garntavla

Taweviekame is Taken to be Sacrified av Juan Rios Martinez (eller "Taurii Mutuani"), 1974.

"This yarn tabla depicts the parents of Taweviekmae ("Our Father Sun") taking him to the peak where he would be sacrificed. The boy has just tried to escape, but they grabbed him, and now his mother securely carries him in har xicuri (namely, her quexquemetl, a traditional pre-Columbian type of shawl).

Above each parent´s head appear two muvieri (plumed arrows that are used for spiritual communication with the gods). As a child, Taweviekame was a great sharp-shooter, and his bow and arrow appear below him.

At his feet appears an insect called cawi (a kind of caterpiller which appears at the beginning of the rainy season); the cawi was the first pilgrip to Wirikuta (the desert holyland of the huichol), and as such laid the tracks for others to follow*.

In the picture´s lower left quadrant appear the boy´s cacaite (sandals, shown as yellow oval forms with three thong marks); these symbolize the footprints of the sun, which each Huichol devotee must follow.

The four white dots that appear near the parents represent their tearful prayers.

The scorpion (shown at the bottom center of the picture) was a witness to this primordial sacrifice, for as a manifestation of Tamatsi Paritsika ("Our-Elder-Brother Lord-of the Hunt"), it is his duty to inflict the string of fiery poison upon those who break their vows. After his sacrifice, Taweviekame becomes fully manifest as the sun (depicted in the bottom right corner).

The reverse of this yarn "tabla" features the following statement (in both Uto-Nauatl and a Mexican dialect of Spanish): "The child - the Sun - who has been taken by his parents, at that moment his father wanted to seize him, his mother grabbed him by his shirt."
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*) The cawiteros (the Huichol´s principal elders and keepers of their oral literature) are named after the cawi. [[Etno]]