The early accounts of the Carib, or Darien, or San Blas Indians, describe them as dressed in skirts or shifts made of woven grass. They are said to have made patterns on their clothing by tying on pieces of shells, fish scales, and the like They also painted designs on their bodies.



During the building of the Panama Canal, cloth, needles and thread, and scissors became readily available and a new style of clothing emerged. The first ones were very simple, usually geometric patterns of only two layers, looking very much like the patterns they painted on their skin.



The Cuna call the old-style molas "mukan", which means grandmother. A few of these still exist in museums and private collections.



This mola was collected by the Goteborg Museum of Sweden in 1927.



By the end of World War II, the geometric style had reached its peak in molas like this one



and like these. Mola-making went throuhg a great period of growth during the years between 1950 and 1965. During this period a new trend was developed.



Molas became more and more pictoral. They began to display the day-to-day lives of the people.. the animals and things around them, their myths, and stylized copies of advertising art.



Detail became more and more intricately embroidered. The technique improved greatly as design became tighter; dramatic use of color contrast for electric vibration became more effectively controlled. Though pictoral and storytelling mola themes have become the dominant style in the last 25 years or so, many of the Cuna women still like to do the older geometric styles.



Contemporary Geometric molas. These molas reflect the advances made in sewing technique being applied to create older-style molas. Many of these new-generation old-style molas are superior to the best made by their grandmothers. Some mola collectors take that to be encouraging evidence that the mola makers can assimilate the new technology of today and produce better and better molas in the years to come.



It depends on her, the new young mola maker. It depends on how she sees her place in the new world opening up to her people, and in how she feels about her own culture. We find that culture, and those views, reflected in her molas. And though molas are certainly one of the most important things in her life, there are some other things which come first.



Babies are one of the many things that the Cuna have plenty of.



Children lead a carefree life on the islands. The society is very much like a big family. Housing is private, but attutudes are communal, and people wander in and out of each others homes quite freely. Children have their own parents and homes, but everyone knows all the children, and they belong to everyone, and they are welcome anywhere.



The Cuna are patriarchal and matrilinear. That is, the governing bodies are all made up of men -- the head of the household, the island chiefs, the spiritual leaders. The property, however, all belongs to the women, and is passed along by inheritance from mother to daughter.

Early marriage is the rule. A woman selects her husband, and her parents make the necessary arrangements with his family. At an appointed time, the men friends of the groom will kidnap him and carry him to the house of his intended bride. They put him into a hammock beside her, and he is given the opportunity to flee. If he flees three times, it means he has refused the marriage.



If he chooses to stay, the couple spend the night together in blissful conversation. That's right.. they are expected to talk. If either cannot keep the other interested enough to stay awake, it is considered a very bad omen for the marriage, and plans are often hastily reconsidered. If they succeed he moves at once into her parents' home. Divorce is uncommon, but easy. He simply takes his few personal belongings and leaves, taking his chances of ever getting another offer.



One of the spiritual beliefs of the Cuna is that a great and holy sage named Ibeorgun was sent by the spirit of God to instruct the Cuna. One of the subjects for which he established rules was the division of labor. Women take care of the children, tend the house and the fire, fetch water, unload the boat, prepare the food, and make molas.



A man's work consists of cultivating and harvesting food, gathering coconuts and firewood, weaving baskets, building and repairing the hut, carving utensils out of wood, and tending the boat.

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