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The Depository documents 6 techniques in Jamaica; by risk level: 3 endangered, 2 vulnerable, 1 stable. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
The building of the three-drum Nyabinghi ensemble — the bass (thunder), funde, and repeater (akete) — central to Rastafari ceremonial drumming, from carved or coopered wooden shells headed with natural goatskin.
The carving of a cow's horn into the abeng, a side-blown signal horn used by Jamaica's Maroon communities — descendants of enslaved Africans who escaped Spanish and British plantations to form independent free settlements in Jamaica's…
The hand-building (not wheel-thrown) of yabba — round, unglazed earthenware cooking and storage pots — a term derived directly from the Akan (Ashanti) word for earthenware vessel, made using West African pottery techniques carried to…
The hand-weaving of hats and baskets from cured jippa-jappa palm straw, a craft centered in Glengoffe, St.
The hand-carving of figurative sculpture — human torsos, busts, and other forms — from lignum vitae (Guaiacum officinale), Jamaica's national flower species and among the densest, heaviest woods in the world, alongside red cedar and…
The construction of elaborate masks, headdresses, and costumes for Jonkonnu (John Canoe), one of Jamaica's oldest performance traditions, combining masquerade, music, dance, and procession since at least the early 18th century.