REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Brazil
YEAR PRINTED: 1980
VALUE: 4 real
This stamp was issued by the government of Brazil as part of a set honoring the masquerading traditions of indigneous Brazilian peoples. This stamp depicts a parrot feather mask of the Tapirapé people who inhabit the state of Mato Grosso.
REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Brazil
YEAR PRINTED: 1980
VALUE: 4 real
This stamp was issued by the government of Brazil as part of a set honoring the masquerading traditions of indigneous Brazilian peoples. This stamp depicts a barkcloth (tapa) mask of the Tukuna or Tikuna people who inhabit the state of Amazonas.
REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Brazil
YEAR PRINTED: 1980
VALUE: 4 real
This stamp was issued by the government of Brazil as part of a set honoring the masquerading traditions of indigneous Brazilian peoples. This stamp depicts a mask of the Kanela people who inhabit the state of Maranhão.
REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Brazil
YEAR PRINTED: 1976
VALUE: 1 real
This stamp was issued by the government of Brazil to honor the masquerading tradition of the Bakairi people, an indigenous people living in the Amazon rainforest.
TITLE: Piaroa Kohue Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Brazil
SUBREGION: Orinoco River Basin
ETHNICITY: Piaroa
DESCRIPTION: Kohue (Vampire Bat) Mask
CATALOG ID: LABR002
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Warime Ritual
AGE: 1980s
MAIN MATERIAL: clay
OTHER MATERIALS: wicker; bark cloth; beeswax; pigment; dried grass
The Piaroa people inhabit the Orinoco River Basin region of Venezuela and northern Brazil. They are an extremely peaceful people with a political structure that anthropologists describe as nearly anarchic.
The warime ceremony is the biggest festival of Piaroa society. It includes a purification ritual in which masqueraders represent animal spirits and proclaim their deeds of the year to the tribe, good and bad, to seek respectively praise or forgiveness. This mask represents an animal spirit, specifically the Kohue (vampire bat).
Masqueraders must receive religious instruction from a shaman beforehand, and his incantation is accompanied by music on traditional instruments.
TITLE: Kuikuro Kalapolo Mask
TYPE: plank mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Brazil
SUBREGION: Mato Grosso
ETHNICITY: Kuikuro
DESCRIPTION: Kalapolo (Otter Spirit) mask
CATALOG ID: LABR001
MAKER: Unknown maker in Alto Xingú
CEREMONY: Aga Ceremony
FUNCTION: Healing; Spirit Invocation
AGE: early 2000s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: palm fiber; pigment
The Kuikuro people of the Amazon rain forest populate the Xingú River region of the Mato Grosso state of Brazil. During the Aga mask ceremony, masked Kuikuro shamans invoke forest and water spirits such as the river otter to cure the ill. In the Kuikuro belief system, water and forest spirits (itseke) cause disease and death, and only shamans can intervene to propitiate them. Such masks are worn without eye holes.
TITLE: Ticuna Caiman Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Brazil
SUBREGION: Amazonas
ETHNICITY: Ticuna
DESCRIPTION: Caiman Funerary Mask
CATALOG ID: LABR005
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Funeral
AGE: 2009
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: llanchama bark cloth; pigment
The Ticuna people of the Amazon rain forest populate large parts of the Amazonas state of Brazil, as well as parts of Colombia and Peru. Brazil finally recognized the Ticuna right to control over some of their historic lands in 1990. Men make and use all Ticuna masks, are used primarily in adult initiation rituals for girls and in funerals. Funeral masks like this one always represent animals that the deceased would want to hunt in the next life.
TITLE: Ticuna Shaman Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Brazil
SUBREGION: Amazonas
ETHNICITY: Ticuna
DESCRIPTION: Shaman Mask
CATALOG ID: LABR004
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Adult Initiation
AGE: ca. 1990s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: bark cloth; plant fiber; pigment
The Ticuna people of the Amazon rain forest populate large parts of the Amazonas state of Brazil, as well as parts of Colombia and Peru. Brazil finally recognized the Ticuna right to control over some of their historic lands in 1990. Men make and use all Ticuna masks, are used primarily in adult initiation rituals for girls and in funerals. Funeral masks always represent animals that the deceased would want to hunt in the next life. Human masks are part of a full body suit made of tapa (cloth made from pounded tree bark) and are danced at an elaborate ceremony for the initiation of girls into adulthood. This specific mask was almost certainly made for the tourist trade.
TITLE: Wayana-Aparai Tamok
TYPE: face and body mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Brazil
SUBREGION: Guiana Highlands
ETHNICITY: Wayana; Aparai
DESCRIPTION: Tamok (Tamoko) mask and costume
CATALOG ID: LABR003
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Pono Dance (Cumeeira)
AGE: 1970s
MAIN MATERIAL: split-cane basketry
OTHER MATERIALS: bark cloth; beeswax; kaolin clay; pigment; palm-frond fibers
The Wayana and Aparai are two distinct peoples that live in close proximity in northeastern Brazil, on the border of Suriname and French Guiana. Due to their small numbers (less than 3000 persons between the two groups), they have joined to a degree and have converged in their cultural rituals. Among these is the Pono dance, sometimes called in Portuguese the Cumeeira ceremony, a celebration of the dedication of a new community roundhouse (the cumeeira being the highest point of the roof). Participants in this celebration must refrain from alcohol and maintain purity. Only then are they allowed to wear the tamok (or tamoko) mask and suit.
Tamok represents an evil spirit, a powerful man-eating forest monster associated with illness and death. The Pono dance placates Tamok and purifies the village. It is performed with a large, two-handed whip to make loud cracking sounds. The Tamok mask’s geometrical pattern are reminiscent of the face painting applied to Wayana girls.
