The turtle shell occupies a significant place in the ritual, symbolic, and musical life of ancient and contemporary Mesoamerican peoples. This natural element is conceived as an object of power and a sacred instrument, for it represents the connection among the earth, water, the sun, and the origins of the world and humanity. In different cultures, the turtle shell became integrated into myths, agricultural ceremonies, and musical practices, playing a fundamental role in the construction of the Mesoamerican cosmovision.
To this day, the shell is used as a percussion instrument and is struck with deer antlers or wooden sticks, depending on the region. This idiophone appears in various ceremonial contexts related to life cycles, agricultural rituals, and celebrations dedicated to saints. Among the pre-Hispanic Maya, the instrument accompanied the rituals marking the accession of new rulers, and several pictographic representations show musicians playing turtle shells during shamanic ceremonies associated with the transformation of human beings into zoomorphic entities. In his Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, Friar Diego de Landa described the sound of the shell as “sad and mournful.” In recent years, however, scholars have emphasized its association with petitions for rain and with fertility, since the deer antlers used as beaters possess a masculine quality through the animal's association with the sun. The shell, in turn, constitutes the feminine counterpart associated with the earth, water, and women. It is the union of complementary opposites that makes processes of fertility and procreation possible.
Likewise, the deep and resonant sounds produced by the shell evoke the beings of rain and the lightning bolts that strike the earth, primordial forces related to regeneration. Following this logic, the Ikoots (Huaves) of Oaxaca call the shell-and-antler assemblage poj (“turtle”), whose use is governed by ritual prescriptions associated with the cycle of rainy and dry seasons. In particular, the use of the poj is restricted to the period from the middle of Lent until the Feast of Corpus Christi, that is, during the petitions for rain and the beginning of the rainy season. The montsünd poj, or “those who play the shells” / “turtle-shell players,” are the ritual specialists responsible for performing the musical pieces, striking the rear and front tongues of the shell to produce low and high sounds, respectively, referred to as “large” and “small” sounds.
As a sacred instrument, the poj receives ritual treatment that includes the search for godparents who contribute to the expenses of the celebration and, through doing so, establish bonds of kinship and reciprocity through the turtle-instrument. This socialization of the turtle has been interpreted as a domestication of rain, in contrast to the figure of the serpent, which brings destructive cyclonic waters.