The Kuna people are led by caciques, who control large areas of land, and sylas, who are leaders of local towns. They are all elected, and while they hold a lot of power, they can be removed anytime. Kuna communities have large grass huts where the men of the community come together to chew over issues. The sylas (usually 3 per community) represent individual communities in the Kuna Congress, and also the Kuna of Panama and Colombia get together in an international Congress. Here I - the giant monster on the right, am pictured with the sylas from one of the communities (the guy on the right is also a gringo). I love, love, love the hats the sylas wear. The other pictures show the inside of the meeting house - the sylas recline in hammocks while other leaders sit closely by. We visited a lot of these meeting halls and met with sylas who seemed to be sleeping at times.
The painting pictured here is of three famous sylas from Kuna history - you can see their unpronounceable names. Also note that many, many Kuna have names like Smith, Jones, Anderson - because of their long-time contact with English-speaking merchants, pirates and others in the Caribbean, many at some time in the past adoped English names. I met only one female syla - she told me she was an "administrative syla" (whatever that is) - generally women can't be leaders except of the cooperatives that make and sell the iconic embroidered "mola."
The painting pictured here is of three famous sylas from Kuna history - you can see their unpronounceable names. Also note that many, many Kuna have names like Smith, Jones, Anderson - because of their long-time contact with English-speaking merchants, pirates and others in the Caribbean, many at some time in the past adoped English names. I met only one female syla - she told me she was an "administrative syla" (whatever that is) - generally women can't be leaders except of the cooperatives that make and sell the iconic embroidered "mola."
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