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1903.19.62

Five white rhea feathers.

1903.19.62

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Collection type
Object
Description
Five white rhea feathers.
Cultural groups
Enxet
Person
Field collector Andrew Pride
Field collector South American Missionary Society
PRM source Andrew Pride
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1903
Date collected
By 1903
Acquisition information
Donated: 1903
Materials and processes
Material Bird Feather
Object numbers
Accession number: 1903.19.62 Other numbers: Pride catalogue 41
Research and responses

Rosa Dyer, a CDP student at Birkbeck College/Pitt Rivers Museum, notes that this is a rhea feather. Such feathers were often described as "ostrich" by Europeans visiting South America, but this almost certainly refers to Rhea americana. Rhea feather ornaments are visible in Andrew Pride's photograph collections (such as 1998.253.18.2, 1998.253.19.6, and 1998.253.19.7). Pride was with the Enxet at the same time as John Graham Kerr. Rosa visited the Enxet community in 2022 and it seemed that featherworks are no longer worn or made in the community. One elder said in explanation that “there are no birds here”.

Search terms: Ornament, Hair Ornament

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