Lisa Takata on thu 1 may 97
Re: Used Digital Scales, Mother Goddess
Clayart,
Here's a suggestion I passed along to June, thought others might
find it helpful too. Check with your local city gov't or police
department to see whether/when they have a surplus auction, and
whether scales are among the items available. Apparently, law
enforcement agencies confiscate many digital scales in
conjunction with drug busts, etc.! After they are no longer
needed as evidence they may be auctioned off to the public, along
with other goods that can't be returned to their owners? The
place where I take ceramics classes could not afford to buy a new
scale, but was able to get three very nice scales through the
police department.
Thanks to all who have contributed to the 'mother goddess'
thread, it's been an interesting one! Here's a tidbit the from
Ecuador rain forest (from the book Sacha Runa: Ethnicity and
Adaptation of Ecuadorian Jungle Quichua, by Norman E. Whitten
Jr.) "The contrast between forest and water is fundamental to
the Canelos Quichua world view. . . Souls, 'aya', and spirits,
'supai' are everywhere in the forest. The soul master of the
forest is Amasanga; he is the spirit who knows most about
everything in the forest, and who oversees soul movement during
Runa dreams and visions. . .His animal manifestation . . . is the
great black jaguar. . . .The wife of Amasanga, often called
Nunghui but also 'Chagra mama', garden giver, or 'Manga allpa
mama', pottery-clay giver, is the spirit master of the soil, the
crops that produce food under the soil, and the clay from which
pottery is made. Where Amasanga may be thought of as the trunk
of life, using a tree as our analogy, Nunghui represents the
roots. Her manifestation is a harmless brown snake. . . Amasanga
and Sungui (master of water spirits) long ago made a pact with
one another to respect their mutual domains, just as the jaguar
and anaconda maintain mutual respect. Women gain access to this
pact through the mediation of Nunghui, and through the medium of
clay, which is found both under the humus of the forest floor and
in river beds. . . Pottery clay is dug from special pits on river
banks or from areas where underground streams or brooks exist.
Women make all pottery from clay and carry all water from the
river."
Joe Molinaro - can you shed any more light on this? (Looking
forward to seeing you on the 'road to Ecuador' in 17 (!) days!)
Lisa
ltakata@ci.phoenix.az.us
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