Elegant Corn Maiden

Kevin Quam carved this elegant Corn Maiden from shell.  Her face is turquoise with etched eyes and mouth. She has crushed coral around her neck.  Corn kernels are etched on the front as well as other designs.  She has two turquoise dragonflies underneath her body.  The edge of the shell is cut into steps.  She feels very, very good in the hand.

Size: 4" H x approximately 3" 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.

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.