MEG
Musée d’ethnographie de Genève
Press Pack
Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest
20 May 2016 – 8 January 2017
Vernissage 19 May 2016 at 6 pm
The MEG – Musée d’ethnographie de Genève – curates one of the most important
Amazonian ethnographic collections in Europe, remarkable as much for the quality,
provenance and cultural diversity of the objects as for their number (nearly 6,000). For
the first time in decades the Museum is exhibiting a wide range of objects from this
region. “Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest” is a testimony to the history
and plight of the indigenous peoples, who, since the first settlers set foot on their soil,
have survived the encroachment of pioneer fronts, exogenous diseases, “pacification”
programs, sedentarisation and missionary activities.
This exhibition is placed under the patronage of the Swiss National Commission for UNESCO, which
thereby recognises the heritage value of the MEG’s collections and their utility for the Amazonian peoples
of today.
“The recognition of the cultures and traditional practices of indigenous peoples is a key issue for UNESCO,
especially in the realisation of sustainable development. Understanding and appreciating the valuable
contribution that indigenous knowledge makes to the protection and management of ecosystems is an
example of UNESCO’s commitment, which implies taking the challenges faced by indigenous peoples
more broadly into account.
We welcome the fact that your exhibition project, by making the heritage of these peoples accessible to a
wide audience through the example of Amazonia, spotlights several of those challenges, in an
interdisciplinary perspective, and emphasises the importance of respecting and protecting that heritage.”
Swiss National Commission for UNESCO.
Ranging from brightly coloured feather finery, blowpipes, bows and arrows dipped in curare, to everyday
objects, musical instruments or the paraphernalia used by shamans to snuff hallucinogenic substances,
some 500 objects, photographs and films are displayed in a 1,000 sq. m. exhibition space. The whole
illustrates American Indian cultures as they have been observed from the eighteenth to the twentieth-first
century. The culture of certain pre-Columbian societies is represented by refined Marajó pottery and
astonishing polished stone pieces.
The Amazonian peoples have struggled to resist the destruction of their world, but their population has
fallen by about 80% over the last five centuries following the conquest and colonisation of their
environment. Brazil, the biggest country in the Amazon basin, has an Indian population of only 700,000,
divided into 237 ethnic groups, some numbering only a few hundred people. The MEG’s new exhibition
“Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest” is an occasion to draw attention to the plight of the
American Indians.
Thanks to the collaboration of many people fighting for their cause, trying to make Indian cultures better
known and working with Indians in the field (NGOs, photographers, filmmakers, musicologists),
contemporary testimonies and data complement and illuminate the twentieth-century ethnographic
collections and earlier historic collections.
The exhibition is punctuated by portraits of Indian leaders, who are fighting for the rights of indigenous
peoples, along with early or contemporary photographs. Photos and videos, recordings and quotations
present many different viewpoints. Music once again has a special place in the exhibition with sound
installations that plunge visitors into the animist mind of the forest and ritual.
KEY THEMES
The key themes of the exhibition are:
Amazonia
The MEG exhibition presents remarkable objects from about thirty ethnic groups from nine countries in the
Amazonian basin, including the Kayapó, the Wayana, the Yanomami, the Ka’apór, the Karaja, the Shuar
(Jivaro), the Tukuna, and the Bororo. These communities, which are scattered through the biggest forest
on the planet (6 million sq. km), may be citizens of Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia,
Suriname, Guiana or French Guiana.
Animism
“Animism” characterises the thought systems of the American Indians in Amazonia. It is an original
ontological approach, that is, a particular way to situate human or non-human beings in the universe and
understand why they exist. In animism, human beings, most animals, some plants and the forest itself all
have the capacity to think and act. The American Indians also believe that several spatiotemporal worlds
coexist: the world of the living, the spirits, the dead, etc.
“Do not think that the forest is dead, put there without reason. If it were inert, we would not move either.
The forest animates us. It is alive. We cannot hear it complain, but the forest suffers, just as humans do.”
Davi Kopenawa, chief shaman of the Yanomami American Indian community in the Amazonian forest of
Brazil (2003).
The forest feels and has its own way of thinking.
Shamanism
“Shamanism” can be defined as the ability of certain individuals to pass from one world to another in
particular circumstances. In the process, the shaman can take on the appearance of another species, and
use its powers. Assuming the shape of the urubu bird, for example, he can fly over the forest and spot a
stolen soul. Or as a jaguar, he can fight the malevolent being that stole the soul. The mediation practised
by shamans is akin to “diplomacy between species”.
Perspectivism
“Perspectivism” is the anthropological concept used, in an animist context, to assess an individual’s ability
and skill to project himself into another’s place and see things from his point of view. He may put himself in
the place of a person, an animal (a jaguar just as well as an insect), a spirit or any other thinking being.
Like chess players, whether they are hunting, performing shamanic practices or interpreting dreams, the
American Indians multiply their viewpoints and imagine how they themselves are perceived.
But appearances can be deceptive, and what is seen or heard may be no more than an illusion.
Perspectivism implies taking another viewpoint, with several alternatives. Today a more holistic scientific
approach and greater sensitivity to the American Indians’ discourse about their own cultures have led
some to talk of “the mind of the forest”.
Mythology
Mythology is essential for the American Indians. It is a theoretically infinite body of stories passed on by
recitation. Mythology takes shape in the oral tradition of societies without writing. Our (Western)
understanding of mythology is very limited because we approach it through written transcriptions, which
are usually abridged or summarised. All thinking beings appear as characters in the myths. So all the birds
and other animals whose feathers or claws or skin are used to make body ornaments are mythological
characters.
SCENOGRAPHY
The layout of the exhibition was designed by Genevan architects Bernard Delacoste and Marcel
Croubalian (MCBD Architectes). They divided the space into four distinct areas: a wide, meandering aisle
conjuring up a tributary of the Amazon; a high canopy pierced by rays of sunlight that shift hour by hour; a
densely forested area suggested by open-worked textiles; and to finish with, a structure imitating the
traditional Yanomami roundhouse, xabono. The exhibition's highly immersive scenography offers a unique,
multi-sensory experience in the heart of the Amazonian forest.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND
FILM
Photography and film in the exhibition
Photographs and films have a major place in the exhibition, presenting many different views of the
American Indians. Whether they come from the MEG’s collections – historical photos taken by the German
photographer George Huebner and the Russian baroness Nadine de Meyendorff or the field work of the
ethnologist and militant René Fuerst and the curator Daniel Schoepf – or are the work of contemporary
photographers and filmmakers, such as Paul Lambert, or the famous Swiss-born Brazilian photographer,
Claudia Andujar, the Genevan photographer, Aurélien Fontanet, or militant filmmaker, Daniel Schweizer,
they take visitors deep into the life of the American Indians.
MUSIC AND SOUND
Music and sound in the exhibition
“Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest” includes two music and sound installations. The first
is a display of wind instruments, associated with sound recordings, which presents the remarkable diversity
of instrumental music in Amazonia. The second is a sound installation broadcast throughout the gallery. It
was designed by a team of specialists in the sounds of the Amazonian Basin. A suite of sixteen sound
stories conjures up the relationship that music can establish between humans, animals and spirits.
CULTURAL PROGRAM
Cultural and scientific program
The cultural outreach department proposes a full program of workshops, original visits, films, and
meetings with people involved in the project. Field research workers give a perspective on the current
situation in Amazonia and artists are invited to work on the themes of the exhibition. Many workshops and
visits are planned for families and school groups.
Program available on www.meg-geneve.ch
NUMBER OF OBJECTS 445 objects et documentaries
64 photographies
IN THE EXHIBITION
11 videos
1 artistic installation
1 interactive installation
2 projections
1 sound installation
EXHIBITION TEXTS
Introduction
Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest
Since the European conquest in the sixteenth century, the indigenous peoples of Amazonia have seen
their culture attacked from all sides, their territory invaded and their environment destroyed in the name of
kings, Christianity, civilisation and economic progress successively. After five centuries of veritable
ethnocide, the Indian peoples have finally been recognised as the "first nations" by the majority of the nine
Amazonian States, which now mostly ensure their protection and well being.
But well being for the Indians means, first and foremost, being able to live in symbiosis with all the beings
that form one of the richest ecosystems on our planet: the Amazonian rainforest. For them, there is no
opposition or separation between "nature" and "culture". All living beings and forest spirits share with
humans the power to reason and interact with the environment. In these traditional societies, the shaman is
the mediator between the species, an auxiliary striving to maintain the changing equilibrium of a complex,
dynamic environment.
QUOTES
“My brother told me to start wearing a lip plate, a small one at first and then a slightly bigger one each
month. It takes four years to reach the largest size, the one I still wear today. The lip plate, which is called
botoque in our language, means that the wearer is ready to die for his land. That is why everyone is afraid
of an Indian with a lip plate, because he is a very dangerous Indian.”
Raoni Metuktire, Mémoires d’un chef indien, 2010
“Our spirits are tiny but very powerful. They know how to destroy diseases and heal us. They fight against
evil spirits that hunt and devour us like game. They can hush the thunder, put an end to torrential rain and
still the storm that breaks the trees. They make garden plants grow and the forest fertile […]. That is the
shamans’ work.”
Davi Kopenawa, Yanomami. L’esprit de la forêt, 2003
“I made the globe revolve then zoomed in on our territory. But instead of finding our villages, I saw a sort of
green oasis marked “uninhabited land.” It was vaguely square surrounded by a yellow and grey sea – in
fact cleared forest and farmland. I immediately thought that Google Earth could be a tremendous tool for
keeping watch over our forest. But they had just left out one essential thing: us.”
Almir Narayamoga Suruí, Sauver la planète. Le message d’un chef indien d’Amazonie, 2015
PART I
Amazonia, an incomplete history
The history of shamanism in Amazonia is incomplete because our knowledge of the history of Amazonian
societies is scanty. These societies have no writing and live in an ecosystem in which few archaeological
traces have been found, yet their history cannot be presumed to be less rich or less profound than that of
any other human population. Archaeology and human genetics are making great strides. History, too, is
making progress, but it is still based on essentially European documents after the Conquest: written
documents, but also ethnographic and photographic collections. Shamans are recurrent figures in
American Indian mythology, which is increasingly recognised as an historical source because the stories
passed from generation to generation contain clues to the great historical events that affected these
traditional societies.
SECTION 1.1
Original Amazonia, models to be revised
Archaeological studies show that, before the Conquest, huge parts of Amazonia were probably peopled
much more densely than was previously thought. These agricultural populations were more sedentary than
the Indians observed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They probably had more hierarchical
political systems and lived in large villages on sites spreading over tens of hectares. The supposedly
"virgin" forest was often gardened for hundreds, or even thousands, of years. The Amazonian world was
not closed on itself. Shamanic networks crossed and extended beyond the forest; trade and exchange
networks linked the Amazonians to the Caribbean and the Andean peoples. The spread of polished stone
axes or the representation of Amazonian animals and fruit in the iconography of Pre-Columbian societies
on the northern coast of Peru provide evidence of those networks.
Myths explain the origin of everything
The civilising hero Maíra created the world and the forest. The myth of the Ka’apor Indians tells that Maíra
did not teach them to make knives, iron axes and fabrics because that was a task for the white men, but he
taught the Ka’apor to make yellow crowns, commanding them to adorn themselves with feathers and paint
their bodies. All the finery made from yellow oropendola feather is used to personify Maíra.
First evidence of material culture
Polished stone axes appeared about 10,000 years ago and are the first signs of the material culture of the
Amazonian peoples. They were primordial tools in their life style for several millennia, but were replaced by
iron axes after the Conquest. The survival of a large number of stone axes can be explained by their reuse
for domestic or ritual purposes, for example for the preparation of hallucinogenic substances among the
Yanomami.
The Marajoara culture
A pre-Columbian Amazonian culture which produced remarkable funerary pottery, the Marajoara culture
flourished on Marajo Island at the mouth of the Amazon River between 400 and 1400. The burial urns were
mainly to hold bones. They are sometimes decorated with the heads of jaguars, animals linked to power
and shamanism. Other objects, such as painted tangas or pubic coverings, were probably offerings.
SECTION 1.2
Five centuries of ethnocide – five centuries of resistance
The arrival of European powers in the New World in the sixteenth century began one of the most
murderous conquests in history in terms of its duration, the disparity of force, the violence inflicted on the
indigenous people and the smallpox, typhus, influenza and measles epidemics it triggered. An estimated
50% to 90% of the American Indians, depending on the ethnic groups, died of the diseases introduced by
the Europeans who invaded Amazonia. In Brazil, for example, twelve to fifteen million people died and the
surviving population is only 900,000.
Motivated by the desire to seize the natural riches of these new territories, the Conquest was supported
and assisted by the Catholic Church. Some Indian peoples withdrew into remote parts of the forest to
isolate themselves, many took up arms, and others sought escape in the millenarist cults initiated by
shamanic visions. The independence of the Amazonian States in the first quarter of the nineteenth century
did not change the plight of the Indians as the new nations set about colonising the forest to further their
own economic interests.
First written accounts of the Indians' religion
Jean de Léry (1536?-1613) exiled himself in Geneva after his conversion to the Reformed church. In 1557,
he took part in the mission that John Calvin sent to "Antarctic France" (Rio de Janeiro). He spent several
months among the Tupinamba Indians. In his History of Travels in Brazil (1578), he described this people
and its customs with ethnographic precision, and denounced the caricature of "cannibal savages" depicted
by his Catholic rival, André Thévet, in his book Singularities of France Antarctique, otherwise called
America (1558).
Rubber and the crucifix
In the nineteenth century, worldwide industry created an unprecedented demand for plant latex to make
various types of rubber. The Amazonian forest was a rich source of latex, so a violent system of latex
tapping was set up and with the Indians often used as slave labour. The paths slashed into the forest
opened the way for the missions to convert the Indians. In some cases, the missionaries themselves were
asked to "pacify" the Indians first, so rubber could be extracted. Several photographers documented the
various facets of this period of upheaval.
A case of resilience
Stripped of their lands after the war between Paraguay and Bolivia in the 1930s, the Yshyr (commonly
called Chamacoco) split in half. One half went into isolation until the 1980s, preserving its culture and its
values, while the other half was put to work in the settlers' farms and Christianised. When they came out of
their isolation, the Yshyr of the forest numbered fewer than a hundred; they and their shamans decided to
bring their ancestral culture to the other Yshyr, who were acculturated but more numerous, and had newly
acquired land rights.
African ethnic groups in Amazonia
The descendants of slaves who had escaped from the plantations in Dutch Guiana during the seventeenth
to the nineteenth century live along the rivers of Guiana and Suriname. The Saamaka, Boni, Djuka and
other groups developed original cultures, mixing their African traditions with borrowings from the American
Indians. In Brazil, similar communities of fugitive slaves were known as quilombos.
SECTION 1.3
The MEG's collections
The MEG's Amazonian collections arrived in Geneva between the mid eighteenth century and the end of
the twentieth century through channels comparable to those observed in other European cities. The
earliest American Indian objects were given to the public library by the Genevan Ami Butini, a planter in
Suriname, in 1759. They were mere curios among a larger collection of plants and stuffed animals. For
many years the only objects given to Genevan museums were brought by soldiers, naturalists, and
diplomats who had travelled abroad. In 1960, the MEG received a very large collection, which had been
put together by Oscar Dusendschön between 1890 and 1914. This German, a "rubber baron" in Manaus,
but also a banker and a consul, made friends with travellers and ethnographers, who called on him in
Manaus and were his sole source of American Indian objects.
It was not until the 1970s that the MEG acquired Amazonian collections amassed during ethnographic field
expeditions by private individuals such as Jean-Louis Christinat, René Fuerst or Gustaaf Verswijver, or by
its first Americanist curator, Daniel Schoepf. The latter assembled a collection of several thousand objects
from about ten ethnic groups, mainly in Peru, Brazil and Guiana.
César-Hippolyte Bacle (1794-1838). A captain in the cavalry, Bacle took part in French colonial
campaigns during the empire. He then became a trader in Argentina and devoted himself to the natural
sciences.
Louis Pictet aka the Bengali (1747-1823). Cavalry captain for the King of Prussia, Pictet directed the
Cassimbazar trading post near Calcutta for the French East India Company.
Hippolyte Jean Gosse (1834-1901). A doctor and scholar, director of the Archaeology and Epigraph
Museum of Geneva from 1872, Gosse built up large local prehistoric and extra-European collections.
Etienne Antoine Gillet-Brez (1835- ?). Gillet-Brez explored Peru and travelled up the Amazon between
1852 and 1865.
Oscar Dusendschön (1869-1960). Of German origin but a Brazilian citizen, Dusendschön established a
big rubber production plant at Manaus, as well as a bank and trading company to handle exports. In Brazil,
between 1890 and 1914, he built up an important collection of objects, probably guided by his fellow
countrymen, such as the ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grünberg and the orchid specialist and photographer
Georges Huebner. When the rubber boom subsided in 1914, he moved back to Europe. After the Second
World War, he was instrumental in setting up the Swiss-Brazilian chamber of commerce in Lausanne.
Marcel Grosjean. An engineer and prospector, Grosjean explored Venezuela in the 1920s. He was a
member of the Genevan Geographical Society, and gave a lecture to the society on the Amazon, the
Orenoque and the Casiquiare rivers in 1931.
Franz Angert (1844- ?). In Ecuador in the early twentieth century, this prehistorian from Saint-Gall
collected pre-Colombian pottery, including some rare Amazonian objects.
Baroness de Meyendorff's Amazonia
During her honeymoon in South America in 1903, the Russian baroness Nadine de Meyendorff (1882- ?)
travelled from the Andes to the Atlantic. Equipped with a Kodak camera, she crossed Amazonia, taking
pictures of landscapes and the colonists, missionaries and Indians she met on the way. She supplemented
her own photographs with professional shots showing the beauties of the tropical forest, the "benefits" of
colonisation and astonishing Indian body painting patterns.
Daniel Schoepf, everyday life among the Wayana
Curator of the MEG’s American collections from 1968 to 2003, advisor to the French Guiana Ethnological
Heritage Office, Daniel Schoepf (1941) is the specialist on the Wayana people. He brought many
photographs back from his frequent stays in Brazil and Guiana and put on numerous exhibitions. His
collection of photographs explores all aspects of the Wayana’s everyday life, with great precision and
respect for their privacy.
Paul Lambert, the eye of the filmmaker
A defender of the cause of the Amazonian Indians, the Genevan filmmaker Paul Lambert (1918-2004)
chronicled their daily life in his 1962 documentary film Fraternelle Amazonie (Fraternal Amazonia). He
recorded their daily routine, rituals and dances with rare sensitivity and tenderness. His filmmaker’s eye
can be discerned in the photographs chosen for the exhibition and presented alongside an excerpt from his
film, which strongly influenced public opinion in Switzerland and France.
René Fuerst, an ardent defender of the Amazonian peoples
An ethnologist, freelance researcher, and finally curator of the Oceania division at the MEG from 1983 to
1998, René Fuerst (1933) is an ardent defender of the cause of the Amazonian Indians, in particular the
Xikrin from Cateté and the Yanomami, whom he frequented regularly between 1955 and 1975. Fuerst was
banned from Brazil in 1975 after criticising the official indigenous policy. A number of portraits selected
from his many photographs taken in the field are a powerful record of his encounters with the American
Indians.
PART II
Shamans: diplomats between the species in an animist world
Shamanism is the ability possessed by certain individuals – shamans – to cross the divide between worlds,
to reveal the true nature of beings in disguise, and to dialogue with normally unintelligible species. A hunter
may be bewitched and his soul carried off and held captive by a spirit of the forest. The body that remains
in the world of the living is nothing but an empty shell. On the request of the man’s social group, the
shaman can perform rituals and enter into a shamanic trance induced by psychotropic drugs, enabling him
to go into the spirit world and recover the stolen soul. As the shaman passes from one world to the other,
he can take the appearance of another species. In doing so, he acquires the skills of that species. As a
black vulture, he can soar above the forest and spy the stolen soul. Or, as a jaguar, he can fight the evil
being responsible for the bewitchment.
SECTION 2.1
The shaman’s hallucinatory paraphernalia
Shamans use hallucinogenic substances to put themselves into a trance. A trance is an altered state of
consciousness which lets the shaman “leave his body” and move about in parallel worlds, where he can
take on different appearances, dialogue with other species, and see, hear, smell and feel things that are
inaccessible to ordinary mortals. The practice of shamanic trances differs widely from one culture to
another: individual or collective, by day or night, accompanied or not by songs or music. The trance usually
gives visions, but in some cultures the shaman experiences auditory hallucinations or other sensations.
Only a few accessories are required: a bench, a rattle and the paraphernalia for preparing and snuffing a
hallucinogenic substance… The shaman often wears the canines and claws of the jaguar, which is the
supreme predator and the master of the forest.
SECTION 2.2
Hunting in perspective in a forest with a mind
“Perspectivism” is the term used for the Indians’ extraordinary ability to project themselves into another
creature’s situation and see things from its viewpoint. They might put themselves “in the place” of another
person, but they might also choose an animal (a jaguar as much as an insect), a spirit or any other thinking
being, in order to “see with its eyes” and “hear with its ears”. Whether they are hunting or performing
shamanic rituals or interpreting dreams, the Indians think several moves ahead, like chess players. A
hunter multiplies perspectives by imagining how he himself is seen by his prey, and how the animal is
devising a means of escape. A successful hunter must understand how he is seen and heard by a
particular animal. Appearances can be deceptive. A jaguar may be the visible form of a spirit; a peccary
may be a human being that has taken the shape of the creature hunted by the “masters of the forest”, and
so on. All the creatures of the forest think and interact in a complex system: the forest is alive, it has a soul,
it thinks, and acts on every being that dwells in it.
SECTION 2.3
Shamanic music
Sound and music are primordial for the Indians, who in general have a keen sense of hearing that is
trained from early childhood. In shamanic practices, the music may be made by just one person singing
and shaking a rattle. In other cases, there will be a whole group playing flutes, trumpets and clarinets. The
shamans are often ‘clairaudients’ who transmit the words and melodies they have heard from the spirits of
the forest. Among the Xingu Indians, in Brazil, some spirits communicate with each other through humans,
telling them what their songs mean, so they will be understood by the other spirits. They rely heavily on
wind instruments, which are remarkably diverse. Some conceal ingenious, complex mechanisms, which
can be seen by X-ray.
Sound stories
The way people relate to the universe and organise their experience of the world is linked to their
perception of it. In the West, sight and touch are the predominant senses. In Amazonia, hearing, and
therefore sound, is the privileged channel for the relationship with the environment. So from an Indian
perspective, sound (music, noises, etc.) enables men, spirits and animals to communicate with one
another.
The sixteen Sound Stories broadcast in the exhibition emphasise the importance of auditory perception in
Amazonia. They are short stories of everyday activities (a hunting or fishing expedition, basketry,
deforestation, etc.) or group rituals (initiation, naming, myths, etc.) told through sound.
The narratives of these stories are available as short texts on eMEG.
Claudia Andujar, a photographer among Yanomami shamans
The photojournalist Claudia Andujar met the famous Yanomami shamans for the first time in the early
1970s. Andujar was born in Switzerland in 1931 and immigrated to the United States in 1956. In the 1980s
she witnessed the devastation (epidemics and violence) caused by people panning for gold in the forest.
She then decided to live to Brazil and focus on the Yanomami. Her first major work, The Yanomami: The
House, The Forest, The Invisible, was published in 1998 and brought her international renown.
Amoahiki: the trees of the Yanomami shamanic songs
Visual artists Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima live and work in São Paulo. After a visit to the Yanomami
village of Watoriki, in the State of Roraima, they produced this installation, which recreates the experience
of images projected on to a screen of numerous layers of cloth, evoking the texture of the forest and the
presence of shamanistic spirits.
PART III
Hundreds of Amazonian peoples
The Amazonian peoples have much in common in their mythology, history, animist thinking and shamanist
practices. Yet their languages and cultures are diverse. In Brazil alone, the Indian population of 900,000 is
spread over 246 known ethnic groups, each speaking its own language.
From a cultural point of view, the groups are also distinguished by their form of social and political
organisation, their type of lifestyle (sedentary, nomadic or semi-nomadic), and whether or not they engage
in agriculture, because they all practise hunting, fishing and gathering. Distinctions are more easily seen in
their material culture, tools, weapons and body ornaments. An ensemble of objects from some thirty ethnic
groups gives insight into aspects of their immaterial culture, thought systems, mythical figures and social
practices.
SECTION 3.1
The Bororo people: reincarnation in a jaguar
The Bororo, with a population now under 2,000, live in a fragmented, degraded territory scattered over the
states of Goiás and Mato Grosso. Their territory used to extend into Bolivia. The Bororo were colonised by
the Jesuits in the eighteenth century, but in the nineteenth century they opposed the construction of a road
to Minas Gerais. The ensuing war lasted for more than fifty years, until their “pacification” by Marshal
Rondon and the establishment of reserves in 1902. In the 1970s, the struggle to protect their territory led to
new massacres.
The Bororo reassert the vitality of their society at each funeral ceremony. The dead person’s spirit is
reincarnated in an animal, sometimes a jaguar. Once the body has decomposed, the bones are washed
and decorated and a man is chosen to represent the deceased. Entirely covered with body paint and down,
and wearing an enormous crown with a plume of yellow feathers on his head, he comes to present the new
soul to the living. The ordeal of the jaguar hunt will enable the animal’s skin to be offered to the family of
the dead man, thereby signalling the end of mourning.
SECTION 3.2
Jivaroan-speaking peoples: the forest’s great hunters and warriors
Nearly 100,000 people speak a “Jivaroan” language. These Indian peoples, in particular the Aguaruna,
Achuar, Shuar and Huambisa, halted the northeast expansion of the armies of the Incan emperor, Huayna
Capac, in 1527. In the mid sixteenth century, Spanish Conquistadores from Peru looking for gold deposits
were also stopped in their tracks. In the seventeenth century, the Spanish Jesuit missions suffered such
heavy losses that the Crown banned them at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Now spread between
Ecuador and Peru, the Jivaro have been threatened since the 1980s by projects to exploit timber, oil and
mineral resources in the region.
The shaman still plays a key role in maintaining the cohesion of these societies. Strong shamanic practices
have assimilated many symbolic elements taken from the Catholic religion. During healing rituals, which
often involve a hallucinogenic drink called ayahuasca, the patient is put into a shamanist trance to restore
balanced and beneficial links with his surroundings.
SECTION 3.3
The Ka’apor people: shamans influenced by Brazilian-African cultures
During the first “pacification” campaign carried out by the Service for the Protection of the Indians in 1911,
the Ka’apor were considered to be the most hostile Indians in Brazil. They had avoided all contact for
nearly three centuries and clashed with the quilombos, villages of escaped African slaves, before being
hunted down by the National Guard in 1860-1870, then persecuted by the settlers in the state of
Maranhão. The group now numbers fewer than 1,000 individuals and is threatened by the spoliation of its
territory, a third of which is illegally occupied and exploited.
Some Ka’apor say that their shamans died long ago in a cosmic flood. Nonetheless, there are still
shamans among them, although their practices are influenced by the shamanism of a neighbouring group
and have Brazilian-African elements. They treat people for various ills and diseases, guide the hunters,
and foretell the future. The pajés (shamans) induce a shamanic trance by fasting and snuffing tobacco;
they are attended by apprentices and the village people during their sessions, which are generally held in
public.
SECTION 3.4
The Tukano peoples: cultivating images of metamorphosis in ritual life
The 12,000 Tukano Indians live in northwest Amazonia, along the Rio Vaupés, mostly in Colombia, but
also in Brazil and Venezuela. They form an archipelago of very small ethnic groups, which are culturally
and linguistically diverse. This diversity is due to their exogamous practices: a man is not allowed to marry
a woman who speaks his language. Marrying within his language group would be a form of incest, so
multilingualism is the norm.
The Tukano’s main ritual complex is yurupari. By reliving episodes from the myths and employing
numerous images of metamorphosis, it gives meaning to the relations between the sexes, explains
procreation and ensures the fertility of the group.
SECTION 3.5
The Ticuna people: known for its messianic movements
The Tikuna live in the remote areas along the border between Brazil, Peru and Colombia on the banks of
the tributaries of the upper Solimões. They are the biggest ethnic group in Brazilian Amazonia with a
population of 36,000 (8,000 in Colombia and 7,000 in Peru). Their language is an isolate in relation to the
major Amazonian linguistic groups. Before their rights were recognised by the Brazilian State in 1990,
these Indians were often violently attacked. The Helmet Massacre in March 1988 was one of the first cases
of genocide to be recognised by a Brazilian court.
The Ticuna Indians have strong animist beliefs and rituals using masks. The most important of the many
messianic movements that developed among them in the twentieth century began when a jaguar told a
child that the seringueira (rubber forest) would be flooded. The Indians then withdrew to higher ground,
where they built a traditional community house and planted the area around it.
SECTION 3.6
The Rikbaktsá people: a cycle of reincarnation shared by humans and animals
The Rikbaktsá were first contacted in the 1940s and by 1969 their population had shrunk by 75% to a mere
300. Decimated by flu and smallpox epidemics, and victims of repression, they were “pacified” by the
Jesuits between 1957 and 1962, through a program financed by the rubber planters who wanted to
develop the region with a minimum of losses. The Rikbaktsá now live along the Juruena in northwest Mato
Grosso, in two demarcated Indian territories which represent only a tenth of their original lands.
Their social organisation is modelled on animals and plants, divided into two complementary groups. The
exogamic “moieties” of Rikbaktsá society are associated with the golden parakeet and the macaw
cabeçudo, each further subdivided into different clans paired with animals of which they bear the name. In
this system of correspondences, animals, trees and plants are animated beings equivalent to human
beings, but with a different appearance. The spirits of human beings are believed to be incarnated in
different species. The myths also tell how people are sometimes permanently transformed into animals.
SECTION 3.7
The Munduruku people: the forest is the shamans’ pharmacy
This Tupi-speaking people lives in the State of Pará, on the Rio Tapajós, in theoretically protected
reservations (a population of 11,000 at the last census). Since the second half of the eighteenth century,
the Munduruku have been known by Europeans for their prowess as warriors. Their trophies of mummified
human heads and extraordinary feather ornaments were exhibited in Vienna, Berlin and Munich as early as
the 1820s. Owing to their rapid acculturation, their feather art had almost disappeared by 1890.
However, shamanism is still of prime importance. Munduruku shamans have an intimate knowledge of
medicinal plants and manage relations with the spirit world. They also fight against unauthorised gold
prospectors – although they are not averse to gold prospecting themselves – and the construction of
several dams on the Rio Tapajós which flows through their territory.
SECTION 3.8
The Xingu peoples: the masters of the forest communicate through human songs
In the State of Mato Grosso, about fifteen distinct ethnic groups make up a single social and cultural
ensemble known as Xinguanos. But, although their villages are similar, their languages are different and
each people has its specialisation: bows, pottery, basketwork… The Xinguano social system is held
together by a set of intertribal rituals.
The shamans organise rituals in which music is primordial, especially flute playing. The sacred flute is a
spirit which has taken material form and its music is the voice of the spirit. The aim of the rituals is to
transform the action of the apapaatai spirits, which cause harm and illness, into a source of protection. The
Xinguanos believe that the rituals nourish the spirits. It is as if the apapaatai spirits, by suggesting new
songs and new melodies to the various groups in the course of long musical cycles during interethnic
rituals were communicating with one another through the human musicians, in a great cycle of cosmic
communication.
SECTION 3.9
The Wayana people: animals live “in society” like people
The Wayana, a Carib-speaking people on the border of Brazil, Guiana and Suriname, number scarcely
more than 2,000 today. The Wayana believe in a reciprocal relationship between humans, animals and the
spirits of the forest: in the past, the sky and the earth were connected by a mountain, or a liana, and each
people originated in a specific territory.
Their myths tell that animals lived in society, like men, and were distinguished from them only by their
appearance. Animal species all have a master and live in known places. The most feared creature in the
forest is the jaguar, whose name, kaikuxi, is also used for the “masters” of other species. There are also
many spirits jorokó which live in the water and forests, some corresponding to recognisable animal
species, others to imaginary species such as the kaokakoshi or two-headed jaguar.
SECTION 3.10
The peoples of Upper Amazonia: animist thinking
The indigenous peoples of Upper Amazonia, in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, are numerous, culturally
highly diverse and demographically important. Apart from the Jivaro-speaking Indians, the best known
peoples are the Conibo Shipibo, the Ashaninka (Campa), the Kokama, the Xebero, the Yihamwo and the
Yagua. They share animist thinking, a rich mythology and shamanist practices with the Indians in the rest
of Amazonia. They are known to use hallucinogenic drugs.
SECTION 3.11
The Nambikwara people: magical finery for the shamans
The Nambikwara, estimated to have a population of 20,000 people, used to live in nomadic groups in the
south of the State of Mato Grosso at the source of the Juruena and Guapore rivers. They subsisted on
hunting and gathering, and slash-and-burn agriculture. Their traditional culture was destroyed by the
expansion of soy bean cropping. By 1990, their population had declined to below 1,000. Since then they
have survived as a marginal community fighting to protect what remains of their environment.
The shaman plays a leading role among the Nambikwara to keep them healthy and treat the sick. His
initiation involves a symbolic death in the forest. The spirits stun the initiate with a blow from a log or nick
him with an arrow. He is then given objects and ornaments and a spirit wife, who is described as a jaguar,
although the shaman sees her as human. She will go with him wherever he goes, and sit beside him to
support him. The objects given by the spirits are called “magic things” or “shamans’ things” because they
are seen only by the shamans, who make them visible during therapeutic sessions.
SECTION 3.12
The Kayapó peoples: the spirits of the forest name the children
The Kayapó are a group of six peoples who are among the best known of Brazil’s Indians. They have
attracted many anthropologists, particularly for the resilience of their culture and their leadership of militant
American Indian movements fighting for the recognition of indigenous lands. The cacique Raoni (literally
“female jaguar”) is one of their most famous spokesmen. The Kayapó number barely 7,000 today, although
there may be a few isolated uncontacted groups.
Their rituals are designed to socialise and domesticate nature. The shamans reveal the children’s personal
names to their parents. They enter into contact with the spirits of the forest who give them the names, and
the songs which go with them, which will be sung during the naming ceremonies. During these
ceremonies, each child is assisted by ritual “friends”, unrelated persons of both sexes, who are given the
task of helping the child through difficult times in its life.
The “great face” mask of the Tapirapé: the representation of an enemy
The Tapirapé came close to dying out in the 1950s, but their numbers have since increased. They belong
to the Tupi language group and often clashed with neighbours of a different origin, such as the Karajá and
the Kayapó. The cara grande masks are used in their war dances. The main episode is an enactment of a
battle against the Kayapó or the Karajá. It is performed by two masks and the men of the village and the
Tapirapé are always victorious.
SECTION 3.13
The Karajá: a people from the depths of the Araguaia River
Contacted by the Jesuits in 1658, the Karajá in the State of Tocantins have fought against the colonists on
many occasions since the mid eighteenth century in a bid to defend their territory. They practise
horticulture and fishing, and are distinguished by the Aruanã and Big House ceremonies, as well as their
basketry, feather art and pottery figurines. From 4,000 at the end of the nineteenth century, their population
still stood at nearly 3,000 in 2010.
The Karajá myth tells that this people once lived at the bottom of the river. Wanting to know what was
happening at the surface, a young Karajá found a passage on Bananal Island. Fascinated by the beaches
and the riches of the river, the young man persuaded the other Karajá to go with him. After a while they
met with death and disease. They tried to go home, but the passage was closed. They then made up their
minds to split up and settle either upstream or down along the Araguaia River. The current arrangement of
Karajá houses, villages and cemeteries along the Araguaia River still symbolically echoes the vertical
distribution of the peoples in the myth.
SECTION 3.14
Arawak- and Carib-speaking peoples: a string of spirits summoned up by the shamans
One of the Arawak-speaking peoples, the Palikur have always lived at the mouth of the Amazon, the “great
freshwater sea”, where they have been known as brave warriors and skilled navigators since the sixteenth
century. There are hardly more than 2,000 of them left today.
The Palikur recognise the existence of concomitant parallel worlds – in the heavens, underwater and
underground – where the shamans’ auxiliary spirits live: mountain spirits (imawi), polyglot spirits (imusri),
aggressive spirits (uruku), and devourers of human corpses (lobisomens). Other beings live there, too,
older, bigger and more powerful than the rest; they are the founders of an animal species or a natural
phenomenon and are regarded as the masters of a flock of creatures. In this other world they take human
form. It is only when they appear in the human world that they take animal form, as huge snakes, twoheaded vultures urubu , giant eagles, jaguars, etc. Among the neighbours of the Palikur, the Tiriyó, the
Oyampi, the Yekuana and the Kalina, the shamans are also in contact with a string of spirits.
SECTION 3.15
The Yanomami people: where all men are shamans
The Yanomami occupy an immense territory in Brazil and Venezuela, on both sides of Mount Parima. They
were relatively isolated and protected until the 1980s, but since then major economic development projects
have encroached on their territory and brought their load of epidemics. Their population went into rapid
decline and was estimated at 32,000 in 2015.
“Urihi” is a Yanomami term which refers to the forest, birth place and the world. It is a living being, with an
essential image (urihinari), a breath (wixia) and an immaterial fertility principle (në rope). Countless evil
beings (në waripë) lurk in the depths of Urihi; they hunt the Yanomami like game and the wounds they
inflict cause death and illness. The shamans are one of the pillars of Yanomami society, which they protect
from human and non-human dangers. Their initiation is a real ordeal. A powerful hallucinogenic substance
from the Virola tree is inhaled for several days under the watchful eye of the elders until the initiate
emerges from a virtual death, learns to see the spirits xapiripë, his future assistants, and to recognise their
songs.
VIDEOS
Amazonian Shorts
The eight short films, Amazonian Shorts, by Daniel Schweizer, use material that the filmmaker gathered
over a period of ten years for several feature films, including Dirty Paradise (2009), Barbare et Sauvages
(2012) and Dirty Gold War (2015), which drew attention to the plight of the Indians in the face of the
frenetic exploitation of Amazonia’s natural resources, by States as well as multinationals. The shorts relay
the alert given by many Indian peoples, represented by shamans and caciques. acting as their spokesmen.
PART IV
The peoples of Amazonia in the twenty-first century
Today the peoples of Amazonia have to come to terms with increasingly profound changes in their
environment. Although there are still a few isolated “uncontacted” groups, who avoid all contact with
newcomers (or Neo-Amazonians), many of them have become sedentary and lead a mixed modern and
traditional lifestyle. Here, as in other parts of the world, the indigenous peoples are faced with the loss of
their traditional practices and knowledge, which inevitably leads to poverty and dependence. Those who
have irretrievably lost the ancestral knowledge and skills developed in their own cultural history never really
master new value systems, whether proposed by the State or the Neo-Amazonians.
The struggle to preserve the natural environment and obtain recognition of their territorial rights are key
concerns for the indigenous organisations. The radio helped consolidate links between communities and
organise protest movements in the 1970s. Recently, new digital tools have spread through Amazonia,
enabling the Indians to broadcast their demands instantly, and far and wide.
Aurélien Fontanet, focusing on the future of the forest peoples
Aurélien Fontanet’s photographs (1982) are evidence of a commitment to the future of the peoples of the
Amazonian forest. With the encouragement of the ethnologist René Fuerst, the photographer accompanied
the filmmaker, Daniel Schweizer, on location in Amazonia. His photographs show continuities as much as
breaks in the Indians’ culture. Together, the three men founded Amazonian Memory, an association that
uses the visual arts to relay the Indians’ demands to the outside world.
The defence of a territory impacted by oil extraction and gold mining
For over forty years, Peruvian Amazonia has been subjected to intensive oil extraction operations. Vast
tracts of land, lakes and rivers are polluted by highly toxic waste water from oil drilling, and contaminated
by oil spills from poorly maintained pipelines.
The Federation of the Indigenous Communities of the Upper Tigre (FECONAT) has set up an environment
watch program to draw attention to this dramatic situation. Ten indigenous “observers” keep track of
contaminated sites. Equipped with smartphones, the “observers” take georeferenced photographs, which
they upload to on-line data bases. This material is used for anti-pollution campaigns aimed at the State, the
mining and oil companies involved and public opinion. After a commission of enquiry, the Peruvian
government decreed a state of environmental emergency, in 2014, and took measures to protect the health
of the local population. Similar programs are being successfully implemented in other regions of Peruvian
Amazonia faced with the exploitation of oil, gold and timber resources.
“A chance to speak out”
Equipped with smartphones, two young men from the Coordination of the Indigenous Organisations of
Brazilian Amazonia (COIAB) have travelled throughout Brazil to give the Amazonian peoples “a chance to
speak out”. The video portraits made by Délio Firmo Alves and Joelson Felix, in 2015-2016, show that the
destruction of the environment is a major issue for the American Indians. The aim of this joint project,
initiated by the MEG and the Movement for International Cooperation (MCI), is to familiarise the two
filmmakers with documentary tools so that they, in turn, will become “observers” of environmental impacts
in Amazonia.
Xapiri: capturing the shamanistic experience
Xapiri (2013) is a film that its makers present as an experimental documentary. It is also an art work. It was
directed jointly by the visual artists, Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima, communication specialists, Laymert
Garcia dos Santos and Stella Senra, and the anthropologist, Bruce Albert, who has devoted his life to the
Yanomami. The scenario grew out of their collaboration with the Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa. The
unlikely challenge was to capture the indescribable shamanistic experience in images for an audience with
no experience of it whatsoever.
PUBLICATION
Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest
Boris Wastiau
Paris : Somogy / Geneva: MEG
208 pages, 2016
o
N ISBN: 978-2-7572-1117-5
Price: 39 CHF
On sale in the MEG shop
A reflection of the exhibition "Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest" at the Musée
d'ethnographie de Genève (MEG), this book is an introduction to shamanism, animist thought and the
mythology of traditional Amazonian societies. By presenting ritual and prestige objects, brightly coloured
feather finery, weapons used for hunting and warfare, as well as musical instruments, it illustrates the
refinement of the ritual arts of the Amazonian Indians. Brilliant studio photographs of these objects, by
Johnathan Watts, are complemented by excellent and often unpublished field photos, by Kroehle and
Huebner, Daniel Schoepf, Gustaaf Verswijver, René Fuerst, Daniel Schweizer, Claudia Andujar and
Aurélien Fontanet among others, most of which are in the MEG's collections; they provide a sensitive
picture of the everyday life and rituals of the Amazonians up until 2016. After an overview of the tragic
history of the Indians since the conquest, the author shows how, thanks to the adaptability of their
mythology and their rituals, the chiefs, shamans and their peoples have managed to preserve their
unbelievable cultural diversity and unmatched refinement in feather art.
CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction
Five centuries of ethnocide
The origins of Amazonia
American Indian origin myths
From early settlement to the European conquest
In the heart of the contacts
Accounts of the Conquest
Exploitation, missions, a veritable ethnocide
The resilience of the American Indians
Amazonian collections in Geneva
Early collections by enlightened enthusiasts
The time of historical collections
From shamanism to the mind of the forest
Shamans, hybrid beings in an animist world
The shamans' paraphernalia for taking hallucinatory drugs
Hunting: predation and ecology
Shamanic music and Amazonian soundscapes
Linguistic and cultural diversity in Amazonia
The Wayana-Aparai people
The other Arawak- and Carib-speaking peoples
The Kayapó peoples
The Bororo people
The Karajá people
The Rikbaktsá people
The Ka’apor people
The Munduruku people
The "Xinguanos", peoples of the Xingu
The Nambikwara people
The Yanomami people
The Ticuna people
The Tukano people
"Jivaro"-speaking peoples
The peoples of Upper Amazonia
American Indian shamanism in the 21st century
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
CONTRIBUTIONS
Director of the MEG
Curator of the exhibition
Boris Wastiau
Project leadert
Philippe Mathez
Concept and research
Chantal Courtois
Alessia Fondrini
Madeleine Leclair
Aurélie Vuille
Denise Wenger
Scenography and lighting
mcbd architectes, Geneva:
Bernard Delacoste
Marcel Croubalian
Laura Macchioni
Sara Dell’osa
Graphic design
Jocelyne Fracheboud, Paris
Sound stories (sound installation)
Madeleine Leclair
Bernd Brabec de Mori
Matthias Lewy
Nicolas Field
MEG workshop
Jean-Pierre Wanner
Marco Aresu
Gianni Leonelli
Frédéric Monbaron
Basile Calame
Julien Calame
Eduardo Garcia
Marcel Hofer
Mateo Ybarra
Conservation-restoration workshop
Isabel Garcia Gomez
Lucie Monot
Camille Benecchi
Kilian Anheuser
Pedestals
Aïnu, Gentilly
Multimedia applications and e-MEG
Grégoire de Ceuninck
Photography
Johnathan Watts
English translation
Isabel Ollivier, Paris
Visitor unit
Mauricio Estrada Muñoz
Cultural and scientific mediation
Lucas Arpin
Adriana Batalha Martin
Julie Dorner
Denise Wenger
Exhibition catalogue
Geneviève Perret
Johnathan Watts
Published by: Somogy Éditions d’art, Paris
Audioguide
Julie Dorner
Production:
Acoustiguide France, Paris
Visitor's booklet
Denise Wenger
Illustrations and graphics:
Mirjana Farkas
Fred Fivaz
Communication and promotion
Laurence Berlamont-Equey
Poster
Saentys Communication Ltd, Genève
Guided tours
Séverin Bondi
Ignacio Cardoso
Sylvia Graa
Hugo Hemmi
Evelyne Hurtaud
Reception
Karen Tièche and her team
Library
Maria Hugo and her team
Administration
André Walther and his team
Control and security
Stéphane Ravat and his team
Lending institutions and museums
Bibiothèque cantonale et universitaire, Lausanne
Bibilothèque de Genève
Conservatoire et jardin botaniques, Geneva
Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo
Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima, São Paulo
Musée d’histoire naturelle, Berne
Muséum de Genève
The MEG would particularly like to thank:
Bruce Albert, IRD, Paris
Claudia Andujar, São Paulo
Monica Arpin, Geneva
Jacques Ayer, Muséum de Genève
Nora Bammer, University of Vienna
Jean-Michel Beaudet, Université Paris Ouest-Nanterre La Défense, Paris
Marcia Bechara, Paris
Pierrette Birraux, DOCIP, Geneva
Sandra Bischoff, CMAI, Ville de Genève
Beatrice Blöchlinger, Musée d’histoire naturelle, Berne
Bernd Brabec de Mori, University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz
Jacques Burkardt, Burkardt Agencement sàrl, Geneva
Patrick Burri, Serrurerie des z’Ateliers, Geneva
Éliane Camargo, Université Paris Ouest-Nanterre La Défense, Paris
Ignacio Cardoso, Geneva
Sylvain Chaboz, Skynight, Satigny
Philippe Christen, Université de Genève
Alice Cibois, Muséum de Genève
Catherine Claude, Amazonian Memory, Geneva
Bernard Comoli, Geneva
Maximiliano Correa Menezes, COIAB, Brazil
Silvio Corsini, Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire, Lausanne
Sylvian Cretton, Université de Genève
Nicolas Déage, Cellule Santé et sécurité, Ville de Genève
Dimitri Delcourt and David Hodgetts, Geneva
Michel Dind, Cinémathèque suisse, Penthaz
Pierre Dubois, Meyrin
Thierry Dubois, Bibliothèque de Genève
Eric Doue, Ébénisterie Scheeberger, Petit-Lancy
Nicolas Eslava, RCS Global, London
FECONAT, Peru
FECOHRSA, Peru
Joelson Felix, COIAB, Brazil
Luis Fernandez, Madrid
Nicolas Field, Geneva
Délio Firmo Alves, COIAB, Brazil
Aurélien Fontanet, Amazonian Memory, Geneva
René Fuerst, Geneva
Marcos Gallon, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo
Aurélien Garzarolli, Actinic, Geneva
Magali Gaugy, Rodolphe Haller SA, Geneva
Laurent Gautier, Conservatoire et jardin botaniques, Geneva
Didier Grange, Archives de la Ville de Genève
Eric Henry, ACR, Carouge
Jonathan D. Hill, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Diane Hope, Flagstaff
Gabriel Hunger, Geneva
Ricarda Kopal, Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv des Ethnologischen Museums, Berlin
Getuar Kurti, Geneva
Helmut Kowar, Phonogrammarchiv ÖAV, Vienna
Jérôme Lacour, Université de Genève
Matthias Lewy, PPGMUS, Universidade de Brasilia
Pierre-André Loizeau, Conservatoire et jardin botaniques, Geneva
Luis Lopez-Molina, Université de Genève
Gilbert Martin-Guillou, Cabestany
Nicolas Mathieu, Commission suisse pour l’UNESCO, Berne
Marcondy Mauricio de Souza, Université fédérale de São Carlos, São Paulo
Bertrand Mazeirat, Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva
Julio Mendívil, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main
Patrick Menget, Survival International, Paris
Antoine Mersch, ShowTex, Burcht
Damien Molineaux, C-Side Productions, Geneva
Xavier Montet, Hôpitaux universitaires de Genève
Juan I. Montoya-Burgos, Université de Genève
Gisela Motta et Leandro Lima, São Paulo
Jeremy Narby, Porrentruy
Isabel Ollivier, Paris
Richard Mathys, Remarq SA, Vernier
Patrick Myard, Remarq SA, Vernier
Serge Noël-Ranaivo, Ocora Radio France, Paris
Olivier Oberson, PhotoRotation, Geneva
Stéphane Pennec, Aïnu, Gentilly
Jorge Petitpierre, DPBA, Ville de Geneva
Sylvie Petter, SEQUOYA, Brazil
Richard et Sally Price, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg
Emerson F. Queiroz, Université de Genève
Philippe Richard, Atelier Richard, Petit-Lancy
Bruno Righetti, CMAI, Ville de Genève
Barbara Roth, Bibliothèque de Genève
Fabio Rossinelli, Lausanne
Manuel Ruedi, Muséum de Genève
Andreas Schlothauer, Schwabstedt
Daniel Schoepf, Geneva
Daniel Schweizer, Amazonian Memory, Geneva
Katell Sinou, Aïnu, Gentilly
Fred Stauffer, Conservatoire et jardin botaniques, Geneva
Aurélien Stoll, Mouvement pour la coopération internationale, Geneva
Franz Treichler, Geneva
Alexandre Vanautgaerden, Bibliothèque de Genève
Gustaaf Verswijver, Brussels
Valentino Viredaz, Déclaration de Berne, Lausanne
Hanny Weber-Guillod, Marcellaz-en-Faucigny
The MEG cordially thanks all the people, institutions and companies whom we have not mentioned who
contributed in some way or other to the exhibition, program and catalogue.
Media partners
Tribune de Genève
Léman Bleu
Connaissance des Arts
Tribal Art Magazine
The exhibition is placed under the patronage of the Swiss Commission for UNESCO.
KEY INFORMATIONS
Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest
20 May 2016 - 8 January 2017
Temporary exhibition
Press conference
Wednesday 18 May 2016 at 10 am
MEG
Vernissage
Thursday 19 May 2016 at 6 pm at the MEG
6 pm, official speeches
9.30 pm, DJ set by El Hombre Caiman
10 pm, Video mapping by Cyril Meroni & 9th Cloud in collaboration with the Mapping Festival
10.30 pm, performance live by Jhon Montoya
Opening for the public
Friday 20 May 2016 at 11 pm
CD
A CD presenting the sound stories broadcast in the exhibition will be published in June 2016.
EXHIBITION OUTSIDE
THE WALLS
Colours of Amazonia
28 April - 15 December 2016
In connection with “Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest” at the MEG, a selection of
photographs by the MEG’s photographer, Johnathan Watts, will be travelling around Geneva.
The MEG’s photographer, Johnathan Watts, goes so close that the subject is sometimes hard to decipher,
but by focusing on detail he takes us deep into nature and reveals the object’s soul. He uses the technique
of macro photography and his sharp colourful prints are a reminder of the close bond between the Indians
and the Amazonian forest.
The photographer explains that he seeks to “go further than the whole object, to go beyond its function and
enter into its very structure”. His photos explore forms and animal and plant materials taken from the
luxuriant Amazonian rainforest.
A travelling exhibition is an opportunity to reach people who seldom set foot in a museum. As the
photographs focus on objects on display in the exhibition, they invite passers-by to take a poetic look at the
MEG’s Amazonian heritage.
Johnathan Watts has been the MEG’s official photographer since 1993. He worked in advertising
photography in London from 1983 to 1992 and specialized in photographing objects. He has participated in
many exhibitions at the MEG, such as The Moche Kings. Divinity and Power in Ancient Peru, and The
Fires of the Goddess. Myths and Rituals in the Kerala Region. He has also contributed to several
publications on the MEG’s collections, including Dreams, Bark Paintings of the Australian Aborigines;
Medusa in Africa, The Sculpture of Enchantment and Vodou, an Art of Living. Johnathan Watts has carried
out assignments in Africa and South America, as well as India, where he made two documentary films on
the sacred arts of the Kerala region.
KEY INFORMATIONS
Colours of Amazonia
Exhibition of photographs outside the walls
Vernissage
Thursday 28 April 2016 at 6 pm
Quai Général Guisan, 2-14
The exhibition will be shown successively at several venues in the city of Geneva from 28 April to 15
December 2016:
1.
2-14 Quai Général Guisan (mid April to end May
2.
Covered railway in the St Jean quarter (June to mid July)
3.
Plaine de Plainpalais (mid July to mid August)
4.
Parc des Bastions (mid August to mid September)
5.
Mont Blanc pedestrian precinct (mid September to mid October)
6.
Promenade Saint Antoine (mid October to end November)
7.
Quai du Rhône (until mid December).
PRACTICAL
INFORMATION
MEG
Musée d’ethnographie de Genève
Bd Carl-Vogt 65-67
1205 Genève
T +41 22 418 45 50
E [email protected]
www.meg-geneve.ch
Open from Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am to 6 pm
Closed on Mondays, 25 December and 1 January
Bus
| Tram
Admission 9/6 CHF
Free admission on the first Sunday of the month. Free for visitors under 18.
Information:
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Audioguides are available at the reception desk.
CONTACT
Boris Wastiau
Director of the MEG
T +41 22 418 45 49, +41 79 311 49 02
E [email protected]
Laurence Berlamont-Equey
Head of Communication
T +41 22 418 45 73, +41 79 66 183 66
E [email protected]
The MEG (Ethnography Museum of Geneva) is a public institution which was founded by the Genevan anthropologist
Eugène Pittard (1867-1962) in 1901. The museum curates objects illustrating human culture throughout history. It has a
collection of some 80,000 works and a library with over 50,000 documents on world cultures. The MEG also houses a
unique music library, the Archives internationales de musique populaire (AIMP), with over 16,000 hours of folk music
recordings; the core of the archives is a collection of over 3,000 hours of historic recordings amassed by Constantin
Brăiloiu between 1944 and 1958. Admission to the permanent display of a thousand objects from the five continents is
free. The MEG also offers the public a cultural and scientific outreach programme, concerts, film and lecture cycles and
stage shows. Since October 2014, the MEG has had a new building in which to display its riches. It was designed by the
Zurich firm Graber & Pulver Architekten and stands on the site occupied by the MEG since 1941.
A selection of objects in the exhibition
Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest
1.
Men’s ceremonial headdress me-àkà
Brazil, State of Pará, Rio Chiché
Kayapó Mekrãgnoti. 1960s-1970
Parrot feathers, cotton. H 15 cm, Ø 22cm
Acquired from the ethnologist Gustaaf Verswijver in 1975
MEG Inv. ETHAM 040861
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
2.
Headdress wirara or akangatar, men’s ceremonial finery
Brazil, Rio Gurupi, State of Maranhão, village of Javaruhú
Ka'apor. Mid 20th c.
Yellow oropendola feathers Psarocolius, black curassow feathers Crax, scarlet macaw
feathers Ara macao, pigeon down, cotinga skin Cotinga cayana, cotton. H 53 cm, W 31 cm
Acquired from the anthropologist and biologist Borys Malkin in 1966
MEG Inv. ETHAM; 033453
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
3.
Pair of armband ornaments pachik
Brazil, State of Pará, Upper Rio Paru
Wayana. 1960s
Red macaw feathers Ara macao, white hen feathers Gallus domesticus, yellow toucan
feathers, wood, plant fibres, resin. H 53//53 cm, W 19/22 cm
Mission of the ethnologist Daniel Schoepf in 1971MEG Inv. ETHAM 036949
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
4.
Necklace
Brazil, State of Mato Grosso, village of Meruré
Bororo. 1960s
Feathers, plant fibres. H 25 cm, W 17 cm
Acquired from the Salesian missionary Renato Maltoni in 1976; collected in 1971
MEG Inv. ETHAM 038749
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
5.
Necklace
Peru? Ecuador? Colombia? Upper Amazon Basin
Late 19th-early 20th c.
Jaguar canines, monkey incisors, cotton. Ø 23cm
Gift of Frédéric Dusendschön in 1960; formerly in the collection of Oscar Dusendschön,
rubber planter in Manaus, 1890-1914
MEG Inv. ETHAM 029491
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
6.
Club
Brazil? State of Goiás? State of Mato Grosso? Pará? Tocantins?
Kayapó Irã’ãmranh-re? Late 19th-early 20th c.
Carved wood, handle sheathed with basketwork of plant fibres. L 137 cm, W 8 cm
Gift of Frédéric Dusendschön in 1960; formerly in the collection of Oscar Dusendschön,
rubber planter in Manaus, 1890-1914
MEG Inv. ETHAM 029788
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
7.
Arm ornament marachi-omsik ¨
Brazil, State of Roraima, Upper Demini, Rio Tootobi
Yanomami. 1950s
Red macaw feathers Ara macao, green mealy amazon feathers Amazona farinosa?, wood,
plant fibres. H 63 cm, W 27 cm
Acquired from the ethnologist René Fuerst in 1963.
MEG Inv. ETHAM 032049
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
8.
Ear pendants
Brazil, State of Mato Grosso, village of Meruré
Bororo. 1960s
Mother-of-pearl, plant fibres, feathers. L 6/6 cm, W 4/3 cm
Acquired from the Salesian missionary Renato Maltoni in 1976; collected in 1971
MEG Inv. ETHAM 038743
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
9.
Ant mat kunana used during initiation or healing rites
Guiana, Upper Maroni, village of Ouaquil
Wayana. 1950s
Red, blue and yellow toucan feathers Ara macao, black curassow feathers Crax alector, white
hen feathers Gallus domesticus, basketwork, palm fibre miriti, resin. L 76 cm, W 50 cm
Gift of Henri Dormond in 1961
MEG Inv. ETHAM 030588
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
10. Mask ype or cara grande
Brazil, State of Mato Grosso, Rio Tapirapé, Rio Araguaya
Tapirapé. Mid 20th c.
Wood, reed or palm stalk, yellow and blue macaw feathers Ara ararauna, unidentified blue and
red feathers, mother-of-pearl, tucum nuts, beeswax, resin, clay-coated dyed cotton, plant fibres.
H 134 cm, W 109 cm
Acquired from the anthropologist and biologist Borys Malkin in 1966
MEG Inv. ETHAM 033549
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
11. Women’s ceremonial necklace tukaniwar or tukadjura
Brazil, State of Maranhão, Rio Gurupi, village of Javaruhú
Ka'apor. Mid 20th c.
Yellow toucan feathers, red cotinga feathers Cotinga ouette, skin of passerines, cloth, cotton.
H 46 cm, W 20 cm
Acquired from the anthropologist and biologist Borys Malkin in 1966
MEG Inv. ETHAM 033454
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
12. Mask hood
Brazil-Colombia-Peru border region, Leticia
Ticuna. 1927-1934
Tapa made from tururi, Ficus radula or Couratari legalis. H 44 cm, W 32.5 cm
Gift of the diplomat Carlos Garcia-Palacios in 1935
MEG Inv. ETHAM 015003
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
13. Headdress
Ecuador
Omagua? Kokama? Late 19th-early 20th c.
Macaw and toucan feathers, down, cotton. H 44 cm ; W 38 cm
Gift of Frédéric Dusendschön in 1960; formerly in the collection of Oscar Dusendschön,
rubber planter in Manaus, 1890-1914
MEG Inv. ETHAM 029647
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
14. Quiver, poisoned darts, cotton bag
Guyana, Rio Tacutu
Pemón. Late 19th-early 20th c.
Basketwork, black gum, wood, cotton, tow, fragments of the jawbone of a small animal. H 28 cm
Gift of Frédéric Dusendschön in 1960; formerly in the collection of Oscar Dusendschön,
rubber planter in Manaus, 1890-1914
MEG Inv. ETHAM 029796
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
15. Crown with a crest and pendant kandela worn for hunting
Guiana, Lower Rio Oyapok
Palikur. 1940s-1950
Feathers, wood, reed, plant fibres, cotton, scarab elytra. H 102 cm, W 35 cm, D 70 cm
Gift of the zoologist Henry Larsen in 1956
MEG Inv. ETHAM 025431
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
16. Basket containing cashew nuts
Suriname
Caribbean? Early 19th c.
Basketwork using plant fibres yamaïe, cashew nuts. H 29 cm, Ø 17 cm
Gift of Louis Pictet to the Academy Museum in
MEG Inv. ETHAM K000252
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
17. Exhibition "Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest"
Scenography by MCBD Architectes, Geneva
Photo : © MEG, J. Watts
18. Exhibition "Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest"
Scenography by MCBD Architectes, Geneva
Photo : © MEG, J. Watts
19. Exhibition "Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest"
Scenography by MCBD Architectes, Geneva
Photo : © MEG, J. Watts
20. Exhibition "Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest"
Scenography by MCBD Architectes, Geneva
Photo : © MEG, J. Watts
21. Exhibition "Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest"
Scenography by MCBD Architectes, Geneva
Photo : © MEG, J. Watts
22. Exhibition "Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest"
Scenography by MCBD Architectes, Geneva
Photo : © MEG, J. Watts
23. Exhibition "Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest"
Scenography by MCBD Architectes, Geneva
Photo : © MEG, J. Watts
24. Exhibition "Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest"
Scenography by MCBD Architectes, Geneva
Photo : © MEG, J. Watts
25. Exhibition "Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest"
Scenography by MCBD Architectes, Geneva
Photo : © MEG, J. Watts
26. Exhibition "Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest"
Scenography by MCBD Architectes, Geneva
Photo : © MEG, J. Watts
27. Exhibition "Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest"
Scenography by MCBD Architectes, Geneva
Photo : © MEG, J. Watts
28. Exhibition "Amazonia. The Shaman and the Mind of the Forest"
Scenography by MCBD Architectes, Geneva
Photo : © MEG, J. Watts
Images available in high definition on:
www.ville-ge.ch/meg/presse.php
Photos from the exhibition
“Colours of Amazonia”
1.
Men’s ceremonial headdress me-àkà
Brazil, State of Pará, Rio Chiché
Kayapó Mekrãgnoti. 1960s-1970
Parrot feathers, cotton. H 15cm, Ø 22 cm
Acquired from the ethnologist Gustaaf Verswijver in 1975
MEG Inv. ETHAM 040861
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
2.
Arm ornament marachi-omsik
Brazil, State of Roraima, Upper Demini, Rio Tootobi
Yanomami. 1950s
Red macaw feathers Ara macao, green mealy amazon feathers Amazona farinosa?
wood, plant fibres. H 63 cm, W 27 cm
Acquired from the ethnologist René Fuerst in 1963
MEG Inv. ETHAM 032049
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
3.
Crown kroua-pou
Brazil, State of Pará, Upper Itacayúnas
Kayapó Xikrin. 1950s-1960s
Japu and macaw feathers, reed, cotton, plant fibre
Acquired from the ethnologist René Fuerst in 1966
MEG Inv. ETHAM 033381
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
4.
Ceremonial mask
Brazil, Upper Xingu, Posto Vasconcellos
Kamaiurá. 1950s
Palm fibre buriti, cotton. H 103 cm, W 50 cm
Gift of Gérard Baer in 1960
MEG Inv. ETHAM 028550
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
5.
Pubic cover tanga
Brazil, State of Pará, Upper Paru de Oeste
Tiriyó. 1960s-1970
Glass beads, seeds, cotton. L 42 cm, W 26 cm
Acquired from the explorer Pierre Dubois in 1973
MEG Inv. ETHAM 037399
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
6.
Part of a headdress wao
Ecuador or Peru
Jivaro (Aguanruna, Achuar, Shuar, Huambisa). Late 19th-early 20th c.
Jewel beetle elytra Buprestidae, cotton, red and yellow toucan feathers
Ramphastos cuvieri and culminatus, hair. L 55 cm
Gift of Frédéric Dusendschön in 1960; formerly in the collection of Oscar Dusendschön,
rubber planter in Manaus, 1890-1914
MEG Inv. ETHAM 029650
Photo: © MEG, J. Watts
Images available in high definition on:
www.ville-ge.ch/meg/presse.php