Here are several books that I recommend if you would like to learn more about the Kunas and molas. Many of these books are out of print but check with libraries 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.
Howe, James. Chiefs, Scribes, and Ethnographers: Kuna Culture from Inside and Out. University of Texas Press, Austin. 2009. Summarizes the portrayals of Kunas by themselves and by wagas and mergis in the past century.
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 the importance of the spoken word in Kuna society.
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 of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. 1978. A fascinating exploration 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 1960s.
Taussig, Michael. Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses. Routledge, New York. 1993. A very dense, theoretical anthropological analysis with much material taken from Kuna culture.
And for information on the web, check out Charlotte Patera's website (http://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 at used book stores or 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.
