Embroidered Garment
date: label: Accession Date
content: 25 May 1932
name: label: Donor Name
content: Bureau Of American Ethnology
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Represents animal motifs in color designs of applique embroidery and patchwork."
label: Notes
content: Molas include right facing and left facing swastika designs. Note: in 1925, the Guna revolted against Panamanian suppression of their culture, and were granted autonomy in 1930; the flag they adopted at that time is based on the swastika shape, and remains the official flag of Guna Yala. The swastika is an ancient symbol in Guna culture. It symbolizes the octopus that created the universe; its four tentacles pointing to the four cardinal points, which gave rise to the rainbow, the sun, the moon and the stars.
label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 11, p. 29 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 p. 28: "…the overall panel design incorporated four large swastikas on both sides. Small swastikas surround the large swastikas on the back of this blouse. … [This] links the swastika symbol, the emblem on their flag since 1925, with Kuna identity. As displayed by Kuna women when wearing these blouses, the symbol can be interpreted as reinforcing and asserting the autonomy attained by the whole community as a result of the Kuna Revolution."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 26 Jul 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Tigre River (Rio Tigre), Southeast, Panama, Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Tule (Kuna, Guna)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 119515
label: USNM Number
content: E364247-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Blouse