San Blas Panama Attractions
The Kunas are known and appreciated hosts. The visitor will not feel at any time like a stranger or even an intruder. You will meet thousand-years-old traditions, their dances, their music, their language, their food, in general, their way of life.
Most Kunas live nowadays in the modern territory of Panama in the autonomous regions of Kuna Yala, Wargandí and Madugandi. Some Kunas live in Columbian territory. The ancestors of the Kunas came from Central America to what now is Panama as part of the migratory movement of the Chibcha Culture to the east of modern Colombia.
We don't know for sure to what extent the Chibcha and Kuna culture influenced eachother. We only know that neither the Chibcha Culture nor the Chibcha population survived the conquista and later colonization through the spaniards. Kunas instead managed to isolate from the developments in the colony. Thus they preserved their own culture. Untill the XXth century Kunas practically didn't experience any western influence.
Kuna mythology is based on the two creators Pab Dummat (The Big Father) and Nan Dummat (The Big Mother). Kuna religion is a mix of the universal feminine and masculine concept under special Kuna logical rules. For foreigners this concept is quite hard to understand. The Saila or Kuna Chief unifies in his person the political and the religious Chief of the community. The saila presides the political meetings held in the local congress. The local congress also has a religious character. In the congress the Saila chants religious and historical songs full of symbolism and mythology. The songs are translated and interpreted by the arkar (the Saila's spokesman)
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