Whilst rereading Joanna Ostapkowicz's "Taíno Wooden Sculpture: Duhos, Rulership and the Visual Arts in the 12th-16th Century" this week, we have been struck how interesting the different types of duhos truly can be. Her photographs of the various pieces are also stunning, although the thesis should be published with color photographs and updates for the stools that have been dated. Nonetheless, thanks to this dissertation, one can see different types of duhos less frequently discussed. The above case, found in a cave near Trujillo Alto in Puerto Rico, is one of the few wooden (the only?) duhos we have seen from Puerto Rico with a human figure at the top or tip of the back. What is surprising about it, however, is the piece's legs are clearly modeled on or similar to zoomorphic duhos with the head in between the front legs. The position of the legs and pose are suggestive of that, too. Does that mean the artist was initially intending to produce a zoomorphic duho but changed their mind? Or is there something here about the animal-human features? The human head's features seem to be a little distinct from similar duhos from Hispaniola, too.
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