4th century, Americas, ceramic, figurine, fooleum, Mexico, primary source
This striking hunchbacked dwarf from the Colima culture of western Mexico has been dated to 300-400 CE. While we can’t say ‘This is a jester’, we know that jesters could often be dwarfs and dwarfs often jesters, with or without a hunchback. We also...
10th century, 7th century, 8th century, 9th century, Americas, ceramic, fooleum, Mexico, primary source
These two wonderful figurines, one of them in the form of a whistle no less, caught my eye and attention. In fact, we mustn’t be fooled – although they are described as ‘jester gods’, this is only a name given by archaeologists due to their...
16th century, Americas, Aztec, Aztec, historical figure, primary source, quotes, South America
The Aztec king Montezuma II (1466-1520) had jesters and every mention we have of them points to their having been deformed in some way. Bernal Diaz de Castillo (1492-1591) who visited Montezuma’s court, tells us that:Sometimes some little humpbacked dwarfs...
historical figure, North America, quotes, research
From an excellent study of Pueblo Indian clowns in North America, this is a beautiful and limpid summary of the role of clowns, as apparently bestowed by the gods. In addition to healing through laughter, there is the fact of free access and free expression –...
20th century, Americas, historical figure, North America, quotes, research
The court jester often has a certain closeness to the boss he serves, challenging them, criticizing them, but not normally getting them chucked out.Ritual clowns have some common elements with court jesters, although their role and licence is usually time-bound,...
Americas, bibliography, book chapter, English, research, South America
Taubes’ paper brings to light fresh examples of Mayan figurines, including sketches that are easier to interpret than some of the original examples. It looks at the relatively cheap and popular medium of figurines, and some parallels between their subjects and...
