1945.7.30

Collection type

Object

Description

Neck ornament of strung armadillo bones, bird beaks, and parrot feathers, with eight toucan skins and one whole bird attached (possibly a black-necked red cotinga or female cock-of-the-rock).

Geographical reference

Peru

Latin America and the Caribbean > South America > Peru

Northern Peru Upper Santiago River

Cultural groups

Achuar

Shiwiar

Person

Field collector Ronald Hawkesby Thomas

PRM source Ronald Hawkesby Thomas

Date / Period

Date made: Before 07/1945

Date collected

By 1945

Acquisition information

Found unentered: 07/1945

Materials and processes

Material Bird Bone, Material Bird Beak, Material Bird Skin, Material Bird Feather, Process Strung

Dimensions

Length: max 250 mm red bird, Width: max 1160 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1945.7.30

Research and responses

The central red bird in this ornament was identified in March 2022 by Jefferson Acacho (a leader of the Shuar federation in Zamora, Ecuador) as a female "gallo de la pena", also known as Rupicola peruvianus or "sunka" in Shuar. Acacho also identified the blue feather tufts as a parrot or parakeet called "guacamayo" and the bone is likely armadillo, although the bones of many animals are used to make necklaces like this. The toucans are known as "tsukanka" in Shuar. Information provided to the Museum by Rosa Dyer.

To b referred to in Birds and People, by Mark Cocker: 'There is an extraordinary example from the Jivaro people of eastern Peru in the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford, UK) that incorporates 19 upper mandibles from toucans and eight near-intact skins of Channel-billed Ramphastos (vitellinus) culminatus and Cuvier’s Toucans Ramphastos cuvieri, not to mention great lengths of hollow bird bone and the single skin of a Black-necked Red Cotinga.' [JC 10 12 2012]

Search terms: Ornament, Neck Ornament