This particular artifact, from the Snite Museum of Art, is labelled as a bloodletter. This is echoed by Gillett Griffin, who states that the spoon "probably had a ritual function in bloodletting or in the absorption of hallucinogens for ritual purposes" (Griffin, p. 219). There is some disagreement, however, in this identification: Justin Kerr, for example, tentatively identifies similar Maya implements as "symbolic jade versions" of a paint container for a scribe (see "Where Do You Wear Your Paint-Pot?".
