Here are several books
which I recommend to learn more about the Kunas and molas.
Many are out of print but check with ibraries and used book sellers.
Salvador, Mari Lyn, editor. The Art of
Being Kuna: Layers of Meaning Among the Kuna of
Panama. UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Los
Angeles. 1997. We call this "The Big Book" -- it is the
catalog from an extensive 1997 exhibit and includes articles by many
of the other writers on this list. Highly
recommended.
Perrin, Michel. Magnificent
Molas. Flammarion, 1999.
Howe, James. A People Who Would Not Kneel.
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington. 1998. A well researched
and documented history of the Kuna Independence Movement of the
early 20th century.
Howe, James. The Kuna Gathering.
Fenestra Books, Tuscon, Arizona. 2002.
Sherzer, Joel. Kuna Ways of Speaking: An Ethnographic
Perspective. University of Texas Press, Austin.
1983. This is an incredibly detailed study of Kuna language
and how it influences their lives.
Sherzer, Joel. Stories, Myths, Chants, and
Songs of the Kuna Indians. University of Texas Press,
Austin. 2003.
Ventrocilla, Jorge, et al. Plants and Animals in the Life
of the Kuna. University of Texas Press, Austin. 1995.
Salvador, Mari Lyn. Yer Dailege! Kuna Woman's
Art. Maxwell Museum on Anthropology, University of
New Mexico, Albuquerque. 1978. A fascinating study of
Kuna aesthetics.
Patera, Charlotte. Mola Making. New Century
Publishers, Inc, Piscataway, NJ. 1984. Shows step by step
construction of different types of molas.
Puls, Herta. Textiles of the Kuna Indians of
Panama. Shire Publications, Ltd., Risborough, UK. 1988.
Parker, Ann, and Avon Neal. Molas: Folk Art of the Cuna
Indians. Barre Publishing, Barre, MA. 1977.
Kapp, Capt. Kit S. Mola Art from the San Blas
Islands. K.S. Kapp Publications, North Bend, Ohio.
1972. This self-published book, which may be hard to
find, has wonderful photos of molas from the 60s.
Taussig, Michael. Mimesis and Alterity: A
Particular History of the Senses. Routledge, New
York. 1993. A very dense, theorhetical anthropological
analysis with much material taken from Kuna culture.
And for information on the web, check out Charlotte Patera's
website (www.charlottepatera.com)
which contains a wealth of mola photos and wonderful, step by step
diagrams of mola construction.
The following three books are long out of print but sometimes
turn up on the internet. They are first hand accounts of life among
the Kuna.
Kelly, Joanne M. Cuna. A.S. Barnes and Co,
Inc., South Brunswick, NJ. 1966.
Iglesias, Marvel, and Marjorie Vandervelde. Beauty
Is A Ring in My Nose? Velde Press, Emmetsburg,
IA. 1977. The story of a Baptist missionary who married
a Kuna man and lived in Kuna Yala from 1935 until 1980.
Vandervelde, Marjorie, and Marvel Iglesias. Born
Primitive. Velde Press, Emmetsburg, IA.1982. Another
religious tract, this one about Lonnie Iglesias, the husband of the
missionary in the previous book.
