Blouse Of Pair Of Molas
date: label: Accession Date
content: 18 Jul 1990
label: Collection Date
content: 1923
name: label: Collector
content: Ruth Randolph
label: Donor Name
content: Charles Weatherly
notes: label: Notes
content: WOMAN'S BLOUSE WITH PAIR OF MOLA PANELS ON FRONT AND BACK. BOTH PANELS HAVE TOP LAYER OF BLUE CLOTH CUT OUT IN PATTERN AND APPLIQUED TO MIDDLE LAYER OF YELLOW CLOTH, MIDDLE LAYER OF YELLOW CLOTH CUT OUT AND APPLIQUED TO BASE LAYER OF RED PATTERNED CLOTH. SOME ADDITIONAL ORANGE CLOTH APPLIQUE TO BASE LAYER. MOLA PATTERNS APPEAR TO BE RANDOM LETTERS AND SHIELD-LIKE DESIGNS. YOKE OF BLOUSE IS RED PATTERNED CLOTH; ORANGE, BLUE, YELLOW, WHITE, BLACK AND RED CLOTH APPLIQUE AT YOKE BINDING; BLUE CLOTH AT NECK/SHOULDERS.
label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 7, p. 26 in Marks, Diana, 2014, "The Kuna Mola: Dress, Politics and Cultural Survival," Dress (The Journal of the Costume Society of America) 40(1):17-30, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/0361211214Z.00000000021. Described pp. 25-26: "Both sides of the mola blouse in figure 7 include multiple letters of the alphabet and repeated shield-like designs. … The word "mixed" is clearly shown on the right of the back panel, and there are jumbled letters close to each other, which may spell the word "seeds." It is possible that the mola was copied freely from a packet of mixed seeds, perhaps used for animal feed. This is an early inclusion of letters in a mola, perhaps reflecting common usage of the product. The fact that the words are in English most likely indicates that the mola is based on a label from a product obtained from the US Panama Canal Zone which was close to the northern end of the San Blas archipelago. Kuna men frequently worked on the mainland of Panama and in the Canal Zone for wages, though it was more common in the Canal Zone from the 1930s. US citizens living and working in the Canal Zone thus had contact with Kuna men, sometime befriending them and being invited to visit the San Blas islands, and thereby gaining an understanding of their lifestyle and culture."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: San Blas Islands, Panama, Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Kuna (Guna)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 385332
label: USNM Number
content: E425629-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Blouse
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 63 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 82 cm