Corn Maiden Sisters & Baby

These two Corn Maiden sisters are back to back, ensuring safety for all three of them.  One of the maidens has an olla (pot) filled with turquoise on her head.  Her eyes are inlaid jet and her mouth is inlaid coral.  She has a ring of inlaid lapis on her chest.  Corn kernels are engraved on her body, and on each side of her body are stars inlaid with lapis, coral, and a purple stone.  At her feet is a maiden baby wearing a tablita on her head and a ring of coral on her chest.  Her eyes and mouth are inlaid jet.  The other Corn Maiden is also wearing a tablita and has jet eyes and a coral mouth.  She has turquoise inlaid on her chest and turquoise, coral, and a purple stone inlaid into engraved corn kernels.

Size: 3.75" H x 1.25" L x 1" W

Female corn beings represent all that is good about being a woman: loving, generous, nurturing, kind, strong with great compassion.  In tribes that traditionally grow corn, most of the stories are the similar.  There are many Indigenous stories about how corn was brought to the people at a time when there was hunger, and how a sacred, sometimes other worldly, female being brought them corn.  In Zuni Pueblo, there are three ages of female corn beings: the maiden who wears her hair in the traditional buns on each side, the mother who has one or more babies, and the elder grandmother who wears her shawl over her head. There are dances to honor the female corn beings in many of the Pueblos.  And in other tribes, she is held in a place of great honor.

Traditionally, Zuni carvings are symbolically fed cornmeal.   Each Zuni fetish comes in a box with a descriptive card and a tiny bit of corn meal to tide them over until they reach you.