Flag
date: label: Accession Date
content: 15 Feb 1967
label: Collection Date
content: 1922 to 1930
name: label: Donor Name
content: Col. Harold D. Kehm
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Made of three horizontal cotton stripes, red top and bottom, center orange with a large [right- facing] swastika of blue sewn on. These were flying over many huts but natives did not know of any outside connections such as Germany. Swastika design used frequently here. Refer: Steward: "HSAI", vol. 4, pl. 49-f."
label: Notes
content: 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 (Guna Yala is an autonomous territory or comarca in Panama, inhabited by the Guna; the name means "Guna-land" or "Guna mountain" in the Guna language.) This object is a small version of the 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. According to one explanation, it symbolizes the four sides of the world or the origin from which peoples of the world emerged, and is an ancestral symbol called Naa Ukuryaa.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 26 Jul 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Panama, Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: San Blas
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: 271304
label: USNM Number
content: E406973-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Flag