Headdress
About This Item
This headdress is made of materials that were all gathered in the Amazon Rainforest. This region is home to over 80,000 plant species. Indigenous communities in the Amazon Basin have long relied on plants for medicinal purposes, many of which are also used in modern pharmaceuticals. Deforestation and land exploration has made it more difficult to gather these species.
Brazilian featherworks from the Amazon are among the most celebrated of pieces, made from fiber, wood, and feathers from tropical parrots or birds of prey. It is believed that the pieces are symbols of the divine, of beauty, and of power, qualities of which would be associated with the wearer.
- Date
- Mid-1900s
- Geography
- Karajá (Iny) community, northeastern Brazil
- Medium
- feathers
- twine
- wood
- Height
- 16.5 in
- Width
- 8 in
- Depth
- 7.5 in
- Copyright
- Copyright status unknown. Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing, and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
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