{"id":12,"date":"2012-07-31T21:31:05","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T21:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/blackjaguar\/?page_id=12"},"modified":"2012-09-17T21:11:04","modified_gmt":"2012-09-17T21:11:04","slug":"whale-shark","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/blackjaguar\/whale-shark\/","title":{"rendered":"Whale Shark"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Whale Sharks (Rhincodon typus). Photo by Marjorie Awai.<\/p><\/div>\n

The largest fish in the world is the whale shark (Rhincodon typus<\/em><\/a>), reaching thirty to over forty feet long when fully mature.\u00a0 Recognizable for their wide blocky head, huge mouth with thousands of tiny serrated teeth, and blanket of white spots on brown, they swim close to the seashore and up estuaries<\/a> where the water is brackish<\/a>. Ancient coastal peoples of South America were evidently familiar with this gentle giant, since the whale shark appears to be this woman shaman\u2019s animal self. The females also grow larger than the males, making this animal an appropriate other self for a powerful woman shaman.<\/p>\n

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Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus), Photo by Andy Murch. Female Whale Shark-Shaman South America, Central Andes, Central Coast. Chancay. Late Intermediate Period, 1200-1450 AD. Ceramic. 1988.12.12. Gift of William C. and Carol W. Thibadeau. Photo by Bruce M. White, 2008.<\/p><\/div>\n

From the front the square head and white spots on her torso are obvious clues, as is the jaw-to-jaw mouth full of zigzag teeth painted in brown. It overlaps her modeled human lips, elegantly tying together her two states of being. The wide oval eyes mimic those of the fish as well as the deep ear canals that seemingly were inspired by the holes (\u201cspiracles,\u201d vestigial gills) that appear behind the eyes of whale sharks. The figure\u2019s prominent genitalia \u2013unusually naturalistic for ancient Andean art\u2014 may reflect the fact that female whale sharks give birth to as many as 300 young at a time.<\/p>\n

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Female Whale Shark-Shaman South America, Central Andes, Central Coast. Chancay. Late Intermediate Period, 1200-1450 AD. Ceramic. 1988.12.12. Gift of William C. and Carol W. Thibadeau. Photo by Bruce M. White, 2008. Whale Shark viewed from above. Photo by Marjorie Awai.<\/p><\/div>\n

There is a detail of the spotting that is relevant as well: the white line down the effigy<\/a>\u2019s back visually corresponds to the white outlining of the dorsal fin edge on a whale shark. Dr. Bruce Carlson of the Georgia Aquarium has verified that if seen from directly above, there appears to be such a white line down the animal\u2019s back, though photographs rarely capture the effect. All whale sharks have some white lines among the spots, as well, and certain individuals\u2019 spots form a line down the center of the back.<\/p>\n

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Female Whale Shark-Shaman, side view. Photo by Bruce M. White, 2008.<\/p><\/div>\n

The effigy\u2019s overall body shape corresponds to that of the whale shark as well, including its streamlined side view, which Dr. Carlson noticed when he first saw the piece. It tapers at the head and widens through the middle, just as the shark\u2019s body does. A final visual correspondence is the flipper-like arms. Granted, extremely short arms are typical of this type of effigy; in this case the short arms dovetail conveniently with the animal spirit\u2019s diagnostic pectoral fins. On a practical note, such truncated limbs allow the effigy to be dressed in actual clothing.<\/p>\n

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Female Whale Shark-Shaman, detail of chest. Photo by Michael McKelvey.<\/p><\/div>\n

We know that she was dressed originally because in this piece we have the imprinted remains of a textile left on the chest to prove it (visible in the photo). This evidence of real dress is also an important clue to the shamanic interpretation: it means that the painted torso patterns are not meant to represent a shirt, but rather the skin, body, and\/or deeper self of the shaman. The painted elements are one with the body, to better signify her \u201ctrue\u201d animal self from a shamanic perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The largest fish in the world is the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), reaching thirty to over forty feet long when fully mature.\u00a0 Recognizable for their wide blocky head, huge mouth with thousands of tiny serrated teeth, and blanket of white … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":195,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/blackjaguar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/blackjaguar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/blackjaguar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/blackjaguar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/blackjaguar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/blackjaguar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/blackjaguar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions\/177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/blackjaguar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/blackjaguar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}