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Feather Art of the Brazilian Indians

The plumage art of the Brazilian Indians is one of the best known and most striking plastic
expressions of the native cultures of Brazil . The usual definition of feather art refers to
objects made with feathers and feathers of birds, often associated with other materials, and
mostly used as bodily ornament, whether in daily use or in solemn and ritualized functions.
The definition also includes the fixing of feathers directly on the human body, usually with
the same goals and meanings, and the making of feathered objects for other uses besides the
adornment of the body.

It attracted the attention of the Europeans since they first arrived in Brazil in the 16th century,
and several copies were collected and sent to courts across the sea, but above all were
presented at the time to Europe as trophies of the American conquest and as a strangely
attractive product of barbarian peoples. Until recently, this fascinating form of expression was
considered as nothing more than an exotic craft , but today the Brazilian Indians' feathered
production is recognized as a true visual language , an exquisite reflection of rich and
complex cultures, transmitter of specific messages, deserving of the status of art and worthy
of serious study. But despite its recent consecration among scholars and the general public,
this rich storehouse of traditions, meanings and forms runs the risk of being distorted by the
acculturation of tribes and the transformation of symbolic objects into commercial and tourist
products, and may come even as they disappeared, as numerous ethnicities that formerly
populated the Brazilian territory disappeared, losing with them an immense wealth in world
visions and vital experiences, things of which feather art has always been a privileged vehicle.

Chief Tupinambá with his body adorned with feathers. Woodcut illustrates the book Two Travels to
Brazil by Hans Staden (1557). The natives' trappings, which from the beginning of colonization have
attracted the attention of Europeans, can be compared to the suit of Westerners as marks of their cultural
identity. The apparatuses of the great leaders, on the other hand, are comparable in visual richness and
symbolic and honorable function to the mantles and crowns of the European real figures, proclaiming
the dignity of the personages.

Index
 1 Features
o 1.1 Some examples
 2 History of your study and current situation
 3 External links
 4 External links
 5 External links

Features
There are at least thirty indigenous ethnic groups with significant cultural traditions expressed
through feather art, including Kagwahíva , Erekibatsa , Tapirapé , Kamaiurá , Xavante ,
Waurá , Juruna , Kaingang , Kayapó , Tukano , Urubu-Kaapor , Assurini and Karajá , but it is
rare for people who have no tradition of this kind. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] It is a practice that has great
antiquity; there are cave paintings in some archaeological sites of the Northeast where the
representation of human beings with feathered adornments is clear; some of these records date
back to at least the ninth century. [ 3 ] This antiquity and universality are manifested in the
immense variety of national feather art, and it is impossible to establish a profile that is very
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abstract, for it spreads over a wide range of techniques, materials, forms, uses, and categories.
[1] [2]

Pictograms in the Resplendor Waterfall, Pará, showing humans adorned with feathers

Indians at the Indigenous Peoples' Games, highlighting their great headdress

What is a general rule in this art is that it is a vehicle for messages concerning rites of passage
, states of mind, distinctions of prestige and power, images of identity of person, family, clan,
and nation, not infrequently of vital importance in the internal economy of their cultures. In
indigenous societies there is no formal division between art and crafts . All objects produced
incorporate elements of aesthetic enjoyment and ethnic affirmations. More than mere
adornment, feather art is a form of communication, it speaks, and says a thousand things, it
presents itself in a thousand ways and forms. And if it were only adornment, it would already
be rich enough to require study. [ 1 ] [4 ] [ 5 ] [6 ] In some tribes, like the Bororo , it is the main form
of plastic art, its luxury contrasting vividly with the austerity of the other objects that
fabricate. [ 7 ] In the words of Darcy Ribeiro and Bertha Ribeiro ,

"It is in the plumeria that we find the most eminently artistic activity of our Indians,
the one in which they reveal the most elaborate aesthetic impulses and more vigorous
characteristics of their own and singular creation, and it is natural that this should be
so because the plumage of the birds with their variety of forms and richness of color,
constitutes the most precious and most finished material, so to speak, that nature offers
to the Indians to express themselves artistically, and their greater aesthetic interest, on
the other hand, is directed towards the embellishment of one's own body. From the
combination of these resources and this tendency, it would be the elaboration of an
exquisite technique that, combining feathers and feathers with several other materials,
would allow to create works of art capable of competing in beauty with the same
birds. [ 8 ]

Tapirajé girls with tiara and pendants

Arrows and other weapons adorned with feathers, watercolor by Jean-Baptiste Debret , 1834

Yanomami boys adorned with white plumage directly applied to the hair

Pataxó Indian with various feather adornments

The study of feather art has recently received considerable attention from researchers, since
there are several publications to deal with the subject, but there is still some controversy in its
categorization. Julius Melatti proposed the division into two main categories: feathered
objects and feathers glued directly to the body. [ 9 ]

According to Dorta & Van Velthem, there would be three major categories: the first making
use of long feathers associated with rigid supports, giving a grandiose and monumental aspect
to the artifact, emphasizing the great headdresses or headdresses. This group includes Bororo,
Karajá, Tapirapé, Kayapó, Tiriyó , Aparai and Wai-Wai , among others. The second employs
tiny feathers fixed on flexible supports with a delicate appearance, including braces, thongs,
belts, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, penis protectors, etc. Its most typical representatives are
the Munduruku , the Urubu-Kaapor and other Tupi groups. Still some groups would form a
third style, with elements of the two great divisions. [ 10 ] Darcy and Bertha Ribeiro already
consider as worthy of the status of feather art only the one in which the work of imagination,
sensibility and exquisite craftsmanship is evident. Only then could the object acquire
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autonomy as an art, becoming capable of eliciting an aesthetic response in the observer
through "the harmony of form, happiness in the chromatic combination and also by a soft and
attractive tactile consistency", surpassing the plastic value of the feathers themselves. Thus,
forms that simply add to the body and other objects a raw material or little worked would be
excluded. [ 8 ] And still others, like Els Lagrou and Maria Castilho Costa, question the
attribution of the name of art for this expression, since the current concept of art is a European
import that is not parallel in the activities of the indigenous communities. [ 11 ] [ 12 ]

Traditionally the making of feathered objects is a task for adult men, and their techniques are
learned after the initiation rites. Manufacturing involves several preliminary activities:
hunting birds or removing feathers from captive birds, selecting and classifying, preparing the
material and collecting and preparing accessory materials. [ 13 ] Much of the feather art
participates in the nature of weaving , since the feathers are fixed by tying and braiding fibers.
Other forms attach feathers directly to the body through resins and glues, as do the Kayapó
and Yanomami, who use the fine, white plumage of king vultures strapped directly into their
hair, or by a system of piercing . Other objects can also be adorned with feathers, such as
weapons, liturgical objects, war memorabilia, children's toys, purses, and musical and
working instruments. [ 10 ] [ 13 ] The material is used in several ways: in the natural state or by
transforming its original characteristics with cuts, deformations, deflays and dyes. Also often
feathers are used in association with other materials, such as hides and skins, bones, seeds,
animal claws, various fibers. [ 1 ]

Although some feathered artifacts can be used on a daily basis, the most elaborate and
important are intended for large festivities. It is, therefore, an art of scene character, used in
public rites where other forms of expression participate, like singing, declamation, theatrical
narrative and dance, and transfiguring the appearance of those who use it in a way magic and
theatrical. [ 15 ] Researcher Lux Vidal gave eloquent testimony on the forms of use of feather
art at the Tatu Festival, a Kayapó-Xikrím ritual, dealing with the aspects just mentioned:

"It is also important to see that it is not only the painting, it is not only the feather, but
also the songs, the dances, the gestures and especially the straw .... The Jéss are the
societies of straw ... used not only in contrast to colors, but also in this yellow
shredding, and when they move, they dance, this thing moves, moves, is extremely
light and contrasts with black and red, and green and blue as well. This is an
extraordinary beauty .... It really matters all the time, accompanied by dance and
singing, these things that move and form this special whole, and they are extremely
ephemeral things, not things that last. The straw is thrown away, the fuzz is then stored
and reused in some other way, but they are transitory things: the moment of certain
beauty of the ritual, how many things have happened! [ 16 ]

Feather art is a traditional art, that is, it has a popular origin and belongs to the great category
of folklore , since it follows cultural patterns inherited throughout the generations, more or
less fixed and distinctive of each ethnic or social group that produces it, but not discards the
individual contribution in the introduction of variations. It is not, therefore, repetitive, but
repetitive. For example, a particular tribe's headdress is in all likeness to other headdresses of
the same origin and function, but the members of that tribe would have no difficulty in
pointing out the individual who created each piece, which makes them unique creations. [ 17 ]

Some examples

Given the diversity of the plumage art of the Brazilian Indians, which makes a detailed
description impossible, some concrete examples may at least help to form a clearer idea of the
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importance that this form of expression can have on different indigenous communities. This
importance appears in the lament of a Tupinambá captured in 1616, recorded by the Capuchin
Friar Yves d'Évreux : "When I think of how people listened to my father, who was a great
man, when he spoke in the house of men, and when I look now for myself, a slave - without
paintings, without a feather ornament on his head, arms and wrists - I would rather be dead. " [
18 ]

Apply Wayana feather

Among the Wayana, procreation is compared to the technique of feather art. For them
children are "made" by the juxtaposition of semen particles in successive intercourses ,
particles that "weave" the skin of the baby in the same way that a feather is lined up to another
in the making of an ornament. They also believe that things and people are part of who
created them, so feather art is seen as an extension of one's own body. [ 19 ] The feathers used
by the Guarani to adorn their kayová ponchos are intended to "imitate the things of
Ñandedjára, " the heavenly deity identified with the Christian God . They also consider the
plume -wood feather feathers and the treasure- like feather feathers as magical, and use them
on exclusive head-suits for certain religious rituals. [ 20 ] The Urubu-Kaapor make a large
yellow feather headdress, whose prototype would have been given to them by the hero-creator
Maira as a symbol of the sun, being used in the male naming parties, and the Tapirapé create a
wooden mask covered with feathers of macaw and hawk, representing the spirit of the enemy
killed in combat, used in the celebrations that honor them. [ 21 ]

Among the Kaxinawá feathering is a male art, and the body decoration with feathers is in
certain cases associated with an admiration and a desire of personal fusion with the most
beautiful of beings, the heavenly deity called Inka, being a reflection of its beauty, power ,
knowledge and health.

The same people consider feathers possessing special virtues, and their use is dependent on
combinations and appropriate contexts. In the same form, only certain people can make
certain objects, always within a strictly controlled ritual structure. When associated with
singing, feather art is created by the chief singer, who is also a specialist in feather work, an
obvious link between bird song and the art of memorizing the tribal songs whose origin is
attributed to the same birds. [ 10 ] The whole community contributes with specific feathers for
the making of the costumes of the leader of the singing and of his apprentice, and each that
contribute will be able to wear the ceremonial vest typical typical of the party, that assumes
thus an aggregating and collective character. In fertility rites individual headdresses are used,
which can therefore serve as a badge of social prestige. A study by Rabineau in the 1960s
reports that the cacique's headdress was a sophisticated work, demonstrating his mastery of
technique and wisdom in choosing the right material. His son, however, in creating his own
headdress, did so with equally good technique but with greater material economy, indicating
that he was skilled but had no ambition to supplant his father. On the other hand, a rival of the
cacique used feathers prohibited in the ceremony, and therefore, instead of gaining the respect
of the tribe, was disapproved by all. [ 22 ]

For the Kayapó , plumeria is used mainly in the great collective rituals, as in the nomination
and masculine initiation , in the marriage and in the paramentation of the dead. In everyday
life, however, body painting prevails as the only adornment. The showy headdress called
krokrok ti has great symbolic meaning, which can represent an eye or the sun, but above all
symbolizes the village itself. The blue feathers, placed in the center, represent the square,
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which is the masculine and public place par excellence, while the red, peripheral feathers
represent the feminine and domestic world. As a finishing, white feathers are placed,
representative of the forest. [ 23 ]

Arara-canga, vehicle of a mythical being for the Yanomami

The Tukano practice a secret ritual related to Jurupari , whose main purpose is to invoke the
giant serpent Anaconda , from whose womb mankind would have been born. All objects used
in the ritual are united by the shaman's magic to form the body of the sacred creature, among
them a feathered flute with macaw feathers and mutum , which is considered to represent the
hocks of the serpent. For the Palikur Indians the red retreats of macaws are particularly
powerful, being the seat of protective spirits. They are therefore used in countless objects and
spaces in order to ward off evil influences. The Yanomami , in the rituals associated with the
mythical entity Wasulumani , represented by the colorful macaw ( Ara macao ), avoid the use
of multicolored feathers in order not to offend it, competing with its splendor, and its
adornments are limited to black feathers is white. The Waiãpi formerly made a vertical
headdress with feathers of several birds, where the great caudal feathers of macaws stood out.
The headdress was used in dance rituals where Indians personified high-flying birds, symbols
of health and well-being of the tribe, while the larger feathers symbolized the pillars with
which the mythical beings had sustained the celestial vault so that she did not fall on the
world. [ 24 ]

History of his study and current situation

Tupinambás in engraving of Theodor de Bry for Hans Staden's book Two Trips to Brazil , 1557. To the
center Indians with their feathered robes

Since the Discovery of Brazil , already mentioned in the Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha , [ 25 ]
the art of feathers has been drawing the attention of the white man, in spite of the ill-treatment
he has historically given to the Indians, decimating their populations, and relegated them to a
state that has only recently ceased to be the most complete neglect and contempt. European
explorers and naturalists soon collected specimens of feather art and took them to Europe as
trophies of conquest, a practice that continued into the nineteenth century, which until today
enriches the collections of important museums. On the other hand, this activity preserved in
Europe unique examples, unparalleled in the remaining collection in Brazil itself. This is the
case of the famous Tupinambás feathered robes, an ethnicity practically extinct in the
seventeenth century. They have been recorded since the 16th century in engravings and
reports of European travelers, but the only remaining specimens of this type of artifact are
preserved in the National Museum of Denmark and the Man Museum in Paris . They were
used in ceremonies of masculine initiation and reserved only to the Indians of the highest
social status . [ 26 ]

When Dom Pedro I was a sacred emperor, he had his ceremonial mantle adorned with a wall
of tuff feathers, at the same time a tribute to the Indian chiefs of the country and an act of
affirmation of imperial power, symbolically adding the forces native to the Europeanized
universe dominant. [ 27 ] His son, Pedro II , would continue the custom, also like part of a
political-cultural project of modernization and national unification. [ 28 ] But in Brazil
indigenous traditions only began to arouse more interest in the circles illustrated in the mid-
nineteenth century, from the first studies on native folklore embedded in the Romantic
movement, which emphasized singularities and differences, defining the various peoples and
traditions as objects worthy of intellectual attention. [ 29 ] [ 30 ] Emilio Goeldi's research was
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remarkable, collecting material and giving important contributions to the study of feather art
in a particular and systematic way. [ 31 ]

At the beginning of the twentieth century modernist intellectuals such as Mário de Andrade
cast new glances on the subject without dwelling on it in depth, and by this time much had
already been lost forever or had been influenced by the white culture. [ 32 ] [ 33 ] [ 34 ] European
scholars also developed research, but feather art was not yet considered an art in its own right,
with specific characteristics and functions, as is apparent in Claude Lévi-Strauss's work , [ 35 ]
and rarely attracted the attention it owed as one of the most sophisticated aesthetic creations
of the Brazilian Indians. Or it was included as a subcategory of clothing, sometimes regarded
as simple primitive craftsmanship, if not mere exoticism with no deep meaning. [ 36 ] The
Vilas-Boas brothers collected a large set of artifacts [ 37 ] and in the 1950s Darcy Ribeiro gave
an influential contribution by writing a book on the Kaapor plumeria. [ 38 ] In the 60's onwards,
more specialized studies were carried out and the exhibitions began, but it was only in 1983
that his definitive consecration took place, when he received a special room at the São Paulo
Biennial , accompanied by the publication of critical essays. [ 33 ]

Dom Pedro I with his crowning robe decorated with a toucan collar. Detail of painting by Debret

Leader of the nation Xicrim in 2008 with feathered adornments.

Today, Brazil's indigenous feathered art is prestigious all over the world, and is present in
many national and foreign museums, but is in danger of disappearing and having its
authenticity distorted. Faced with the acculturation of many tribes, customs are dissolving,
and according to Dorta & Cury, none of the 206 surviving ethnic groups in Brazil practices it
in its original fullness. [ 25 ] Where they are most preserved, it is precisely because of the
admiration that now awakens that feather art has become a commercial product, losing its
traditional meanings and uses and becoming a simple decorative object for the consumption
of tourists, constituting an important source of income for various tribes. In addition, making
use of biological material obtained from birds often threatened with extinction, the continuity
of this tradition as a source of income finds legal impediments. According to Brazilian law,
indigenous people have the right to hunt wildlife for exclusive purposes of feeding and
making ceremonial objects, but parts with products or by-products of wild fauna, category
where feathered objects enter, can not be commercialized. The ban has been in effect since
1998, and only makes exceptions for academic research and preservation in museums.
Nonetheless, trade has already reached major proportions and control is difficult. [ 2 ] [ 33 ] [ 39 ]
At the same time, the combination of restrictions and government propaganda causes a
situation of paradox. In the presentation of the book Indigenous Peoples in Brazil 2001/2005 ,
the authors said:

"It is worth mentioning the image of the Kayapó headdress that appears on the spine
of this volume, made with the technique of praxis, but with plastic straws instead of
the traditional feathers of macaw, parrot and mutum. wild, this recent and creative
Kayapó solution symbolizes the contradiction of a world champion deforestation
country and well placed at the top of the list of trafficking and extinction of birds,
whose diplomacy usually exhibits indigenous feather art abroad as the first symbol of
national identity " . [ 39 ]

In addition to the study by anthropologists and ethnologists , and its greater dissemination
among the general public, indigenous feather art has also exerted some impact on
contemporary Brazilian art of a learned character, a phenomenon that has been observed since
the 60s through the work of outstanding artists such as Lygia Pape and Bené Fonteles , [ 40 ] as
well as inspiring the work of decorators and designers of fashion and jewelry. [ 41 ] [ 42 ]