Producer unknown to us
Slashing knife (machete)
Americas, Peru, Maynas Province, Pucuaurquillo
Around 1970
Iron, plastic; forget, riveted
Werner and Vera Hartwig (Ethnologists) acquired this mask during a teaching and research trip to Peru in 1971–1972
Purchased by the museum from Werner Hartwig in 1972
SAm 23040
This machete is composed of a long iron blade and a plastic handle.
Werner and Vera Hartwig went on a teaching and research trip to Peru in 1971–72, where the Peruvian government commissioned them to assist in the construction of a museum. They traveled to the Amazon region in order to document the Indigenous cultures there. One of the focal points of their trip was to study the living and social conditions and the cultural transition of Indigenous groups as well as the country’s national minority policy. This idea was in line with the Marxist disciplinary interest of GDR ethnology, but especially with the research outline in Leipzig, which focused on the development of hierarchies and class societies in world history and on economic and social issues in history and ethnology.
Frank Usbeck