Panamanian culture is a hybrid of African, Native Panamanian, and European culture - specifically Spanish. For example, the tamborito is a Spanish dance that was blended with Native American rhythms and dance moves. Dance is a symbol of the diverse cultures that have coupled in Panama. The local folklore can be experienced through a multitude of festivals, dances and traditions that have been handed down from generation to generation.
Panamanian Cuisine is a mix of African, Spanish, and Native American techniques, dishes, and ingredients, reflecting its diverse population. Since Panama is a land bridge between two continents, it has a large variety of tropical fruits, vegetables and herbs that are used in native cooking.
Typical Panamanian foods are mildly flavored, without the pungency of some of Panama's Latin American and Caribbean neighbors. Common ingredients are corn, rice, wheat flour, plantains, yuca (cassava), beef, chicken, pork and seafood.
Panamanian historian and essayist Rodrigo Miró (1912–1996) cites Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés as the author of the first Panamanian literary work, the story of a character named Andrea de la Roca, which was published as part of the "Historia General y Natural de Las Indias" (1535). However, the first manifestations of literature written in Panama come from the 17th century with the title of "Llanto de Panamá a la muerte de don Enrique Enríquez" (Crying from Panama at the Death of Don Enrique Enríquez). Although this anthology was formed during the Colony, most of the poems in it were written by authors born in Panama.
Other Panamanian writers working during Spanish Colony: Mateo Rosas de Oquendo, author of an autobiographic romance; Juan de Miramontes y Zuázola, author of "Armas Antárticas" (Antarctic Weapons); Juan de Páramo y Cepeda, author of "Alteraciones del Dariel" (Dariel Alterations); and others.
Present day Panamanian music has been influenced first by the Cuevas, Gunas or Kunas, Teribes, Ngöbe–Buglé and other indigenous populations, since the 16th century by the European musical traditions, especially those from the Iberian Peninsula, and then by the black population who were brought over, first as slaves from West Africa, between the 16th and 19th centuries, and then voluntarily (especially from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Trinidad, Saint Lucia) to work on the Panamanian Railroad and Canal projects between the 1840s and 1914. With this heritage, Panama has a rich and diverse music history, and important contributions to Cumbia, Saloma, Pasillo, Punto, Tamborito, Mejorana, Bolero, Jazz, Salsa, Reggae, Calypso, Rock and other musical genres. Not all people in Panama choose to listen to Spanish music. Some choose to listen to something they call "soca" music. So to summarize, Panamanians are considered mixed: American, Hispanic, and from the islands.
The arts
Visual arts
Another example of Panama’s blended culture is reflected in the traditional products, such as woodcarvings, ceremonial masks and pottery, as well as in its architecture, cuisine, history and festivals. In earlier times, baskets were woven for utilitarian uses, but now many villages rely almost exclusively on the baskets they produce for the people.
The Kuna people are known for molas, the elaborate embroidered panels that make up the front and back of a Kuna woman's blouse. Originally the Kuna word for blouse, the term mela now refers to the several layers of cloth varying in color that are loosely stitched closely together made using a reverse appliqué process.
Ancient Panamanian art has been lost throughout history; a few artifacts have been stored and saved from deterioration thanks to methods of burial or by being placed in ancient elite interments. Socio and cosmological Panamanian concepts can be learned by studying these types of ceramic pieces. This Pedestal Plate which is in Conte style is estimated to be from around A.D 600 to A.D. 800. This specific Bowl is held in a private collection and was photographed in 1991. Different interpretations can be made depending on what point of view the piece is studied. Mary W. Helms,[3] an author on Panamanian history, studies the colors and shapes in the Conte Bowl to tell the story behind the beautiful artwork. This Conte Bowl consists of the colors black, dark red, and brown. In Helms'[3] evaluation the color black represents a Panamanian serpent, to be more exact a boa constrictor. The Panamanian serpent can be traced back to cosmic or mythological Mayan version of rainbow serpent, commonly known in indigenous mythology. The rainbow serpent to many ancient people connects the rainbow and snake, demonstrating how important it is for life to have water. The red portion of the bowl is representing mammals; small appendages can be seen, representing the presence of life. The red and black work together to show ingenious appreciation of the mystical and the living. The brown in this piece makes its way around the appendages, glorifying the female anatomy. Museums all around North America possess many such artifacts; they encode different stories and meanings.
Nuchukana of the Kuna
The Kuna people, originally referred to as the Guna people, are natives to the land which is now known as Panama and Guatemala. These people often have sacred rituals or traditions, one of them being the Nuchukana. Paolo Fortis writes about Nuchukanas in his 2012 book "Kuna Art and Shamanism: An Ethnographic Approach".[4] Nuchukana are carved wooden human-like figures. They are used to cure people from illness or to bring back the dead.[4] Although they are a mythological practice; these wooden figures hold a sentimental and cultural value that the Kuna people hold near to their hearts. When a person is in need a proper ritual is done involving chanting and tobacco smoking. The Nuchukana are asked to search for the cause of a person's illness. When the Nuchukana are not being used they are kept in a bundle in the house. The Kuna believe that evil spirits will be kept out of the home. For this same reason the Nuchukana figures are respected and sometimes even shown to visitors and friends. Each Nuchukana holds a story or a tale of why it was created and why it is so special. Elder Kuna respect the Nuchukana and treat them as part of the family. It is important for the Kuna to keep Nuchukana sacred—only young girls or elderly grandmothers may wash and clean Nuchukanas. It is possible for some Kuna to prefer a specific Nuchukana, making a special personal connection between a human and a wooden figure. Nuchukanas are so valuable that they are inherited from generation to generation. Once a Nuchukana wooden figure has deteriorated, it is simply tossed away, sometimes accompanied with a chant.[4] Today, these Nuchukanas can be found in the rural homes of the Guna people, or in local museums that were able to take care of these objects.
Museums
The best overview of Panamanian culture is found in the Museum of the Panamanian, in Panama City. Other views can be found at the Museum of Panamanian History, the Museum of Natural Sciences, the Museum of Religious Colonial Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of the Interoceanic Canal, and the national institutes of culture and music.
A number of museums located in smaller communities throughout Panama's interior strive to preserve numerous aspects of the country's pre-Columbian, colonial and post-independence heritage. Examples include the Museum of Nationality in Los Santos, located in an original colonial home and exhibiting relics from the region’s pre-Columbian inhabitants, colonial period and nascent struggle for independence from Spain. The Herrera Museum was ranked #2 of six things to do in Chitre by Lonely Planet travelers. The two-story museum includes permanent exhibits covering the pre-Hispanic period, the region’s first mammals, and the contact between the Spanish and the natives. The main highlight of the second floor is a carefully constructed replica of the burial site of the Indian chief (Cacique) Parita.
An additional museum will soon be opening in Chitre as part of a unique tourism/residential project currently being developed. The Cubitá Museum[permanent dead link] will explore the variety of cultural influences that have shaped the history, art and folklore of the Azuero Peninsula, and to appreciate the unique and painstakingly crafted work of local artisans.
A scholarly analysis of Panamanian Museums, their history, exhibitions and social, political and economic contexts is available in the 2011 book "Panamanian Museums and Historical Memory".[5]
Guna Yala, formerly known as San Blas, is a comarca indígena in northeast Panama. Guna Yala is home to the indigenous people known as the Gunas. Its capital is Gaigirgordub. It is bounded on the north by the Caribbean Sea, on the south by the Darién Province and Emberá-Wounaan, on the east by Colombia, and on the west by the province of Colón.
Panama is a Central American country, inhabited mostly by mestizos. The music of Panama is heavily based on the folk music of Spain, particularly that of Andalusia and was influenced first by the indigenous populations of Kunas, Teribes, Ngobe Bugle and others, and then by the black population who were brought over, first as slaves from Africa, between the 16th century and the 19th century, and then voluntarily to work on the Panamanian Railroad and Canal projects between the 1840s and 1914.
The Guna are an indigenous people of Panama and Colombia. Guna people live in three politically autonomous comarcas or autonomous reservations in Panama, and in a few small villages in Colombia. There are also communities of Guna people in Panama City, Colón, and other cities. Most Guna live on small islands off the coast of the comarca of Guna Yala known as the San Blas Islands. The other two Guna comarcas in Panama are Kuna de Madugandí and Kuna de Wargandí. They are Guna-speaking people who once occupied the central region of what is now Panama and the neighboring San Blas Islands and still survive in marginal areas.
Chitré is a city and corregimiento, the capital of the Panamanian province of Herrera. with a population of 9,092 as of 2010, and a metropolitan area population of 80,000 inhabitants. It is also the seat of Chitré District. Chitré is located about 7 km inland from the Gulf of Parita on the Azuero Peninsula. The name Chitré comes from the native tribe Chitra. In the city, there is a district, also called Chitré, which is subdivided into five corregimientos. The corregimientos are San Juan Bautista, Llano Bonito, Monagrillo, La Arena and Chitré.
The Mola or Molas is a hand-made textile that forms part of the traditional women's clothing of the indigenous Guna people from Panamá. Their clothing includes a patterned wrapped skirt (saburet), a red and yellow headscarf (musue), arm and leg beads (wini), a gold nose ring (olasu) and earrings in addition to the mola blouse (dulemor). Two groups, Choco and Cuna lived side by side without intermarriage and without adopting a similar culture. In Dulegaya, the Guna's native language, "mola" means "shirt" or "clothing". The mola originated with the tradition of Guna women painting their bodies with geometric designs, using available natural colors; at a certain point, after the arrival of the Spanish, these same designs were woven in cotton, and later still, sewn using cloth "acquired by trade from the ships that came to barter for coconuts during the 19th century".
Luis Enrique Tábara was a master Ecuadorian painter and teacher representing a whole Hispanic pictorial and artistic culture.
Cueva is a poorly attested and often misclassified extinct indigenous language of Panama. The Cueva people were exterminated between 1510 and 1535 during Spanish colonization. During the 17th and 18th centuries the Kuna repopulated the Cueva area.
The Kuna language, spoken by the Kuna people of Panama and Colombia, belongs to the Chibchan language family.
Abya Yala is a neologism used by indigenous peoples of the Americas to refer to the American continent. The term is used by indigenous organisations, institutions, and movements as a symbol of identity and respect for the land one inhabits. The increasing usage of the term can be viewed in the context of decolonization, as it serves to create an understanding that "land and discourse, territorio y palabra, cannot be disjointed" and a geography in which a struggle for sovereignty and resistance occurs on an everyday basis for Indigenous communities.
The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Panamá is a Metropolitan Archdiocese, and its suffragan dioceses include Chitré, Colón-Kuna Yala, David, Penonomé and Santiago de Veraguas, as well as the Territorial Prelature of Bocas del Toro. The Diocese of Santa María de La Antigua del Darién was originally located upriver from the mouth of the Atrato River on the Gulf of Urabá in the Castilla de Oro province. The see was moved to Panama City and renamed as the Diocese of Panamá on 7 December 1520 and elevated to an archdiocese on 29 November 1925. The current Metropolitan Archbishop of Panama is Archbishop Jose Domingo Ulloa Mendieta, O.S.A.
Mari Lyn Salvador was an American anthropologist, known for her work on Panamanian molas, worn by Kuna women. She became the director of the San Diego Museum of Man and the Hearst Museum of Anthropology. Salvador's career focused on analysis of ethnoaesthetics, or the appreciation of art in its own cultural context, from a variety of peoples.
Ricardo Miró Denis was a Panamanian writer and is considered to be the most noteworthy poet of this country.
Panamanian literature comprises the whole of literary works written in Panama. The first literature relating to Panama can be dated to 1535, with a modern literary movement appearing from the mid-19th century onwards
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El Tamborito, literally translated to "the Little Drum", is a genre of Panamanian folkloric music and dance dating back as early as the 17th century. Likewise, it is the typical genre of the north coast of the Colombian Pacific, in the area of Chocó Department. The Tamborito is the national song and dance of Panama. The dance is a romantic, couple's dance, often involving a small percussion ensemble, and in all versions; a female chorus. The Tamborito is performed in formal costumes in front of large, interactive crowds that form a large circle around the performers. The members of such crowds often participate in the percussion of the song as well as the actual dance itself. The Tamborito is most commonly performed during Panamanian festivals, and in particular, the Panama Carnival.
Elsie Alvarado de Ricord (1928–2005) was a Panamanian writer, linguist, multiple winner of the Premio Ricardo Miró and first female director of the Panamanian Academy of Language.
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José María Sánchez Borbón, was a Panamanian writer and politician.
Joel Fred Sherzer was an American anthropological linguist known for his research with the Guna people of Panama and his focus on verbal art and discourse-centered approaches to linguistic research. He co-founded the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America. Sherzer completed his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 and thereafter taught at the University of Texas at Austin for his entire career.
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