South America, Brazil, Amazon Basin, Mato Grosso region, Rikbaktsa people, ca. late 20th century CE. A gorgeous ceremonial headdress made from colorful bird feathers secured to a woven rattan band of bamboo with a cotton cord. The feathers were plucked from white egrets, the mottled yellow / blue and small red feathers from macaws, the long iridescent green-black plumes are likely Orinoco goose, and the small black are probably from a curassow. It would have taken quite a number of birds to make a single headdress, and the precious macaws were likely plucked and released, and other semi-domesticated birds were likely kept for this purpose. This headdress is mounted in a modern wood and glass frame as a gorgeous display piece! Little is known about the Rikbaktsa people outside of their oral history and mythology; the tribe remained isolated until the 1940s and 1960s. Size of headdress: 16" Diameter (40.6 cm); frame: 22" L x 22" W (55.9 cm x 55.9 cm)

Compare to a headdress in the Penn Museum collection (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) object number: 89-1-16.

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Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection

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#184911

Some fraying to feather tips, especially white egret feathers, otherwise intact and excellent. Mounted in modern wood and glass display frame.