Producer unknown to us
Plastic mug
Americas, Peru, Maynas Province, Pebas District
Around 1965
Plastic, formed, printed
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 23006
Werner and Vera Hartwig acquired this plastic mug during their 1971–72 teaching and research trip to Peru as evidence of US development aid in Latin America. The words “Allianza para el Progreso” (Alliance for Progress) are printed on the bottom of the cup, advertising a United States program to aid Latin American countries with economic development, agricultural reform, as well as the development of social and education programs from 1961 to 1970.
The Peruvian government commissioned the Hartwigs to assist in the construction of a museum. They traveled to the Amazon region in order to document the Indigenous cultures there, such as the Bora. 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