Museum of the National Bank of Belgium

To mark the Europalia Brasil festival, the NBB’s Museum is holding an exhibition under the banner “Of gold and feathers”. Presented as an important value system for the native Indians of the Amazon basin, the feathers also feature predominantly in the rituals and ceremonies which govern their day-to-day lives and play a key role in these Indians’ identity. Spotlight on some of the practices of a tribe that is given particular prominence at this exhibition: the Kayapó.

The name Kayapó means “those who look like monkeys”. This name, which has been known since the 19th century, is that given to the Kayapó people by neighbouring tribes. It originates from certain rituals in which men used to wear a monkey mask. However, they prefer to call themselves Mebêngôkre, meaning “the men from the water hole/place”.

How and where the Kayapó live

Nowadays, the tribe occupies the Rio Xingu valley, a region around the southern tributary of the Amazon river in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará. Since the arrival of the colonizers, several sub-groups have been established, with splits often being caused by the choice of how relations are conducted with “white man”. They are scattered about quite deeply in the forest and live in little circular villages arranged around a central plaza. Even today, some of these groups choose to live their lives completely cut off from the outside world.

Like most Indians, the Kayapó keep a close relationship with the surrounding nature. In their view, everything that the universe is made up of is intimately linked, indissociable. Each and every thing only exists through the relationship it has with other things; so it is important to maintain a degree of harmony between the different constituent parts. The rituals and ceremonies that they carry out will therefore always keep a direct link with nature and will primarily aim to smooth tension between the men and spirits (the deceased, animals, etc.) that populate the world.

The village is regarded as the centre of the universe, the only socialised place. By definition, everything that can be found outside this place, and has no name, is synonymous with danger. It is the natural habitat of animals and above all of spirits that the Kayapó fear the most. Since they are particularly abundant at night and likely to inflict terrible woes on mankind, this goes some way to explaining why the Kayapó are afraid of the night. In order to prevent their social space from being overrun by the natural and wild domain, numerous ceremonies are held featuring jewellery and costumes, songs and dancing in order to establish a constant link with nature and to ease people’s minds.

The Kayapó attach great importance to language, to names and to oratory practice. Besides, they describe themselves as “those who speak well” in order to distinguish their tribe from other peoples. The areas outside the village that they visit frequently (hunting zones in the forest, fields, etc.) become socialised by being given a name.

The importance of names can be found in the so-called naming ritual. At birth, the child is given several names: ‘common’ names, borrowed from nature or an animal, and ‘beautiful’ names, inspired by ceremonial elements. The ritual itself takes place between the ages of 2 and 8 years so as to confirm the different names and enable children to develop their own identity and become human beings in their own right. For this kind of ceremony especially, the Kayapó organise huge banquets and cover their bodies with temporary tattoos, using plants like Genipa which gives the appearance of a henna tattoo. The motifs are systematically inspired by elements from natural sources (tortoiseshell, insects, …). Through the naming ritual and their decorations, the Indians, who have a highly developed aesthetic sense, become mereremex or “people who extend their beauty”. In their minds, this is the “real nature”of beauty that comes from both within, through the attribution of a name and thus the socialisation of the soul, and from the exterior via tattoos and ornaments. But this ritual can in fact be a source of danger since, apart from mentioning a name borrowed from nature (which is therefore dangerous), ancestors’ ghosts can snatch away the child’s spirit at any moment in time.

To feed the village, the men are responsible for hunting and fishing, which occasionally takes them deep into the heart of the jungle. Given the huge amount of food needed, their expedition can sometimes last for several weeks. Upon their return, the men start chanting songs devoted to the spirits of the animals killed so as to beg them to stay in the wild. The women’s job is to supply the village with sweet potatoes, manioc and fruit, etc. by cultivating plots of land outside the village. For the whole time spent outside the village, they smoke tobacco, because spirits are afraid of smoke. Likewise, before leaving their fields, they blow and spit out their smoke all around themselves to chase away any spirits that might follow them back to the village. This action is as effective as the chanting by the men as they return from hunting.

From the arrival of the first settlers up to the present day, the Indians have been seriously affected by forestry and mining activity, intensive livestock and arable farming, as well as the construction of hydroelectric dams. Not only has their cultural integrity been harmed, but their territory has been encroached upon too. In the face of such damage to their people, it is not surprising that the Kayapó are amongst the most active tribes on the political front. Amidst a blaze of publicity in the media, one of the Kayapó chiefs, Raoni, put himself forward as a mouthpiece for the Amazon Indians’ demands. In the prestigious company of rock star Sting, he went on a world tour in the 1990s to raise global awareness of the indigenous peoples’ cause.

Jean-Christophe Caestecker
Museum Guide

Bibliography

• BOURGEOIS Catherine, “Amazonie, le peuple oublié des Kayapo” sur Terre sacrée, 10 June 2005. http://terresacree.org/kayapo2.htm, consulted on 14/10/2011.
• VERSWIJVER Gustaaf, Kayapó, Indigenous Peoples in Brazil. http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/kayapo/186 . Consulted on 18/10/2011.
• VERSWIJVER Gustaaf, “The role of birds and their feathers in shaping the South American Indian’s ideal human being” in Of gold and feathers – Exchange and value systems in Brazil, exhibition catalogue, p.87-117.
• Le Vif l’express, ” Indiens d’Amazonie. Passé-présent-avenir”, out of print