Dorsal Headdress (meiityk-re kru wapu)

Dorsal Headdress (meiityk-re kru wapu)

A dorsal headdress used for religious purposes, worn by the Kayapó, a group of tribes and sub-tribes who reside south of the Amazon River in the rainforests of the Central Brazilian Plateau. Body arts, which include body painting as well as bead and featherwork, are extremely important among this group. Feather headdresses like this one figure prominently in the ritual dress of the Kayapó, whose beliefs and worldview are very much integrated with the natural environment in which they reside.

This particular headdress, a type worn by initiates in the Kayapó name-giving ceremony called Bep, is constructed from the blue, brown, and striped feathers of the harpy eagle and bare-faced curassow. Along the upper arc, three sets of red macaw feathers punctuate the main circle, extending beyond the circumference. When worn, the colorful item would form a kind of feathered aureole around the head of the wearer alluding to the shape of the cosmos. The notion that the universe is arranged like a wasp-nest, comprised of circular layers, is integral to traditional Kayapó cosmology. The Kayapó believe that they originally lived in the upper layer of the universe, but descended to earth through a circular opening at the bottom. The circle is referenced in headdresses like this one.

Kayapó Mekrãgnoti

Braun, Barbara, and Peter G. Roe, eds. Arts of the Amazon. London: Thames & Hudson, 1995.

Courtesy of Adam Mekler

Sometime in the 20th century

Made of cotton, fibers, bamboo, vegetal fibers, feathers (red macaw, harpy eagle, bare-faced curassow). Height: 39 ¾ in. (101 cm.), Length: 37 in. (94 cm).

Religious nature

This resource is relevant under the topic of religious praise and ceremony, and highlights a piece of art employed by a culture as an instrument in praising their god.