The Kuna Mola Dress, Politics and Cultural Survival
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17 The Kuna Mola Dress, Politics and Cultural Survival Diana Marks Diana Marks completed her doctorate on the evolution of the Kuna Indian mola blouse in 2012. Using an interdisciplinary approach, her research included an assessment of molas in museum collections, particularly in the US. Her current research includes studying the iconography on molas and the study of non-Western dress in museum collections. The author would like to thank very The Kuna Indians of Panama have become identified with the mola blouses worn by Kuna women. much the anonymous reviewers for their advice. The assistance of the The impact of colonization and the subsequent transculturation gave the Kuna access to the materials staff at the National Museum of Natural History, the National needed to sew molas which were subsequently used as a signifier of political resistance. Beginning in Museum of the American Indian, 1919, the Panamanian government instituted policies that amounted to ethnocide, in an attempt to the Field Museum and the Denison Museum for facilitating access to destroy Kuna culture, including progressively prohibiting components of Kuna women’s dress. The Kuna collections and archives to make this Revolution in 1925 resulted from resistance by the Kuna people to the Panamanian government edicts research possible is appreciated. The support received from the RMIT to adopt Western style clothing and other customs and led to the granting of an autonomous Kuna Higher Degree by Research Publications Grant Scheme during territory. This paper explores the impact of the Kuna Revolution on the wearing of the mola blouse and the writing of this paper is gratefully on its design. acknowledged. An early version of this paper was Keywords dress and identity, non-Western fashion, Kuna mola blouses, cultural survival, Kuna Indians, presented at the Textile Society of America Symposium, September material culture, iconography 19–22, 2012, in Washington DC. Introduction 30,000 Kuna Indians living in the San Blas in the kuna indians are an indigenous people an autonomous territory known as the Kuna who live in Panama. My research focuses on Yala comarca. The Kuna population in the San the Kuna Indians living in forty-five island Blas in 1920 was 17,090 and in 1940 the communities in the San Blas archipelago, on population was 20,822, as recorded in the the Atlantic side of Panama. The 2010 Panamanian census data. The Kuna Panamanian census recorded over 80,000 communities have been steadfast in limiting Kuna Indian people, with approximately access to their islands by outsiders. © Costume Society of America 2014 DOI 10.1179/0361211214Z.00000000021 18 ■ dress volume 40, number 1, 2014 figure 1 Parts of a mola blouse. Diagram adapted from Mari Lyn Salvador, Yer Dailege! Kuna Women’s Art (Albuquerque, NM: Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico,1978), 31. Example on right from a private collection. Diana Marks, “The Evolution of the A pivotal moment in the history of the Panama became separated from Colombia, Kuna Mola: From Cultural Authentication to Cultural Survival” San Blas Kuna Indians was the 1925 Kuna its independence created at the instigation of (PhD diss., Royal Melbourne Institute Revolution, which resulted in the Kuna the US, which played a part in this due to its of Technology University, 2012), chs. 3 and 4. This paper comprises people being able to continue to live as an desire to construct the Panama Canal.² additional research. The dissertation independent people in an autonomous Kuna Indian women spend many years extensively covers the meaning of the mola to Kuna women and Kuna territory, with leadership maintained by Kuna of their lives sewing pairs of appliquéd and communities. chiefs. The purpose of this paper is to assess embroidered rectangular textile panels for The construction of the Panama whether the Kuna Revolution impacted the many hours each day. These panels are sewn Canal by the United States began in sewing and wearing of mola blouses. Did Kuna into blouses, and worn as part of a Kuna 1904 and continued until 1914. women change the styles of the blouses or the woman’s dress ensemble.³ Kuna women wear molas they make themselves; blouses for young girls iconography in the appliqué panels? Did Kuna A mola blouse comprises five rectangular are made by female relatives. While women continue to wear the mola blouse as components: two mola panels, one for the some Kuna transsexual men (known as omeggids) are known to sew part of their everyday dress ensemble? front and one for the back of the blouse, molas, the focus in this paper is on I begin by describing a mola blouse and which may be similar designs; a yoke which is the sewing and wearing of the mola as women’s dress. then briefly outline the relationship between slit in the center to create a neck opening; and the Kuna Indians and the Panamanian two sleeves. This is illustrated in figure 1. The government from the beginning of the mola panels are at least two layers; some mola twentieth century. This is followed by a visual panels may comprise up to seven layers, analysis of the mola blouse for the period though most are made of three to four layers leading up to the Kuna Revolution and for the of fabric. The yoke and sleeves are made from twenty-year period following the revolution. a single layer of fabric. Description of a Mola Blouse Early Twentieth-Century Kuna The development of the mola blouse began Politics around the turn of the twentieth century.¹ For the first few years of the twentieth The earliest mola blouse found in a museum century the Panamanian national government was collected in 1906, three years after ignored the San Blas Kuna Indians; some Th e Kuna Mola 19 Kuna chiefs were aligned with Colombia and By 1925 the Kuna leaders orchestrated a James Howe, The Kuna Gathering: Contemporary Village Politics in continued to fly the Colombian flag. There revolt, albeit with advice and support from an Panama, Latin American Monographs were two distinct Kuna factions—one American, Richard Marsh, who is credited (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986), 214; James Howe, A People supported Panama and the other Colombia. with writing their declaration of Who Would Not Kneel : Panama, By 1919 President Porras decided to take independence.⁶ The Chief of the island of the United States, and the San Blas Ustupu, Nele Kantule, and the Chief of the Kuna (Washington, DC: Smithsonian strident measures to influence the loyalty of Institution Press, 1998), 177; James the Kuna Indians and commenced a policy of island of Ailigandi, Simral Colman, Howe, Chiefs, Scribes, and coordinated attacks on a number of islands Ethnographers: Kuna Culture from forced assimilation. The Kuna Revolution was Inside and Out. (Austin: University of a direct result of the government suppression which were under the control of Panamanian Texas Press, 2009), 82, 67–70. police and other government officials who of key elements that the Kuna perceived as James Howe, “An Ideological crucial for their ethnic survival, each relating had been carrying out the Panamanian Triangle: The Struggle over San Blas Kuna Culture, 1915–1925,” in to Kuna women and the culture’s creation of government policies of ethnocide. The Nation-States and Indians in Latin difference and separation from outsiders. carefully planned revolt began on February 22, America, ed. Greg Urban and Joel 1925, lasted three to four days, and resulted in Sherzer (Austin: University of Texas The strong link between dress, a form of Press, 1991), 43. material culture, and the ethnic identity of fewer than thirty deaths.⁷ Kuna island villages “under Panamanian domination revolted, Howe, A People Who Would Not the Kuna people was demonstrated by the Kneel, 262–263. supported by forces sent by Colman and strength of their reaction to attempts by the Ibid., 267–279. Panamanian government to force Kuna Nele Kantule. The police who escaped the killing fled the region, abandoning even James Howe, “The Kuna and the women to wear Western style clothing and Nargana and the government headquarters World: Five Centuries of Struggle,” cease wearing their mola blouses, leg and in The Art of Being Kuna: Layers of on Porvenir to rebel control.”⁸ An appeal by Meaning among the Kuna of Panama, arm bindings, and nose rings. From 1919 the ed. Mari Lyn Salvador (Los Angeles: the Kuna to the United States, through Panamanian government instituted bans on UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural Marsh, resulted in mediation between History, 1997), 96. the wearing of components of a Kuna representatives of the Panamanian woman’s dress. Howe, A People Who Would Not government, the US government and the Kneel, 130. As well as attempting to force Kuna Kuna leaders. The result was a US-backed R. Valdés Richard, “Analisis De Los women to wear Western dress, the measures agreement for the Kuna Indians in the San Pocesoc Electorales De La Comarca included forcing Kuna women to participate Kuna Yala Desde 1932 Hasta 2001,” Blas to be allowed to maintain their isolation La Loteria 488 (Enero/Febrero) (2010), in Western style dancing and the prohibition and self-governance. 65. Valdés Richard is a Kuna Indian of drinking alcohol, which was integral to scholar who has researched the While a few Kuna villages voted and involvement of his people in local Kuna lifecycle events such as the girls’ participated in the 1920 and 1924 Panamanian and national politics and published puberty ceremonies. Kuna resistance included articles and a book, El Voto Guna En national elections,⁹ the Kuna Indians did not La Historia Electoral Panameña insubordination, violence, and migration to fully participate until the 1932 elections.¹⁰ (Panama: Tribunal Electoral, 2011).