Producer unknown to us
Feather tiara
Americas, Brazil, Mato Grosso, Source of the Xingu River
Around 1950
Feathers, cane braid, dyed cotton threads
From the 1950s to the 1970s, Erich Wustmann (ethnologist, author) undertook numerous expeditions and journeys to collect items for museums. He sold the acquired objects to the museums in Leipzig and Dresden.
Purchased by the museum from Wustmann in 1959
SAm 21592
This item is a Kamayurá feather tiara worn as a headdress. The base of this headdress is a wide circlet woven from cane strips that were dyed yellow and black. Its edges are wrapped with cotton thread dyed with red with urucu. The feathers are stacked one on top of the other like roof tiles. According to the collector, this headdress was worn during the Fish Dance. For this dance, one of the dancers wears a net in front of his face, green branches attached to his arms, and a skirt made of buriti palm threads.
Ethnologist and author Erich Wustmann (1907–1994) acquired this piece during an expedition for the Leipzig Museum in 1958.
Frank Usbeck