Anthropomorphous votive figure

"Tunjos" are small metal figures that were made by the ancient Muiscas for use as offerings, perhaps to ask the gods for favours or to thank them for favours granted, perhaps to restore equilibrium in the world as part of a dualist conception of the cosmos. If there is a severe drought, for example, it is because the world is very solar and masculine, and a feminine element (copper, menstrual blood, a frog) therefore needs to be offered up in a masculine place (a mountain peak); if we suffer from floods, the offering would be something masculine (gold, semen, a bird) in a feminine place (a cave, a stream, a lake). Muisca religion, like that of the Uwas, Koguis and numerous indigenous groups in present-day Colombia, concerned itself with maintaining life in our world through equilibrium between opposing and complementary forces, masculine and feminine, and the concept of "preserving the seed". EL