Fetish-Mole TB02

This trackable has the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers. That is a target rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. As of 30-Jan-22 it had survived for 6.2 years but it had been moved by only 19 cachers, for an average release every 118 days. Keep it moving!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable Clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

I have a small collection of animal fetish carvings. This is one of a series of travel bugs showing some of my favorite pieces.

Fetishes are an animals or figures carved from natural materials-- stone, minerals, gems, shell, antler, wood, amber, coral, fossil ivory and probably many more. Most of mine are quite small, less than two inches in height or length. Most of my collection is from Zuni artisans (New Mexico), but I also have items from carvers in other western states, including Alaska. The original fetishes were probably some items that just resembled something, a bird maybe, and mystical powers were often ascribed to it. Using primitive tools the distinguishing features were often embellished.

Over centuries there became specialists in fetish carving and it eventually grew into an art form. Leekya Deyuse (a Zuni), made jewelry and fetishes in the 1920s and some of his fetish necklaces are now valued at more than $20,000. However, the average cost per piece in my collection is probably around $65. While many still believe in the power of fetishes, in the present time most them are for sale to tourists and collectors. If you doubt this, just go to the shops in Zuni (and elsewhere) and note the mass production using grinding wheels, belt sanders and Dremel tools.

According to Zuni tradition there are guardian animals of the six directions; these were used in kiva rites. The mole is the guardian from below (the underground). It is perhaps a mystery how the mole became so important to the puebloan peoples of the American southwest, since moles only occur in the east and northwestern parts of the continent. But then again, many of the southwester tribes trace their orgins to Ice Age peoples of the Pacific Northwest.

Some fetishes will have an inlaid turquoise or coral "heartline" extending from the mouth to the center of the body. One of the possible explanations for this heartline is that it represents a time in Zuni mythology when animals totally dominated man. The Great Spirit sent a bolt of lightning that turned all man-eating animals into stone. The lightning is represented in the stone fetish by an inlaid or painted line.