Corn Maiden Sisters

These Corn Maiden sisters were carved by Carl Etsate from shell.  One maiden has a jet face with turquoise eyes and a coral mouth, and the other maiden has a turquoise face with jet mouth and eyes.  The shell is delicately carved with corn kernels and geographic designs.  Turquoise, coral, lapis, and jet dots are inlaid all around.

Size: 2.25" H x 1.5 diameter

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.

Corn Maiden sisters can represent the relationships we have with our sisters, both biological and chosen.  When given as gifts, they can represent that the giver will always have her sister’s loyalty, trust, and support.

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.