Part of Ceremonial Costume: Feather Skirt
date: label: Accession Date
content: 20 Jul 1892
name: label: Donor Name
content: U. S. Department of the Navy
notes: label: Notes
content: From Card: "Skirt or petticoat of the Jivaro Indians, made of feathers on a foundation of bark cloth, worn by the high chiefs of the tribe only on occasions of festivities. The barkcloth forming the foundation of the garment is made from the inner bark of a large tree called by the Indians 'llanchama'. The bark is soaked in water for 2 or 3 days and then pounded on flat, smooth stones. Unlike the tapa of the Pacific Islanders, no paste is used in the manufacture of the llanchama cloth. It resembles felt, and consists of but one layer. // In sewing the pieces of the skirt together the fibre of 'pita' (Agave sp.) is used. // The feathers ornamenting the garment are furnished by the 'Cock-of-the-rock' (Rupicola peruirana), a bird with soft orange-red plumage; and a species of toucan with white breast margined with red, yellow upper tail coverts and deep-red lower tail coverts. The rest of the bird's plumage is black. Thus it will be seen that each tuft of yellow or of red feathers represents one entire bird, just as each of the small tufts of yellow feathers forming the royal robes of the Hawaiian kings represents the life of a sacred 'Oo'."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 2 Dec 2014
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Peru, South America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Aguaruna (Awajún) (?)
label: Culture
content: Jivaro (Shuar) (?)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 025958
label: USNM Number
content: E164684A-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Skirt