the groups.

Some of the most beautiful Amazonian pottery

is produced at the foot of the Andes, in the
Pastaza Valley in Ecuador (fig. 2). There, the
Canelos Kichwa, a group arising from the
turmoil and ethnic mixing among Amerindians
during the colonial era, developed remarkable
skill in the patient and meticulous craft of
ceramics (fig. 3).

The acquisition of the proper raw materials

constitutes a first challenge, since they are
found only in specific deposits. The modelling
clay, the coloured earth, and the essential plant
oils come from several sites located far
downstream, more than two hundred
kilometres away.

Fig. 3. Estela Dagua, Canelos Kichwa potter.

000
04-Mqt. Stéfen RostainINGLESE.qxp_Mise en page 1 06/06/17 09:44 Pagina 52

Fig. 4. Assembly of a Canelos Kichwa

pot with clay coils.

Fig. 5. The stacked coils of clay

gradually form the receptacle.

Once the necessary material is assembled,

a series of precise operations begins. First,
a round base is rolled out, then clay coils are
placed on it one after another (fig. 4): the
Amerindians, in fact, are unacquainted with the
pottery wheel. These stacks of coils are
modelled (fig. 5), then smoothed with a piece of
calabash (fig. 6), then with a small pebble, and
finally with corn husks. Shapes materialize,
from the simplest to the most convoluted,
under the potter’s nimble fingers. But it is only
after the pot has dried that her expertise
becomes strikingly obvious.

Indeed, the painted decoration requires a

particular deftness (fig. 7), consisting as it does
of panels of fine parallel lines very close
together. Extremely fine-haired brushes are
needed to produce these masterpieces. Only
the hair of children displays these qualities, so
three, five or even seventeen strands are taken
from them to produce the brushes (fig. 8). The
rest is artistry.

Fig. 6. Smoothing the walls of the pottery with a piece of calabash. Fig. 7. Red and black clay colorants.

52 From the Moon to the Earth: The Kichwa Women Potters of the Ecuadorian Amazon — Stéphen Rostain
04-Mqt. Stéfen RostainINGLESE.qxp_Mise en page 1 06/06/17 09:44 Pagina 53

After the decoration is complete, two crucial

steps remain. Baking makes the pottery long-
lasting, permanently hardening the clay.
Traditionally the domestic hearth is used:
three large tree trunks are arranged in a star
pattern and are gradually moved closer to the
centre as they burn. A ball of resin is applied
to the still boiling-hot vessel to waterproof it;
the heat melts it, leaving a layer of glaze on
the surface (fig. 9).

In addition to the various receptacles,

ceramists also make figurines of nature
spirits: spirits of the wind and the
mountains, of ants, water, salt, manioc,
trees and so on. The number of non-
humans is too large to count, but they
are in close proximity to the Canelos
Kichwa on a daily basis. Some are
dangerous, such as the infamous Juri-
juri, a magnificent two-faced woman
who seduces men only to devour
them, with the horrible mouth she
camouflages under her hair. Ceramic
art is accessible to all women but
because of the danger only some,
such as the shamans, are inclined to
model figures of these spirits.

Women in fact are symbolically

identified with pottery because clay, like
the earth, is considered female, thus in

Fig. 8. Strands of hair from Estela

Dagua’s daughter were used to make
the artist’s paintbrushes for her ceramics.

53
04-Mqt. Stéfen RostainINGLESE.qxp_Mise en page 1 06/06/17 09:44 Pagina 54

Fig. 9. To glaze the pottery, a resin is applied to the red-hot piece. The resin
melts in contact with the receptacle, depositing a layer on its surface.
possession of a woman’s soul. The myths of
the Guaraní of Brazil say that the first woman
in creation emerged from a terracotta dish.
Ceramics, omnipresent in Amerindian society,
thus also have their logical place in
mythology. Through their practice, potters are
in contact with the invisible world and reveal
it to the community, just as the male
shamans do. The means used are sometimes
different, however: the women reproduce in
clay the spirits they have encountered in their
dreams. It is therefore as wise mediators that
they create beauty in society.

But where does that art come from? The

origin myth of Canelos Kichwa ceramics is
not without its humour—and it takes us back
to the theme of the moon (fig. 10). At the
beginning of humankind, a man named Iluku
Cari married Iluku Huarmi. She was the only
one who knew how to make pottery, and she
taught this art to the other women. Alas in her
excessive dedication to the activity, she
neglected not only her other daily chores but
her husband as well. One day she prepared
a bitter, inedible dish for him and, angry, he
decided to take her to the heavens. She

But where does that art

come from? The origin
myth of Canelos Kichwa
ceramics is not without
its humour—and it takes
us back to the theme of
the moon.

Fig. 10. Iluku Cari, the first man,

abandoned his wife on earth,
ascending to the heavens,
where he became the moon.

54 From the Moon to the Earth: The Kichwa Women Potters of the Ecuadorian Amazon — Stéphen Rostain
04-Mqt. Stéfen RostainINGLESE.qxp_Mise en page 1 06/06/17 09:44 Pagina 55

Fig. 11. Iluku Huarmi was the original potter Fig. 12. Amerindian ceramics can be open
but, weighed down by her gear, she could to outside influences in surprising ways.
not accompany her husband, who turned For example, it was after seeing the Japanese
into the moon. She then changed into a nocturnal film Godzilla in the 1960s that Estela Dagua
bird and wails every night, watching her beloved fashioned this caiman spirit in a new way,
in the heavens. an appearance it has retained ever since.

assembled her gear: vessels, bowls,

terracotta ornaments, clay, modelling board,
etc. Under that heavy load, she began to
climb sluggishly up a liana to reach the
heavens, advancing only a few metres the
first day. Her husband, furious to see her
moving so slowly, cut the liana and she fell.
In tumbling to the ground, she split open her
mouth and was transformed into the
nocturnal Nyctibius bird, called, precisely,
iluku (fig. 11). Simultaneously the husband
turned into the moon. So it was that Iluku
Huarmi remained in our world, while the
moon, Iluku Cari, went off to the heavens.

This myth explains why, even today,

the large-mouthed Nyctibius bird cannot fly
and tires easily, but also why, on nights
with a full moon, it settles on a branch,
looks upward, and wails. Iluku Huarmi is still
grieving her separation from her husband
the moon. n
Biography
Stéphen Rostain is an archaeologist and research direc-
tor at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
(CNRS) in France. He has worked for thirty years in Ama-
zonia, particularly in Guyana and Ecuador, where he or-
ganized and directed several interdisciplinary and
international programmes. He has also conducted exca-
vations in France, Switzerland, Mexico, Guatemala,
Aruba, Suriname and Brazil. He has held exhibitions and
given many lectures in various countries. He is the author
of more than two hundred publications, including some
twenty books, both scholarly and for the general public.
His latest book is Amazonie. Un jardin sauvage ou une
forêt domestiquée (Actes Sud, 2016).
All photos are by the author.

From the Moon to the Earth: The Kichwa Women Potters of the Ecuadorian Amazon — Stéphen Rostain 55