The name Costa Rica, "Rich Coast," derives from
the enthusiastic accounts of European
conquistadors who had seen local chiefs arrayed
in gold. Precolumbian gold is irresistibly alluring.
This gold peccary pendant has been found with
three other peccary ornaments of the same lost-
wax cast. This peccary may represent either of
the two pugnacious hoglike ungulates that roam
Central and South America. Here, its pugnacious
quality has been emphasized by its sharp teeth
and ferocious expression. Subject matter of gold
was strictly controlled and of the total range of
animals, only a restricted group appears in the
jewelry. The major food animals that were
essential sources of meat, such as peccaries, are
hardly represented in gold. This peccary
provides a rare exception to this rule. Most of the
animals depicted in gold have certain consistent
behavioral qualities. They are fierce, noxious, or
dangerous: they nip, sting, bite, or are
posionous. The quarrelsome behavioral quality of
this peccary may have enabled it to be included
in this repertoire of subject matter. This pendant
is not simply a "representation of nature", but the
outward sign of a complex world of symbolism
with its own system of beliefs which are no longer
accessible to us. This gold peccary ornament
was not only indicative of the power and social
status of an individual, it may have been used as
a symbol of the supernatural realms from which
this power was thought to have originated.
- (PF.4083)
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