Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
However, oral tradition has it that the Kuna migrated to San Blás from Colombia after
the 16th century, following a series of devastating encounters with other tribes armed
with poison-dart blowguns.
Regardless of the Kuna's origins, scholars agree that life on the islands is relatively
new for them. Historians at the end of the 18th century wrote that the only people who
used the San Blás islands at that time were pirates, Spaniards and the odd explorer.
However, the Kuna flourished on the archipelago due to the abundance of seafood. They
supplemented this with food crops, including rice, yams, yucca, bananas and pineapples,
grown on the nearby mainland.
Today, there are an estimated 70,000 Kuna; 32,000 live on the district's islands, 8000
live on tribal land along the coast and 30,000 live outside the district. So communal are
the island-dwelling Kuna that they inhabit only 49 of the nearly 400 cays; the rest are
mostly left to coconut trees, sea turtles and iguanas.
Culture
The traditional Kuna belief structure is based around three principal concepts: god,
nature and the cosmos.
According to Kuna religion, the world was created by God, Paba Tummat, and the
Great Mother, Nan Tummat, who continue to keep watch over everyone's daily actions.
Although Kuna shamans often look into the future and make minor divinations,
everything in life is believed to be preordained by God and the Great Mother. In fact, the
Kuna make great efforts in their daily lives to ensure that their actions follow the will of
Paba and Nan Tummat, even though they do not know their fate.
The Kuna identify strongly with nature, and their rich oral traditions are full of songs,
hymns and prayers that recount the beauty and majesty of the wind, the land and the sea.
To the Kuna, people and nature are considered parts of the same entity and thus the rules
of nature follow human life from birth to death. The Kuna love and admire nature, and
believe that true happiness is only experienced within its presence.
Kuna cosmology is based on the doctrine that the knowledge of a concept allows the
knower to manipulate the power of the concept. As a result, Kuna myths and legends
have both a literal and a symbolic meaning. For example, the story of the Ibeorkun, who
descended to the earth in order to teach the Kuna how to have chiefs, is often associated
with most of the moral and ethical teachings of the Kuna.
Lifestyle
