Corn Maiden Sisters

A Corn Maiden sister is carved on the front and back of this delightful carving.  Vickie Quandelacy carved them from a turquoise nugget and they stand on a white base.  Each sister has a sweetly detailed face.  One sister is holding fan with two feathers and a coral dot.  The other sister has a body with corn kernels and three red coral dots with a lapis and jet dot below the center coral.  "VQ" is engraved on the bottom.

Size: 1.25" H x 1.125" L x .675" W

Female corn beings represent all that is good about being a woman: loving, generous, nurturing, kind, and 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.