Summary
Ethnographic artifacts have traditionally received little attention within archaeological research due to their recent chronology, colonial contexts of origin, and lack of clear archaeological association. However, these objects can provide valuable insights into perishable materials that are rarely preserved in the archaeological record. By cross-referencing ethnohistorical information associated with these artifacts—found in various museum collections—with knowledge held by contemporary communities, new approaches can be developed to address key challenges in interpreting archaeobotanical evidence and to explore issues related to techniques, selection criteria, traditional ecological knowledge, and symbolic relationships with the plant world that are otherwise difficult to observe in such ephemeral materialities.Through the study of a set of wooden carvings from Gunayala (Panama), housed in different ethnographic collections, this presentation offers reflections on the agency of both objects and trees within the Guna people worldview, as evidenced through wooden materiality. Based on a multidisciplinary analysis of these artifacts and the specific Guna case, Western frameworks that approach the study of plant resources primarily from a functional perspective are critically examined. Focusing on the example of nudsugana ritual carvings and the balsa tree (Ochroma pyramidale), a reconceptualization of the ephemeral/durable dichotomy in the interpretation of wooden material culture is proposed, encouraging a reconsideration of the "expected" outcomes in archaeological research on plant-based artifacts.