Photographer: Lars Malareck | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
XINGÚ Catalogue: Wooden mask Masks of South American indigenous peoples Catalogue: Wooden mask This one-piece wooden mask (Munotsi, monotsi) with a large nose and protruding forehead, to which a bast hood is attached, represents the caiman. The eyes are pierced in the centre with black over-modelled river shells, while the mouth is replaced by a glued-on piranha set of teeth. The main part of the face is painted white. A halved black mereshu pattern runs out with its tip between the mouth and nose, and an asymmetrical black mereshu cheek pattern with an arched side border, each connected to the eyes by a black line, completes the ornamental picture, which is emphasised by the black forehead section of the mask. The asymmetry is probably due to the fact that the Native American placed the mereschus individually next to each other and did not yet use a schematic division of space. Entry historical file card: Mask, painted white and black. Meresu cheek pattern. Entry in the main historical catalogue: Mask, white and black Meresu cheek pattern Jakare
