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PAINTED JAGUAR HIDES OF THE BORORO DA CAMPANHA

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CHRISTIAN FEEST
PAINTED JAGUAR HIDES OF THE BORORO DA CAMPANHA
The research on which this contribution is based would not
have been possible without the assistance of numerous cu-
rators, conservators, archivists, and other personnel in the
museums holding the material and photographic documents
here discussed. The author wishes to express his gratitude to
Doris Kurella (Linden-Museum, Stuttgart), Claudia Augusta
(Weltmuseum Wien), Richard Haas, Katharina Kepplinger, and
Anja Zenner (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin), Alexander Brust
(Museum der Kulturen, Basel), Héctor Lahitte (Museo da La
Plata), William Wierzbowski and Alexander Pezatti (University
of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology),
Klaus Kästner and Iris Edenheiser (both formerly of the Staat-
liche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen), René Payne
(Denver Museum of Nature and Science), and Aivone Carvalho
Brandão and Viviane Luiza da Silva (both formerly of the Museu
das Culturas Dom Bosco, Campo Grande). Earlier versions of
this paper were presented in lectures at the Völkerkundemu-
seum der Universität Zürich and at the Institut für Ethnologie,
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; the discussions on
these occasions were helpful for the clarification of some of my
arguments.
Lindenmuseum_Inhalt_2014_CN_14_08_07.indd 82-83
Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 83
On 7 May 1936 the Linden-Museum Stuttgart acquired from Patty Frank (1876-1959), then head of the Karl-May-Mu-
seum in Radebeul, a Yup’ik caribou-teeth belt from the Yukon River region in Alaska and a painted jaguar hide from
“Tierra del Fuego” in exchange for a Crow shield and a number of other artifacts from the North American Plains. This
transaction was initiated by Frank, who was single-mindedly attempting to improve the quality of the North American
Indian collection in Radebeul. That the Linden-Museum accepted in exchange two undocumented items may speak for
Frank’s salesmanship, but given the rarity of jaguars in Tierra del Fuego the new acquisition may have been thought to
be especially valuable. Identified only in 2012 as a painted jaguar hide of the Bororo da Campanha, this piece turned
out to be of particular interest not only because of the small number of such items in the world’s museum collections,
but also because of the evidence it supplies pertaining to the history, ethnography, and social organization of the Bororo.
Bororo da Campanha
Thanks to the works of Karl von den Steinen, Claude Lévi-Strauss, the Salesian missionaries Antonio Colbacchini, César
Albisetti, and Ángelo Jayme Venturelli, as well as numerous ethnographers in their wake, the Bororo have become one
of the best-studied indigenous groups of Brazil. The focus of this research has been on the Bororo of the São Lourenço
River region, generally referred to as Eastern Bororo (or Orarimogodoge), as opposed to the “Western Bororo” including
the various little-known groups collectively designated as “Bororo do Cabaçal” (on both sides of the Cabaçal and between
the Cabaçal and the Sepotuba) and the “Bororo da Campanha” along the lower Jauru and the Paraguai in the northern
Pantanal (Fig. 1).
Wordlists recorded by the Austrian zoologist and pioneer ethnographer Johann Natterer between 1825 and 1828 from
speakers of Eastern Bororo, Bororo da Campanha (Biriboconé), and Bororo do Cabaçal, however, indicate that the Bo-
roro das Campanha spoke a dialect of Eastern Bororo, whereas the Bororo do Cabaçal (Aravirá, [Par]arioné, and perhaps
others) spoke one or more distinctive Western Bororo language(s) (Viertler and Ochoa 2014) linguistically related to
Eastern Bororo perhaps at about the same level as Umutina and Otuke. Natterer was told that the Bororo da Campanha
(Biriboconé) had formerly lived at S. Pedro d’El-Rei (the present Poconé southwest of Cuiabá, until 1781 known as
“Ipocuné” or “Biripoconé”); by the 1790s, the growth of the neo-Brazilian population of S. Pedro d’El-Rei to about
2,000 may have triggered the move of the Bororo da Campanha to the region between the lower Jauru and the right bank
of the Rio Paraguai (Kann 1989:108; Natterer 2014:208; Viertler and Ochoa 2014; Anonymous 1857:196, 200, 202,
279). However, already in 1770 a bandeira under Salvador Rodrigues Siqueira was sent to look for the “Beripoconêzes”
and “Araripoconé” either in the vicinity of the Lagoas Uberaba and Gaiba or in the sertões between these two lakes, Cui-
abá, and Vila Bela. This may indicate that the Biriboconé had moved from Ipocuné (Poconé) to the Rio Paraguai prior
to 1770 – even though the bandeira only encountered and captured 43 Araripoconés (Lopes de Carvalho 2012:167,
424). At the time of the first ethnographic descriptions made by Natterer and, shortly thereafter, by Hercules Florence
07.08.14 13:48

The research on which this contribution is based would not
have been possible without the assistance of numerous cu-
rators, conservators, archivists, and other personnel in the
museums holding the material and photographic documents
here discussed. The author wishes to express his gratitude to
Doris Kurella (Linden-Museum, Stuttgart), Claudia Augustat
(Weltmuseum Wien), Richard Haas, Katharina Kepplinger, and
Anja Zenner (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin), Alexander Brust
(Museum der Kulturen, Basel), Héctor Lahitte (Museo da La
Plata), William Wierzbowski and Alexander Pezatti (University
of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology),
Klaus Kästner and Iris Edenheiser (both formerly of the Staat-
liche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen), René Payne
(Denver Museum of Nature and Science), and Aivone Carvalho
Brandão and Viviane Luiza da Silva (both formerly of the Museu
das Culturas Dom Bosco, Campo Grande). Earlier versions of
this paper were presented in lectures at the Völkerkundemuse-
um der Universität Zürich and at the Institut für Ethnologie,
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; the discussions on
these occasions were helpful for the clarification of some of my
arguments.
Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 85
On 7 May 1936 the Linden-Museum Stuttgart acquired from Patty Frank (1876-1959), then head of the Karl-May-Mu-
seum in Radebeul, a Yup’ik caribou-teeth belt from the Yukon River region in Alaska and a painted jaguar hide from
“Tierra del Fuego” in exchange for a Crow shield and a number of other artifacts from the North American Plains. This
transaction was initiated by Frank, who was single-mindedly attempting to improve the quality of the North American
Indian collection in Radebeul. That the Linden-Museum accepted in exchange two undocumented items may speak for
Frank’s salesmanship, but given the rarity of jaguars in Tierra del Fuego the new acquisition may have been thought to
be especially valuable. Identified only in 2012 as a painted jaguar hide of the Bororo da Campanha, this piece turned
out to be of particular interest not only because of the small number of such items in the world’s museum collections,
but also because of the evidence it supplies pertaining to the history, ethnography, and social organization of the Bororo.
Bororo da Campanha
Thanks to the works of Karl von den Steinen, Claude Lévi-Strauss, the Salesian missionaries Antonio Colbacchini, César
Albisetti, and Ángelo Jayme Venturelli, as well as numerous ethnographers in their wake, the Bororo have become one
of the best-studied indigenous groups of Brazil. The focus of this research has been on the Bororo of the São Lourenço
River region, generally referred to as Eastern Bororo (or Orarimogodoge), as opposed to the “Western Bororo” including
the various little-known groups collectively designated as “Bororo do Cabaçal” (on both sides of the Cabaçal and between
the Cabaçal and the Sepotuba) and the “Bororo da Campanha” along the lower Jauru and the Paraguai in the northern
Pantanal (Fig. 1).
Wordlists recorded by the Austrian zoologist and pioneer ethnographer Johann Natterer between 1825 and 1828 from
speakers of Eastern Bororo, Bororo da Campanha (Biriboconé), and Bororo do Cabaçal, however, indicate that the Boro-
ro das Campanha spoke a dialect of Eastern Bororo, whereas the Bororo do Cabaçal (Aravirá, [Par]arioné, and perhaps
others) spoke one or more distinctive Western Bororo language(s) (Viertler and Ochoa 2014) linguistically related to
Eastern Bororo perhaps at about the same level as Umutina and Otuke. Natterer was told that the Bororo da Campanha
(Biriboconé) had formerly lived at S. Pedro d’El-Rei (the present Poconé southwest of Cuiabá, until 1781 known as
“Ipocuné” or “Biripoconé”); by the 1790s, the growth of the neo-Brazilian population of S. Pedro d’El-Rei to about
2,000 may have triggered the move of the Bororo da Campanha to the region between the lower Jauru and the right bank
of the Rio Paraguai (Kann 1989:108; Natterer 2014:204; Viertler and Ochoa 2014; Anonymous 1857:196, 200, 202,
279). However, already in 1770 a bandeira under Salvador Rodrigues Siqueira was sent to look for the “Beripoconêzes”
and “Araripoconé” either in the vicinity of the Lagoas Uberaba and Gaiba or in the sertões between these two lakes,
Cuiabá, and Vila Bela. This may indicate that the Biriboconé had moved from Ipocuné (Poconé) to the Rio Paraguai
prior to 1770 – even though the bandeira only encountered and captured 43 Araripoconés (Lopes de Carvalho 2012:167,
424). At the time of the first ethnographic descriptions made by Natterer and, shortly thereafter, by Hercules Florence
86

Fig. 1 The Bororo da Campanha and their relatives.

Grey triangles represent the known Bororo da Cam-
panha villages between the 1820s and 1930s, black tri-
angles Eastern Bororo villages of the twentieth century
mentioned in this essay, and the white triangle the only
known village of the Bororo do Cabaçal, documented
in the 1840s.

1
Probably in 1825, when Father José Maria de Velasco came
to Cuiabá on behalf of Governor Sebastián Ramos of the Bo-
livian province of Chiquitos to surrender this province to the
Empire of Brazil, Natterer received from him information on the
(1875-1876) as a member of the Langsdorff expedition, the Bororo da Campanha had already been “pacified” and were indigenous inhabitants of Chiquitos (Natterer 1825). According
living on the fazenda of their conqueror, João Pereira Leite, in one or more villages near Cáceres (Pão Seco, Caiçará) to Natterer’s notes there were about 2500 Bororos, Otukes, Gua-
nás, and Zamucos living in the region of Santo Corazón, about
and in Cambará near Jacobina on land owned by Francisco Correia. In 1847 Antonio Leverger, a future president of
the same number of Bororos, Zamucos, and Guanás in San
the province of Mato Grosso, noted that the fazenda Caiçará had more or less fallen into disuse and that the Bororo da José, and again more or less the same number of Bororos and
Campanha as well had moved south to near “Escalvado” where they occupied a village of about 150 or 200 “tame and Potureros (Mortôkô) in San Juan [Bautista]; San Matías is not
peaceful” inhabitants who were living from hunting and fishing and the cultivation of corn, manioc, and cotton. Others mentioned. It may be noted that Castelnau (1853:pl. 20) says
that the Bororo living in the Campos Allegre southeast of San
were living on the Rio Corixa Grande on Bolivian territory (Leverger 1862:294-296) in a village identified a few years
Matías had formerly inhabited the Rio Jauru and Rio Paraguai
earlier by the French explorer Francis Laporte de Castelnau (1853:pl. 20) as San Matías. It is likely that San Matías was and had “in part been conquered by D. Sebastian Ramos.”
inhabited by refugees from the oppression suffered by the Bororo da Campanha at the hands of their fazendeiro.1
2
The present Descalvado is often referred to by the Spanish
name “Descalvados” because the fazenda was owned between
In 1894 Julio Koslowsky (1895) draws a shocking picture of the exploitation and abuse of Bororo da Campanha living
1881 and 1895 by a rancher from Uruguay who also operated
at Laguna between Cáceres and Descalvado2 by the Leite family. The last published record was provided by the American a factory for the production of jerky meat that in 1895 was
anthropologist Vincent Petrullo (1932), just a few years before two villages of the Bororo da Campanha at the confluence bought by a Belgian company (http://www.jornaloeste.com.
br/?pg=noticia& idn=13361). Because of the amenities available,
of the Rio Paraguai and Rio Jauru were destroyed “with fire and sword”; in 1999/2000 some descendants of the Bororo
unusual for a location in the Pantanal, Descalvdo also attracted
da Campanha were found near San Matías, but most had lost or were concealing their indigenous identity and unlike many naturalists who made it the headquarters for their
the Eastern Bororo did not occupy a reservation (Ochoa 2001:21-22). expeditions.

Fig. 2 Eastern Bororo man standing in front of a
suspended jaguar hide painted with the pattern aije
atugo (“painting of the wooden bullroarer”) belong-
ing to the Aroroe clan. Color print after a drawing
by Erwin Freundt executed in 1941 in Tori-paru
(Freundt 1947: pl. 15).
3
A number of unpainted jaguar and ocelot hides were
collected by Richard Rohde as “sleeping mats” among the Bo-
roro da Campanha (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin, cat.nos.
VB1325-1327, VB1411-1412).
Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 87
Anthropologists have tended to neglect the data collected among the Bororo da Campanha as referring to the much
longer extinct Western Bororo or have dealt with them as the earliest information available on “the Bororo.” The evidence
available, however, indicates that within a few generations after separating from the Eastern Bororo (or, more correctly,
before the consolidation of those who became the Eastern Bororo in the São Lourenço basin) they exhibited a cultural
distinctiveness that needs to be taken into account when interpreting the information collected among them.
Painted Jaguar Hides of the Eastern Bororo
Although the painted jaguar hides of the Bororo are outstanding examples of indigenous South American hide paint-
ing, they have so far been discussed primarily in connection with the mortuary rituals of the Eastern Bororo in which
they play a major role, with a focus on the symbolic meaning of the hides themselves, rather than on their painted
decoration (e.g., Caiuby Novaes 1981, 2006). Even more surprising is the fact that the ethnographic information
on their meaning and use is of comparatively recent date and in many respects almost exclusively limited to the data
assembled in the monumental Enciclopédia Bororo, in which the term adugo biri (adugo, ‘jaguar’ [Panthera onca], biri,
‘skin, hide’) is explained as referring to (1) jaguar hides in general and (2) to their use as sleeping mats (Albisetti and
Venturelli 1962:2, 356). The likewise spotted hides of the much smaller ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) are called aipobureu
biri, were painted in red only in a manner corresponding to adugo biri but not associated with the latter, whereas the
skins of the cougar (Puma concolor), designated as aigo biri, are said to have been used in almost completely the same
manner as the adugo biri. The aigo biri and aipobureu biri were as well used as sleeping mats (Albisetti and Venturelli
1962:14, 28-29). It seems that no specimens of painted ocelot or cougar hides of the Bororo have survived in museum
collections.3
Karl von den Steinen (1894:491, 494, 502), to whom we owe the first major ethnography of the Eastern Bororo, does
not mention painted jaguar hides, although he quotes Waehneldt (1864) on the “jaguar hide dance” of the Bororo da
Campanha (for which see below) and notes that jaguar hides were used as gifts to the relatives of the deceased. In his
description of the marido dance of the Eastern Bororo, Vojte˙ch FricË observed that some of the dancers were wearing
“tiger hides, with geometrical figures painted on their backs” (FricË and Radin 1906:386) – the earliest reference to their
use among the Eastern Bororo. Merely in passing Claude Lévi-Strauss (1976:305, 313) notes the use of jaguar hides
in the ceremonies for the dead, but does not mention that they were painted. No painted jaguar hides were included in
the extensive ethnographic collections assembled by von den Steinen, FricË, and Lévi-Strauss.
Strangely enough, even Colbacchini and Albisetti (1942), who reproduce an account by their major informant Tiago
Aipobureu of the ceremonial hunt and the subsequent ceremonies, do not mention that the hides were painted, nor does
the word for painted jaguar hides appear in their Bororo vocabulary. The earliest depiction of the painted jaguar hides
88

of the Eastern Bororo, together with notes on their ceremonial use appear in the work of the artist Erich Freundt
who in 1941 had visited the Bororo village Tori-paru (Freundt 1947:12-19; cp. Feest and Silva 2011:196; Fig. 2).

While among the Eastern Bororo the killing of a jaguar is often a matter of individual bravery, in the context of the cere-
monial hunt (the “Hunt of the Souls”) a man designated as “New Soul” representing a recently deceased person seeks to
kill a jaguar as retribution for the relatives of the dead person, who receive from the hunter the hide, teeth, and claws of
the animal. The hunter himself has the privilege of piercing along the edge of the hide the holes used for stretching it by
means of cords passing through these holes and tied to four sticks rammed into the ground. By sewing the forelegs to the
head, removing the hind legs, and cutting off a major part of the tail, a more or less rectangular shape is achieved from
which the head protrudes as a smaller rectangle (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:2-5).4 After having stretched and dried the
hide either before or during the Feast of the Predators (see below), the flesh side of the hide is painted by applying black
and red pigment (pastes based on charcoal and urucu) in conventionalized patterns. The painting is done rather quickly
by using the fingers for the application of the pigment and a stick as a ruler for drawing the longer lines. The designs are
the property of specific clans, and thus the pattern chosen for the decoration of the hide is either that of the clan of the
owner or one that he may be entitled to use in exchange for services rendered to members of other clans (Albisetti and
Venturelli 1962:236-237, illustrations on p. 15 and 230).

Very little is known about the actual use of the painted hides. During the Feast of the Predators they are first displayed in
public, then ornamented at its edges with macaw feathers (adugo enawu), and finally exchanged by the “New Soul” for
a bow, arrows, a ceremonial shawm made from a gourd, names, and other privileges owned by the clan of the deceased
(Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:5, 7, 228, 230-235). Caiuby Novaes (1981:29; 2006:30) reports that the hide is passed by
4
Freundt’s images erroneously show the hides without
the oldest man of the clan to all the other male members of his kinship group who sleep on it for a couple of nights before
these adjustments.
it is returned to the ultimate owner. After the death of a person, the jaguar skin owned by him and “considered the most
valuable of all objects” is among the few items not destroyed, but is ultimately wrapped around the basket containing the 5
The census of Bororo objects in Brazilian collections com-

cleaned and decorated bones of the deceased prior to their final disposal (Caiuby Novaes 1981:30; 2006:31). This piled by Grupioni (1991) lists “couros” (hides) only as household
goods and not as ceremonial attire in the collection assem-
may explain, at least in part, the small number of Eastern Bororo painted jaguar hides in museum collections, nearly all
bled since 1948 by the Salesian fathers Zavattaro, Albisetti, and
of which remain unpublished.5 Venturelli and now preserved in the Museu das Cultural Dom
Bosco in Campo Grande, where in fact two or three painted ex-
amples are known to exist (see below). There are reports about
Notwithstanding the observation by FricË cited above on their appearance in a marido dance (one of the best known
their presence in the Museo do Índio in Rio de Janeiro, but they
Bororo dances,performed both as part of the mortuary ceremonialism and independently of it), they are not mentioned are not listed in the museum’s online data base. Brotherston
by Albisetti and Venturelli (or any other authority) as being among the regalia used in any Bororo dance, although they (2001:243, note 1) refers to a modern example in the Museu
reproduce a picture in which a jaguar skin is worn during the Kurugugoe Aroe (a representation of the caracara falcon) Rondon, Cuiaba, whose designation ikuie adugo was not recorded
by Albisetti and Venturelli (1962).
(Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:152). It should be noted that here as well as in other images the (painted) flesh side of
the hide is displayed on the outside.6 6
An exception is provided by Kozák (1963:43) who shows a
hide being worn with the fur side outside.

7 A recent publication in Portuguese and Bororo (Bordignon
2010:30, 95) features two Eastern Bororo children’s drawings of
three painted jaguar hides (enogujeba atugo, ato atugo, boko-
dori bo coreu). The drawings appear to be mostly derived from
the illustrations in Albisetti and Venturelli (1962) and add noth-
ing new.
8 There are some differences in the “ideal” plan of a Bororo vil-
lage recorded for Meruri by Albisetti and Venturelli (1962:436),
Dorta (1981:22), and Carvalho (2006:154) as well as for Corrego
Grande by Zarur (1991:30), mostly affecting the Tugarege half
of the village.
Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 89
In the dances of the Eastern Bororo in which souls, spirits, ancestors, or mythical being are personified, the jaguar is
characterized by red body paint with black, stamped patterns imitating the spots on the animal’s fur (Albisetti and Ven-
turelli 1962:122-124).
In order to understand the ownership of the painted patterns found on Eastern Bororo jaguar skins, it will be necessary to
present at least a thumbnail sketch of their social organization. Eastern Bororo society was ideally made up of eight mat-
riclans, each subdivided into three subclans and associated with two exogamous moieties (Tugarege and Ecerae). Villages
reflected this structure by the circular arrangement of the houses inhabited by the subclans, divided along an East-West
axis into the two moieties and surrounding a plaza with the men’s house it its center. While the subclans, designated as
“upper,” “middle,” and “lower” are situated next to one another on the Ecerae side, there has been some rearrangement
of their sequence in the Tugarege half of the village, most probably as a result of the vagaries of the demographic history
of the tribe. The same cause may be adduced to explain the curious fact that the designation of the westernmost Ecerae
clan, Baadojebage Cebegiwuge, actually means “lower Baadojebage” and suggests that they once may have been the lower
subclan of the easternmost clan, the Baadojebage Cobugiwuge or “upper Baadojebage.”
Albisetti and Venturelli (1962:234-239) have described 13 of the “principal types” of the painted designs of the Eastern
Bororo jaguar skins and have illustrated nine of them (seven as stylized drawings and two as photographs of original
specimens).7 Fig. 3 presents an ideal plan of a Bororo village and the correlation between the clans and the designs owned
by them.8
A. Ecerae moiety
1. Baadojebage Cobugiwuge (Upper Builders of the Village): the design consists of parallel vertical lines and is called
enogujeba atugo (“body painting of the spirit Enogujeba”) (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:237. 239). Enogujeba also
designates a small fish, while Enogujeba Ecerae is the name of the middle subclan of the Baadojebage Cobugiwuge
(Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:565). In the face painting known as enogujeba atugo the alternating black and red vertical
lines are reduced to a small square beneath both eyes (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:302).
2. Bokodori Ecerae (Giant Armadillos): the design bokodori bo coreu akirireu (“black painting of the carapace of
the giant armadillo with white down”) belongs to the upper subclan of the Bokodori Ecerae (Albisetti and Venturelli
1962:238). It is the only design related directly to the name of the clan. It differs from the bokodori bo coreu of the Kie
only by having the design outlined with white down. No information is available on the designs owned by the middle
and lower subclans of this clan, but the upper subclan also owns a variant of the design known as bokodori bo kujagureu
(“red painting of the carapace of the giant armadillo”).
90

Fig. 3 Plan of an ideal Eastern Bororo village show-

ing the patterns of painted jaguar hides associated
with the clans. Both the village plans and the painted
patterns are based on Albisetti and Venturelli (1962).

Fig. 4 Basic structure of the Eastern Bororo jaguar
hide paintings associated with particular clans (left)
and the deviant pattern okoge bakororo atugo (“paint-
ing of a variety of dourado”) without any known clan
affiliation (right).
Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 91
3. Kie (Tapirs): the bokodori bo coreu (“black painting of the carapace of the giant armadillo”) consists of horizontal lines
to which short vertical lines are attached below (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:236-238). The body and face paintings
used in the ceremonial representation of both the bokodori bo kujagureu and the bokodori bo coreu correspond to the
designs on the jaguar skin paintings and are owned by Bokodori Ecerae (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:141-143, 300).
4. Baadojebage Cebegiwuge (Lower Builders of the Village): Albisetti and Venturelli (1962:237-239) identify three
designs as belonging to this clan, two of which they also illustrate. The iwara arege e’dugo (“body painting of the spirits
Iwara Arege”) differs from the buregodureuge e’dugo (“body painting of the spirits Buregodureuge”) only by the fact that
the rows of hourglass shapes are hatched rather than solid. The designs correspond to the body and face paintings used
in the representation of these spirits in ceremonial dances, which are also owned by the Baadojebage Cebegiwuge and
represented by members of the Aroroe (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:144-148, 300, 384). As a design found on penis
sheaths in either red or black, the buregodureuge e’dugo is a privilege of the lower Baadojebage Cebegiwuge (Albisetti and
Venturelli 1962:198). The third design (kogaekogae-doge e’dugo) is said to represent the body painting of the spirits Ko-
gaekogae-doge, but neither the design on the jaguar hide, nor the body painting of the respective spirits (owned by the
upper Baadojebage Cebegiwuge) is described or illustrated (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:150). It is tempting to think
that the three designs could have been associated with the three subclans. The Baadojebage Cebegiwuge is the only clan
with three designs, although the three variants of the giant armadillo design now shared by the Bokodori Ecerae and Kie
may in the past also have formed a similar set.
B. Tugarege moiety
5. Paiowe (Howler Monkeys): the design consists of rows of squares and is called ato atugo (“painting of the carapace of
the tortoise”) (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:236-237).
6. Apiborege (Acuri Owners): Albisetti and Venturelli identify the design shown in a drawing as aroe eceba o-iaga atugo
(“painting of the tail feathers of the harpy eagle”). A photograph of a painted hide shows a design differing only in the
number of squares attached to two vertical lines, which is identified as kuruguwa o-iaga atugo (“painting of the tail
feathers of the yellowheaded caracara”) (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:235, 237, 238; Fig. 5).
7. Aroroe (Maggots): the aije atugo (“painting of the wooden bullroarer”) consists of two columns of squares subdivided
by a cross into four small squares and is said to imitate the design found on certain bullroarers (Albisetti and Venturelli
1962:234, 237). The design is also used in the body painting in representations of the aije, a mythical feline animal who
taught the Aroroe the manufacture of wooden bullroarers, and is said to represent in a stylized manner the spotted fur of the
jaguar; as a design for bullroarers it is used by the upper Baadojebage Cebegiwuge (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:17-
92

Fig. 5 The pattern aroe eceba o-iaga atugo (a) is

said to represent the tail feathers of the harpy eagle, the
kuruguwa o-iaga atugo (b) those of the yellowheaded
caracara. Both are owned by the Apiborege clan.

Fig. 6 Variants of the bokodori bo-type: bokodori

bo coreu (a, after Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:236);
bokodori bo coreu (b, Museu das Culturas Dom Bosco,
ETBO 531384); bokodori bo kujagureu (c, Museu das
Culturas Dom Bosco, ETBO 583624).

9 A hide of the ato atugo-type illustrated by Carvalho
(2006:34) may also be from the collections of the Museu das
Culturas. Its design is similar to but not identical with the pat-
tern illustrated by Albisetti and Venturelli (1962:336). Carvalho
(mis)identifies the hide as a “barege,” the Bororo word for “wild ani-
mals” (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:229).
10
In view of the fact noted above that FricË mentioned the use
of painted jaguar hides in connection with the marido dance, it
may be more than a coincidence that Natterer also observed a
marido at Pão Seco at the time when he collected the painted
hide (Natterer 2014:209).
Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 93
21, 24-25, 298, 382). Freundt (1947:15; Fig. 2) illustrates a variant of this type with dots inside the small squares in
the upper register.
8. Iwagudu-doge (Crows): the aroia atugo (“body painting of the spirits Aroia”) combines the rows of hourglass shapes of
the buregodureuge e’dugo and the rows of squares of the ato atugo (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:235, 237).
Albisetti and Venturelli (1962:238-239) further illustrate a design called okoge bakororo atugo (“painting of a variety
of dourado”) whose pattern deviates from the usual cross-shaped subdivision of the pictorial field; no information
on clan ownership is supplied (Fig. 4).
Based on the limited evidence available it is difficult to draw a final conclusion regarding the amount of variation found
in the designs. The two specimens preserved in the Museu das Culturas Dom Bosco in Campo Grande are of the bokodori
bo-type, one of them kujagureu (red), the other coreu (black).9 A comparison with the bokodori bo coreu illustrated by
Albisetti and Venturelli shows substantial variation in the number of rows and in the number and shape of the vertical
lines or squares (Fig. 6). The variation even surpasses that of the related aroe eceba o-iaga atugo and kuruguwa o-iaga atugo
designs (Fig. 5), making it obvious that especially the number of the repetitive elements has no significance whatsoever
and that the speculations by Brotherston (2001, 2006) based on these numbers are unreasonable. This is supported by a
comparison between the drawing of the buregodureuge e’dugo and the photograph of one used in a Feast of the Predators
(Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:228, 238) and a similar pair of bokodori bo coreu (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:234, 236).
Six Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha and their Uses
While the evidence for the painted jaguar hides of the Eastern Bororo, their function, meaning, and association with
specific clans is largely based upon the data recorded by Albisetti and Venturelli (1962) six such hides from the Bororo
da Campanha, accompanied by little or no contextual information, have been preserved in museum collections. Dating
from between 1827 and 1931, all of them are older than two (or three) Eastern Bororo hides in the Museu das Culturas
Dom Bosco. In the following section, the collection histories of the six Bororo da Campanha hides and the information
associated with them will be presented, before their stylistic attributes are defined and a comparison with the Eastern
Bororo data is attempted.
By far the oldest of these specimens (Fig. 7) was obtained by the Austrian naturalist Johann Natterer (1787-1843)
between September 1825 and March 1828, most likely in October 1827 at Pão Seco, when he was able to witness
Bororo dances and recorded the term for the dew claw rattles and the palm-leaf skirts used with the painted hides
(Natterer 2014:199, 205).10 The item is described on an undated draft list prepared by Natterer as “1 jaguar hide, serves
94

Fig. 7 Painted jaguar hide (“aduga böli”), probably

collected in October 1827 among the Bororo da Cam-
panha of Pão Seco by Johann Natterer (Weltmuseum
Wien, 890). 150 by 108 cm. Photograph: Atelier Kunst-
historisches Museum, Wien.

Fig. 8 Painted jaguar hide collected in October 1884

among the Bororo da Campanha of Lagoa Grande near
Descalvado by Richard Rohde (Ethnologisches Museum
Berlin, VB1324). 142 by 104 cm. © Staatliche Museen zu
Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum / Claudia Obrocki.

for reposing on it and is tied at dances around the neck and hangs over the back, with the hairy side to the inside.
Ade – means jaguar. Adugå böli,”11 and on the shipping list of the items received in Vienna in November 1830 as “1
jaguar hide serves for reposing on it and is at dances hung around the neck Adugå böli, of the Bororòs da Camp[anha].”
The draft list also adds information the use of these hides in connection with the description of a leg rattle made of the
dew claws of deer (butolé):12 “This on the occasion of their dances is wrapped several times around the leg above the
ankle and tied, which causes a dreadful rattling. At such times they have the hide of a jaguar hanging around the neck
and over the forehead they bind frontally some strings with horsehair, which hangs over the face.” Natterer collected
numerous examples of two types of artifacts made of either human or horsehair, both called by him ae or aeae (‘hair’): 11 Cp. Eastern Bororo adugo biri (Albisetti and Venturelli
(1) long, braided strings, “which they wrap around the wrist to deflect the bowstring,” and (2) fringes of hair suspended 1962:2). In Natterer’s Bororo da Campanha word lists he fre-
from a string that were either “tied to the forehead, so that the hair is hanging over the hair of the head,” “placed on quently recorded an “l” where Eastern Bororo has an “r”.
the back of the head to increase even more their already thick hair,” or (as in the quotation above) used as masks when
12
Butóre is glossed by Albisetti and Venturelli (1962:530) as
dancing with the jaguar hide (Natterer 2014:205, 214, 216; Feest 2012:86). While the strings (ae, e term also referring
the “designation of a certain rattle of the claws of the peccary”;
to human and feline hair, felines, and palm leaves; or aopega, ‘old hair’) play an important role in the funerary rituals Natterer collected such rattles made either of the claws of deer
of the Eastern Bororo (Caiuby Novaes 1981) and are either used as wrist guards or wrapped around the head (Albisetti or of peccary (Feest 2012:95).

Fig. 9 Drawing by Richard Rohde showing a Bororo
da Campanha dancer attired for the “Fararu dance.” He
is wearing a headdress of a vertical bundle of macaw
feathers, a skirt of palm leaves, and dew claw leg rattles,
all of which were also used in the Jaguar dance, as were
the plain gourd rattles. The feather crown worn in front
of the vertical feathers is of a different type. Photo cour-
tesy Ethnologisches Museum Berlin – SMPK.
Fig. 10 Drawing by Richard Rohde including a depic-
tion of the rear view of the vertical headdress of macaw
feathers to which is attached the snake-skin back orna-
ment used in the Jaguar dance. Photo courtesy Ethno-
logisches Museum Berlin – SMPK.
Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 95
and Venturelli 1962:10, 419), the second type appears to be unknown among the Eastern Bororo, as is the substitution
of horsehair for human hair.
The piece was published, together with a feather headdress, in a manner suggesting that the painted side was worn next
to the body by Peter Kann (in Feest 1980:263), contrary to Natterer’s (then still unknown) observation that it was the
fur side that was worn next to the body. Steinle (2002:66-69) contextualized the object in terms of the ethnographic
data from the Eastern Bororo, while Brotherston (2001, 2006) offered an audacious cosmological interpretation of the
meaning of its design, combining data on the Eastern Bororo with pure speculation; Brotherston also incorrectly claims
that the painted hide had reached Vienna before 1823 and that Natterer was a forerunner of Darwin and Wallace (Broth-
erston 2001:243). The object was also illustrated in Feest (2012:88).
In 1860 Rodolfo Waehneldt visited a village of about 140 Bororos da Campanha near the southern end of João Carlos
Pereira Leite’s fazenda Cambará close to the confluence of the Jauru and Paraguai rivers. Although not assembling
any (known) collection, Waehneldt made some observations relevant to our subject: “In the jaguar-hide dance men
96

and women take part, the latter can never see the jaguar hide, which one of them is wearing on his back, who by his
movements at every step seeks to show it to the women. The dance, which consisted in imitating the customs of their
ancestors, was a bit heavy and accompanied by chants in a language different from that of today.” We can only assume
that the hide was painted, and the fact that this is not mentioned may be an indication that it was worn with fur side
outside, thus making the painted inside less conspicuous.

It may be significant that the author distinguished this dance from “a more melancholic and sad dance [...] dedicated
to their dead, in which they represent them as being present, talking with them and giving them caresses of all kinds”
(Waehneldt 1864:218). While this dance was clearly part of the funerary observances, it did not feature the use of a
jaguar hide.

Waehneldt (1864:214) also noted that “... in none of these huts I found hammocks, in all, however, a more or less high
platform of bamboo covered with hides of jaguar and of deer, which serves as a bed,” thus supporting the evidence
supplied by Natterer.

The second painted jaguar hide of the Bororo da Campanha was collected in October 1884 by Richard Rohde (1855-?)
during a short visit to their settlement near the Lagoa Grande on the fazenda Descalvado, where he had excavated some
funerary urns for what is now the Ethnological Museum in Berlin (Hermannstätter 2002:52-54). Rohde’s published
account describes a dance, referred to by him as the “Fararu dance” (Rohde 1885:15), which may be merely a somewhat
garbled version of the Bororo word for dance (Eastern Bororo boe ereru, ‘dance of the Bororo’). The archives of the mu-
seum preserve some unpublished drawings made by Rohde of the regalia worn by the dancers and acquired by him-
self for Berlin, but these do not include the painted jaguar hide obtained by him on this occasion (Figs. 8-10). The list of
Rohde’s collection of about 110 items from the Bororo da Campanha identifies the painted jaguar hide as a “sleeping
Fig. 11 Painted jaguar hide collected between 1885
mat” and also included five “masks made from the hair of women” such as had been described by Natterer as being worn and 1893 among the Bororo da Campanha by Emil
together with the jaguar hide, but in this case the collector was apparently unaware of the connection.13 Both the front Hassler (Museum der Kulturen, Basel, IVc2423; gift
and backside of the hide were first illustrated by Hermannstätter (2002:53, 54). of Emil Hassler, 1919). 170 by 142 cm. Photograph:
Derek Li Wan Po, 2011.
Sometimes between 1888 and 1913 the third painted hide (Fig. 11) was collected by the Swiss botanist Emil Hassler © Museum der Kulturen Basel. Switzerland.
(1861-1937), who began his career as a collector of ethnographic artifacts in 1885-1887 when traveling from Cuiabá
to the Rio Araguaia and back. His publication (Hassler 1888), which was later criticized as partly imaginary (von den
Steinen 1890; Baldus 1954:297), also included a catalog of an ethnographic collection made for the Geographical-Com- 13
“Catalog. 1. Bororo,” in Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, Ar-
mercial Society in Aarau. He later established himself in Paraguay and in addition to his work as a botanist continued chive, I/MV 1061, E I B Litt. P. Amerika, Personen/Inst. Richard
Rohde (Reise).
to collect ethnographic specimens in Paraguay and the adjoining parts of Bolivia and Brazil (Vischer 1938; http://www. 14
From the Peabody Museum in turn 630 objects of the Hass-
hls-dhs-dss.ch/textes/d/D45139.php). Some of this material was shown at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago and became ler collection went to what is today the Phoebe Hearst Museum
part of the collection of the Field Museum. Of the 3769 items in this group a substantial number was later traded to in Berkeley.

Fig. 12 “Dancing dress of a Bairi (Bororò priest).”
Photograph from Hassler (1897:no. 22). The outfit is
an incongruous blend of Eastern Bororo and Bororo da
Campanha items, including a hair mask and a pariko-
headdress. © Museum der Kulturen Basel. Switzerland.
Photo collection (F)IVc336_K (Emil Hassler collection).
Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 97
the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the Royal Ethnographic Museum in Berlin, the Peabody Museum of Harvard
University,14 and the New Brunswick Museum in St. John. Another large group, about 2400 objects, was presented by
the collector in 1919 to the present Museum der Kulturen Basel (which subsequently traded some “duplicates” to the
museums in Zurich, St. Gallen, Burgdorf, Geneva, Munich, and Frankfurt). About 500 of the objects given to Basle were
from the “Bororo [da Campanha]” and “Coroados” [Eastern Bororo], while the material acquired by Chicago apparently
only included no Bororo da Campanha objects.
A partial printed catalog of this collection (Hassler 1897) specifies the “Aldeia da Lagoa” [Laguna near Descalvado] and
San Matías as the places of origin of the Bororo da Campanha material, but makes no reference to the painted jaguar
hide. Unfortunately, Hassler’s manuscript catalog, also sent to Basle and obviously used in cataloging the collection,
cannot presently be located. It may have included information on whether specific items, such as the jaguar hide, had
been collected at Laguna or San Matías as well as further contextual data. All we can say today is that the painted hide
could have been part of one of four “shaman’s costumes” noted in the printed catalog. Of this catalog only one copy is
presently known to exist, and this copy lacks the plates originally accompanying it. The image of one of the four “sha-
man’s costumes” (without the painted hide), designated as “Bororo,” has survived pasted to an index card in the photo
archives of the Museum der Kulturen in Basle and shows it to be a strange mixture of heterogeneous artifacts put together
for display purposes (Fig. 12).
In the early 1890s Julio Germán Koslowsky (1866-1923), a native of Lithuania who had come to Argentina in the 1880s,
undertook biological and anthropological fieldwork in Paraguay and the Mato Grosso for the Museo de la Plata. This
included a visit in July 1894 to the Bororo da Campanha near Descalvado as well as to those living in San Matías, which
is described in a publication notable also for its pungent criticism of the treatment of the Indians at the hands of the Leite
family (Koslowsky 1895). Since he observed a “Jaguar dance” among the Bororo da Campanha of Descalvado it is like-
ly that it he obtained the fourth painted hide at this place (Koslowsky 1895:lám.1; Fig. 13).
Koslowsky’s account includes the description of two different Jaguar dances, which is worth being quoted in full:
“The Bororo were dancing the Jaguar dance, which consisted of men and women forming a line behind an Indian
adorned with feathers, straw, and necklaces made of teeth, claws, and a jaguar hide, representing a man into whom had
entered the soul of the dead jaguar whose presence was manifested by the leaps and furious movements of the human
body that another Bororo in front of him, the doctor of the village, supported by some elders, sought to conjure. The
Bororo representing the raging jaguar wore on his head a crown or diadem of red macaw feathers (Ara macao), with the
tail feathers placed in the center of the forehead and the wingtip feathers forming the sides; there were also trimmed
feathers directed downward and secured with cotton thread to a thin wheel. His head was also adorned with a crown of
jaguar claws placed in a row with the tips pointing upward. The face beneath this crown was covered by a fringed mask
98

made from tender leaves of the crown of the palm tree, hiding it completely; the same kind of fringes surrounded the
hands, waist, and feet, so that what characterizes the human body could not be seen. On the breast rested an ornament
made of jaguar teeth, with the four canines forming the center of the necklace. Around his feet were rattles made of deer
and peccary hooves arranged in rows. His back was covered by a jaguar hide, stiff as a board, with the hair on the outside,
and on whose inside were drawn black and red lines forming the sides of triangles, also red, in such a manner that two of
them were always touching one another at their tips, resembling an X with its two halves filled with the same color. [...]
At the beginning of the dance the Indians jumped without enthusiasm, with grave and listless faces, which could also be
explained by their believing themselves bothered by the presence of the crowd, while now and then making loud remarks
that naturally retarded the progress of dance. Gradually the Indians became enthusiastic, moving ahead with the dance
irrespective of whether they were looked at or spoke loudly, but showed a growing exuberance, stamping the ground
with their jumps. The women in particular conscientiously carried out their task, and with the doctor who always sang in
a low voice accompanying his singing with the rattling of the gourd, they diligently executed the dance as if their life
depended upon its accurate realization. The posture they observed in the dance was as follows: they raised their arms in
such a manner that they formed a straight line from the shoulders to the elbows and from the elbows to the closed fists
parallel upwards; the legs were somewhat bent, always jumping from one side to the other, with the body also somewhat
bent and the legs spread apart. From time to time, one or the other left the file to rest for a moment or to dry the sweat
that flowed in abundance, being immediately replaced by someone else who had rested or who followed behind. Thus
dancing all day in the same place they made the grass disappear, and in the afternoon there were already clouds of dust
rising while the dancers did not show any fatigue in their performance. So they continued to dance until midnight”
(Koslowsky 1895:375-377).

“When he [the hunter] returns from the hunt with a jaguar, the Jaguar dance is taking place on that night, which differs
from the one already described in that the women are wailing and weeping with great excitement to conjure and reconcile
the soul of the jaguar, which when not appeased will cause the death of the hunter. The jaguar is represented in the dance
by the very Indian who killed him and who is playing the role of the furious jaguar claiming revenge. In addition, the
doctor and other old Bororos try to conjure the soul of the animal with monotonous songs causing a painful emotion
in the listeners; at the same time they are dancing in a semicircle in front of the hunter. Like the chiefs of the dance they
carry in their hands gourds filled with dried seeds and stones, providing the rhythm of the dance, which they shake at
the end of each period of the dance with a restless movement of the hand. The rest intervals are very short, and then they
drink water or chicha and smoke, wiping off the sweat profusely running down their bodies. The doctor is the one who
again starts the dancing with his songs, continuing this for many hours; when fatigue has already overcome them by
the excesses of the dance, they consider the soul of the jaguar already reconciled and do not fear anything in the future”
(Koslowsky 1895:384-385).

The use of a painted jaguar hide in the second dance is not specifically noted by Koslowsky, but in both dances the lead
 Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 99

Fig. 13 Painted jaguar hide collected in July 1895

among the Bororo da Campanha near Descalvado by
Julio Koslowsky (Museo de La Plata, 3070). 140 by 109
cm. Photograph: Héctor Lahitte.

Fig. 14 Painted jaguar hide collected between April

and August 1931 from the Bororo da Campanha at La-
guna near Descalvado by Vincent Petrullo (University of
Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropol-
ogy, Philadelphia, 31-48-520). 140 by 102 cm. Photo-
graph: Christian Feest.

dancer appears to be impersonating the jaguar, even though the interpretation of the meaning of the dances may well
have been that of the observer. At least in the second dance the impersonator of the jaguar was the hunter himself, which
may indicate that no transfer of the hide to another kinship group had taken place.

Other than Rohde, who complained about the lack of a camera, Koslowsky took at least one photograph among the
Bororo da Campanha (Koslowsky 1895:pl. 1); in case he also took pictures of one or both Jaguar dances, the present
whereabouts of the images are unknown. No photographs are preserved with his collection at the Museo de La Plata
(Héctor Lahitte, pers.com, 2012).

An unusual feature of this item is that it is lacking the hair on the fur side. Given the importance of the fur for any
impersonation of the jaguar it must be assumed that the loss has occurred during the past 120 years.

Thirty-seven years later, the Bororo da Campanha living at a village known as Laguna and located on the west side of
the Rio Paraguai northwest of Descalvado (Petrullo 1932:map; cp. Fig. 1) were visited by the members of the “Matto
100

Fig. 15 “Back view of the jaguar costume.” Photo-

graph by Floyd Crosby between April and August 1931
among the Bororo da Campanha at Laguna near
Descalvado.Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Muse-
um of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia,
image #40471.

Fig. 16 “The impersonator of the jaguar.” Photo-

graph by Floyd Crosby between April and August 1931
among the Bororo da Campanha at Laguna near
Descalvado. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Muse-
um of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia,
image #244482.

Grosso Expedition,” initiated by a group of wealthy adventurers and supported by the University of Pennsylvania and
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The expedition was impeded by obvious deficiencies in its organization
and its members had to spend almost half a year at Descalvado while waiting for permission to undertake research at the
headwaters of the Xingu. Vincent M. Petrullo (1906-1991), an anthropologist of Italian origin who had been selected
by the University of Pennsylvania to accompany the expedition, used the time at Descalvado to make excavations at the
site already visited by Rohde in 1884.15 Sometimes between April and August 1931 Petrullo and some other expedition
members took a side trip to Laguna where they were appalled by the poverty and a little disappointed by the apparent
loss of “aboriginal culture.” No traditional industry had survived, and the language was no longer remembered even by 15 Max Schmidt (1929:120-121) stopped at Descalvado on 11
the older generation, but some songs and dances were performed for the benefit of the visitors. June 1928 to make further excavations on the site already
probed by Rohde, but took no notice of the Bororo da Campanha
in the neighborhood. In 1931, Petrullo (1940) visited Schmidt in
Certainly the high point was the performance of the Jaguar dance in the morning of the second day of the visit. Petrullo
Cuiabá, but their conversation appears to have centered on the
described this dance in an article published soon after the return of the party, which also included three photographs tak- Xingu region where Schmidt had already done fieldwork and
en during the dance and a drawing of the painted jaguar hide that he had been able to acquire for the museum (Petrullo where Petrullo wanted to go.
 Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 101

Fig. 17 “The Jaguar dance of the Bororo da Cam-

panha.” The women and children on the left are
dancing, while the men on the right are mostly
watching. One of the men holds a gourd rattle.
Photograph by Floyd Crosby, between April and
August 1931, at Laguna near Descalvado. Cour-
tesy of University of Pennsylvania Museum of
Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia,
image #27725.

1932:120-123, pl. III, figs. 2-4, pl. XIX, fig. 4; Fig. 14) – the last one to be collected among the Bororo da Campanha.
About a decade later, Petrullo (1940) wrote an extensive and still unpublished account of the expedition, which however
adds little to his description of the dance, except that “the men [were] taking turns in wearing the costume.”

16
Not illustrated here is a close-up frontal view of the jaguar
impersonator and another image showing the dance in progress.
Petrullo (1940) also identifies Floyd Crosby (1899-1985), the expedition’s camera man, as the photographer of the ima-
ges, six of which have survived in the archives of the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania (cp. Figs.
15-18).16 Crosby, who had been the cameraman for Robert Flaherty and F. W. Murnau’s Tabu, a Story of the South Seas
(1931) for which he received an Oscar, did in fact also make a film of the Jaguar dance with this 35 mm film camera.
A sequence of 33 seconds showing the dance appears in Primitive People of the Matto Grosso. The Bororo, produced
in 1941 by Ted Nemeth (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, upenn-f16-4012).
The footage (as well as two of the still photographs) was apparently shot after the performance witnessed by the expe-
dition, because it shows the jaguar impersonator dancing by himself without the men and women seen in the photo-
graphs. The film not only records the steps and movements of the dancer but, by offering different perspectives, allows
a better identification of the regalia worn. (Curiously enough, the print as published in 1941 is laterally reversed.)
102

Fig. 18 The Jaguar dance of the Bororo da Campanha.” Note the different position
of the arms of the women and of the boy in the right foreground. One of the women is
holding a ball of white down. Photograph by Floyd Crosby, between April and August
1931, at Laguna near Descalvado. Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Museum of
Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, image #27726.

Fig. 19-20 The Jaguar dance of the Bororo da Campanha, November 1825. Photo-
graphs by Frederick Brandenburg (19) and Frederic Miller (20), near Descalvado, Den-
ver Museum of Science and Nature, Denver, photo collection, BN85-194, Mi25-117,
Mi25-119. © Denver Museum of Nature & Science

Preparations: In an enclosure a palm-leaf skirt is wrapped around the impersonator

already wearing the dew claw leg rattles (19) and white down is pasted to his face
and body (20).
Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 103

Petrullo not only collected the jaguar hide (cat.no. 31-48-520), but the complete outfit of the dancer (including some
duplicates), consisting of two feather headdresses (31-48-521, -523), a feather visor (31-48-522), three feather head
ornaments (31-48-525 to -527), two human hair masks (31-48-524, -531), the snake-skin back ornament attached to
the jaguar hide (31-48-528), two buriti leaf skirts (31-48-529, -530), and two deer hoof rattles (31-48-533, -534).

“In the morning there was held a jaguar dance for our curiosity, for it has become quite meaningless to them, no one
being able to tell exactly the significance of the dance.

“An enclosure was built of burity palm leaves, roofless, which served as the dressing room of the dancer. No women were
permitted to enter; the rites of dressing the dancer to represent the jaguar were evidently taboo to the women. Two singers
with rattles stood in front of the man to be dressed. The dancer was painted red with urucum and down pasted on his
breast. His face was also smeared with urucum. Around his arms were fastened armlets made from strips of burity palm
leaf, and his face was covered with a mask made of woman’s hair. The foreskin of the penis was tied with a narrow strip
of burity palm leaf, for these men under their tattered European clothing still carry this string. A skirt of palm leaf strips
was worn, and a jaguar robe was thrown over his shoulders. The skins of practically every species of snake to be found in
the pantanal hung from his head down his back over the ‘jaguar robe, which was worn with the fur on the outside. The
inner surface of the hide was painted with geometric patterns, in red and black, but no one could explain the symbolism.
A magnificent headdress consisting of many pieces, and containing feathers of many birds of the pantanal completed the
costume with the addition of deer hoof rattles worn on the right ankle. The dancer was ready.

“The headman facing the dancer began singing to the accompaniment of his rattles, and slowly began backing out of
the enclosure, the ‘jaguar’ dancing before him. The other men followed in line, roaring at intervals in the song. In this
manner the enclosure was left and the dance began in the open. The women and children had withdrawn either to the
huts or the surrounding jungle, but when the jaguar began dancing in the open, they came up on the dead run to join
the dance. The women did not sing, but the men did so excitedly. The dancer danced flat footed with legs bent and knees
thrown outward, arms extended at the side. His dance consisted of violent hops on both feet, and the twisting of his body
this way and that with each hop. At the completion of the song the women and children would turn and run for cover,
which they did not leave until the singing and dancing were resumed” (Petrullo 1932:122).

Six years before Petrullo, the zoologists Frederic W. Miller and Frederick G. Brandenburg when traveling in South
America on an expedition in order to collect birds and mammals for the Colorado Museum of Natural History (now the
Denver Museum of Nature and Science) were able to witness a Jaguar dance at Descalvado in November 1925. On this
occasion Brandenburg and Miller took at least 20 photographs both of the preparations for the dance and of the dance
itself. They show the enclosure mentioned by Petrullo, in which one of the singers holding a gourd rattle is standing on
the jaguar hide, while the dancer is being dressed with a skirt and armlets of palm leaves and his face, chest, arms, and
104
 Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 105

Fig. 21-24 The Jaguar dance of the Bororo da
Campanha, November 1925. Photographs by Frederick
Brandenburg (23) and Frederic Miller (21-22, 24), near
Descalvado, Denver Museum of Science and Nature,
Denver, photo collection, Mi25-119, Mi25-116, BN85-
232, Mi25-017. © Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Preparations: The feather headdresses are attached
(21), and after having put on the jaguar hide, the im-
personator is ready to leave the enclosure (22).
Dance: A man with two gourd rattles stands in front of
the impersonator, the women are dancing behind him
with their lower arms raised (23). The men join the
dance with their arms extended (24).
17 For the images not shown here, see http://dmns.lunaimag-
ing. com:8180/luna/servlet/DMNSDMS~4~4 (Search: “Tiger
Dance,” “Descalvados”).
feet are decorated with white down (Figs. 19-24).17 The regalia appear to be the same as in 1931: the feather headdress
and visor, the human hair face mask, the palm leaf skirt and armlets, and the deer hoof rattles worn above both ankles;
only the back ornament of snake skins and feathers is missing. As in Crosby’s pictures the men are located on one and
the women on the other side of the dancer. The women are more actively engaged in the dance and, as described by Kos-
lowsky, “raise their arms in such a manner that they form a straight line from the shoulders to the elbows and from the
elbows to the closed fists parallel upwards; the legs were somewhat bent, always jumping from one side to the other, with
the body also somewhat bent and the legs spread apart.” The men, if not merely watching, extend their arms sideways.
The dancer is now facing two men holding one or two gourd rattles (Figs. 17-18, 23-24). Unfortunately, the photographs
show nothing of the painted decoration, and the hide may even have been unpainted. A comparison of the fur side proves
that it is neither the hide collected by Petrullo, nor the item in the Linden-Museum.
Little is known about the collection history of this sixth painted jaguar hide (Fig. 25) prior to its exchange from Patty
Frank to the Linden-Museum in 1936. The hide is first mentioned in correspondence between Frank and Heinrich
Fischer, the director of the Linden-Museum, on 18 January 1933, when it was sent to Stuttgart as a “painted jaguar
hide from Patagonia” to be considered as a potential item for an exchange.18 Since Frank himself had never visited South
America he must have obtained the hide somewhere in Europe, most likely either from a dealer or a private collector
in Germany. It may be more than a coincidence that in 1929 the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden acquired from a
man only identified as “Rudolf Hoffmann” some Bororo featherwork and a human hair mask that on stylistic grounds
can be attributed to the Bororo da Campanha, both of which appear to have been part of the outfit of a Jaguar dancer.
Given the fact that the Karl-May-Museum is located in a suburb of Dresden, Hoffman might have been Frank’s source.
A direct purchase from Hoffmann, however, may seem unlikely because the hide had lost the association with the Bororo
that had been recorded for the items in Dresden. Unfortunately, nothing is known about why and when Hoffmann who
is said to have collected these items (together with some modern “Chiquito” featherwork) in the field was among the
Bororo da Campanha.19

18 Patty Frank to Heinrich Fischer, Radebeul, 18 January 1933,

Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg, EL 32-Bü 35.

19
According to the museum’s records, the “Chiquito” mate-
rial was from Brazil, where a small group of Chiquitanos lives
in the region of Vila Bela, Cáceres, and Porto Espiridão (http://
pib. socioambiental.org/en/povo/chiquitano/415). This would
suggest that the Bororo da Campanha material came from the
Descalvado group.
106

The Jaguar Dance

As for the dance itself, the two sets of photographs and the film are the primary sources for its performance, and they help
us also to gain a better understanding of the verbal descriptions given by Waehneldt, Koslowsky, and Petrullo.

Both sets show the dancer situated between the men and women, facing the dance leader who is shaking two plain gourd
rattles. The other men are mostly watching, only sometimes joining the dance with arms extended, while the women
with their lower arms raised take a more active part behind the dancer’s back. This seems to conform to Koslowsky’s
description of the second dance, where the men carrying rattles are forming a half-circle in front of the dancer, while in
the first dance the men and women are said to have formed a line behind the dancer. Waehneldt’s observation that the
women participating in the dance were not supposed to see the jaguar hide worn by the dancer, “who by his movements
at every step seeks to show it to the women,” is difficult to interpret. Since the fur side worn on the outside could hardly
be hidden, the taboo could only have pertained to the painted inside. This implies that the women were located behind
the jaguar impersonator.

In 1931, Petrullo asserted that the Jaguar dance had “become quite meaningless” to the Bororo da Campanha, and that
no one was “able to tell exactly” its significance. In his account written about ten years later he offered some speculative
suggestions regarding the original meaning: “The Bororo were filled with martial zeal and the boys were trained to en-
dure all sorts [of] danger. The killing of a jaguar ... single handed[ly] with only bow and hardwood arrows was a test of
manhood and every boy had to kill one in this fashion before he could be considered as a grown up man and warrior.
When he returned with his trophy, the jaguar dance was held in which the chief dancer would impersonate the jaguar.
Fig. 25 Painted jaguar hide attributable to the Boro-
In this way, the spirit of the jaguar was appeased and the sin of killing it was expiated. However, in this village all of this
ro da Campanha, exchanged in 1936 from Patty Frank
had been forgotten and it had become merely a social affair” (Petrullo 1940).
(Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, 115204). 151 by 108 cm.

It is likely that thirty-five years earlier more of the traditional knowledge had survived and that Koslowsky’s interpretation
of the two dances was at least in part based on what he had been told in the course of his much longer visit to the Bororo
da Campanha villages near Descalvado. In the first dance, the dancer was “a man into whom had entered the soul of
the dead jaguar.” The fact that in the second dance he jaguar was represented by a hunter who had just killed a jaguar
implies that this was not the case in the first dance. In both dances the purpose was to “conjure and reconcile the soul”
of the animal, in the second dance specifically to avoid cause the death of the hunter. This explanation does not differ
significantly from Petrullo’s speculations.

There may be some remote relationship of the first dance with the adugo-doge aroe of the Eastern Bororo in which four
different mythical jaguars are represented by members of different clans; they are presented with a long piece of bamboo
hung with ornaments that in the end is received by other men (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:123-124). The imperson-
 Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha
Fig. 26 The outfit of the jaguar impersonator. Based
on a detail of Fig. 25. For explanations see the text.
20
Natterer uses the possibly related term kuruga bare-enau for
a much shorter, pin-like bunch of feathers (Vienna, 772, 773,
Natterer coll.; Feest 2012:88).
107
ators do not wear jaguar hides, none of their ornaments is similar to those used by the Bororo das Campanha, and the
women do not play a significant role in the dance. In the Eastern Bororo Feast of the Predators, on the other hand, no
impersonation takes place, and the hides are displayed with their painted side in front by the lead singer (Albisetti and
Venturelli 1962:228, 234).
On the basis of the photographs we can also define the several parts of the costume worn by the jaguar impersonators of
the Bororo da Campanha (Fig. 26):
1. Headdress 1 apparently consisted of a bundle of blue, yellow, and/or red macaw feathers, somewhat resembling the
Eastern Bororo kiogodo belonging to the Baadojebage Cobugiwuge, in which the feathers are attached to sticks and which
is worn behind a feather crown called kurugugwa (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:401-403, 421).20 The examples collected
by Rohde in 1884, by Hassler in the 1880s or 1890s, and by Petrullo in 1931 all lack the sticks (Berlin, VB1331-1332,
VB1396-1398; Basle, IVc2550-2551, IVc2555, Philadelphia, 31-48-525, -526). The headdress also resembles what
Berta Ribeiro (1957:82-83) has called “diadema transversal,” inclining backwards from the top of the head, which she
illustrates by an example from the Bororoan Umutina, although in this case the feathers are aligned next to one another,
rather than forming a bundle.
2. Headdress 2 corresponds typologically to Ribeiro’s “diadema vertical rotiforme” and thus resembles the Eastern Bororo
pariko, although there are vast differences in size and construction (Ribeiro 1957:87; Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:410-
419; Dorta 1981). Like the pariko this headdress consists of two layers of feathers edged with small feathers and down,
but the back layer consists of short feathers attached to reed splints, and unlike on the pariko the lower edge is not rein-
forced. On examples of this type in Dresden (44298, Hoffmann coll.) and Philadelphia (31-48-523, Petrullo coll.) the
back layer includes red, pink, and yellow feathers, the front layer is black, and the edging is red, [pink/white], and yellow.
Whereas the various types of pariko among the Eastern Bororo are clan-specific, the surviving examples of headdress 2 of
the Bororo da Campanha are virtually identical.
3. The visor (Ribeiro 1957:81-82, “diadema horizontal”), for which Natterer recorded the term ate mutsche, resembles
the Eastern Bororo ebukejewu (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:550-555), but differs from it by having in its center a long
red feather with a blue tip protruding beyond the yellow visor (Monteiro and Kaz 1988, 2:104; Vienna, 766, Natter-
er coll.; Dresden, 44297, Hoffmann coll.; Philadelphia, 31-48-522, Petrullo coll.). A variant lacking the lateral blue
feathers was also collected by Natterer (Vienna, 53522). The Basle specimen (IVc1928), collected by Hassler and misat-
tributed to the Eastern Bororo, differs slightly in having some black feathers interrupting the yellow visor on both sides
of the center. Just as the Eastern Bororo ebukejewu is often worn together with the pariko, the Bororo da Campanha ate
mutsche is combined with headdress 2. While forms of the Eastern Bororo ebukejewu are clan-specific, the majority of the
Bororo da Campanha visors is of one type and the significance of the variant forms remains unknown.
108

4. The human hair mask (Natterer: ae, aeae), whose absence among the Eastern Bororo has already been noted, is seen on
both sets of photographs and has been preserved in many specimens collected among the Bororo da Campanha (about
15 by Natterer alone; cp. Feest 2012:87). In view of the Eastern Bororo meaning of ae both as ‘human hair’ and ‘palm
leaves’ it is notable that Koslowsky (1895:375) mentions the use of a mask of palm leaves. Among the Eastern Bororo
the hair from which strings are made in connection with the funerary rituals were those of mourning women (Caiuby
2006:28); for the Bororo da Campanha at least Rohde (archives, EMB) confirms that the masks were made of women’s
hair (Berlin, VB 1329-1330, 1401-1403). The substitution of horsehair for human hair noted by Natterer is unique
among the Bororo da Campanha; in addition to horsehair specimens collected by Natterer there is at least one of the
six masks in the Hassler collection made of horse and anteater hair (IVc2036; IVc2034 may also be of horse hair). IVc
2030-2033 and 2035 are of human hair, as are the masks collected by Petrullo (Philadelphia, 31-40-524 and -531) and
Hoffmann (Dresden, 44299).

5a, b. Armlets and bracelets of leaves of the buriti palm are shown on both sets of photographs and were noted by Kos-
lowsky (1895). The photographs (e.g., Figs, 16, 18, 22, 23) indicate that some palm leaves were also tied to the headdress.
No such armlets and bracelets were apparently collected among the Bororo da Campanha, and none were used by the
Eastern Bororo.

6. Skirts of babassu or buriti palm leaves attached to a long string (toro) were widely used men among the Eastern Bororo
where they belonged to the Kie, but were used by members of all clans (Albisetti and Venturelli 1962:316). Examples
from the Bororo da Campanha were collected by Petrullo as part of the costume of a jaguar impersonator (Philadelphia,
31-48-529 and -530), by Rohde (Berlin, VB 1328, 1407) as part of a male dancer’s dress, also illustrated in a drawing
(Fig. 9), and by Hassler (Basle, IVc2415-2418). Natterer (2014:205) recorded the Bororo da Campanha term dauro (‘a
kind of an apron of palm leaves’), but did not collect any examples.

7. The string rattles wrapped above the ankles were made of the dew claws of either deer or peccary (Koslowsky 1895,
Petrullo 1932). Natterer’s term butole corresponds to Eastern Bororo butore (‘rattle of peccary claws’; Albisetti and Ven-
turelli 1962:313, 530), where however three varieties were used as belts by the upper and lower Iwagudu-doge. Bororo
da Campanha examples, all made of deer claws, appear in collections both in connection with the Jaguar dance and
in other contexts (Vienna, 887, Natterer coll., Feest 2012:95; Berlin, VB1346, VB1387, VB1388, Rohde coll.; Sankt
Petersburg, 764-60, Langsdorff coll.; Manizer 1967:204; Monteiro and Kaz 1988, 1:103; Philadelphia, 31-48-532 and
-533, Petrullo coll.).

In addition, items that occasionally are noted as part of the jaguar impersonator’s costume are a jaguar claw headband,
palm leave anklets, a jaguar teeth necklace (all of them: Koslowsky 1895), and a back ornament made of snake skins with
laterally attached feathers (Petrullo 1932; Philadelphia 31-48-528, Petrullo coll.; Basle, IVc2547, Hassler coll., cp. Fig.
 Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 109

Fig. 27 Comparison of the sewing and painting pat-

terns of the painted jaguar hides of the Bororo da Cam-
panha (left) and Eastern Bororo (right).

Fig. 28 Comparative view of the patterns painted on

the six known painted jaguar hides of the Bororo da
Campanha.

12; Berlin, VB1334, VB1338, Rohde coll. – broken in two before cataloging and cataloged as two separate items). Jaguar
hide headdresses and jaguar teeth necklaces were frequently used by both the Bororo da Campanha and the Eastern Bo-
roro where they are neither clan-specific, nor associated with a particular ceremony. Snake skin ornaments with laterally
attached feathers, however, were only encountered among the Bororo da Campanha and collected as armlets by Natterer
(Vienna, 881-883, Feest 2012:95). In Crosby’s photograph (Fig. 15) the snake skin appears to be attached to the jaguar
hide, whereas Rohde depicts it and Petrullo describes it as attached to the feather headdress (Fig. 10).

Comparative Observations

Given the substantial transformations that must have taken place in the inventory of ceremonial regalia and the uses
of the painted jaguar hides since the separation of the Bororo da Campanha and the Eastern Bororo, it is surprising to
find a basic, but selective agreement in the painted patterns. It may be instantly noted that the designs found on five
of the six Bororo da Campanha robes are variations of the Eastern Bororo buregodureuge edugo pattern owned by the
110

Baadojebage Cebegiwuge, while the sixth conforms to the very similar pattern of the iwara arége edugo owned by the
same clan (Fig. 28).

A comparison of the basic structure of the pattern, however, reveals significant differences (Figs. 27). The first of these
pertains to the preparation of the hides. Among the Eastern Bororo the front legs are sewn to the head in such a manner
that the head protrudes from the upper edge, while the Bororo da Campanha pulled the hide of the front legs up to the
top of the head, resulting in a straight upper edge with six pointed extensions. The Eastern Bororo cut away most of
the tail (along with the hind legs) and used the material for the fabrication of headbands and other ornaments. Perhaps
because of the higher tension need to stretch the front legs, there are many more (and smaller) holes along the edges of
the Bororo da Campanha examples. A second difference may be found in the lack of feathers attached to the edge of the
hide on the Bororo da Campanha examples, although this form of decoration is found on their snake-skin ornament.

The pictorial field, placed in a central position among the Eastern Bororo, is shifted down to the lower edge among the
Bororo da Campanha and is slightly more trapezoidal rather than square (Fig. 29). It is surrounded by a frame consisting
of alternating black and red lines (F) that is absent on the Eastern Bororo hides and, like the latter, subdivided by two
vertical bands (V) into three columns. These bands, as well as the horizontal bands defining the basic cross shape (H) and Fig. 29 Structure of the Bororo da Campanha jaguar
the five dividing bands (D) segmenting the resulting four fields are also made up of alternating black and red lines, rather hide paintings. As can be seen in Fig. 28, the number
than solid lines as among the Eastern Bororo. The dividing lines create two (or three) fields above the crossbar UL and of upper and lower fields may vary from the standard of
UR 1 and 2) and three (or up to five) fields below them (LL and LR 1 to 3); they also define the cross-hatched squares at two upper and three lower fields.
the top and bottom of the central column UC and LC) – another feature absent from the Eastern Bororo hides.

Just as there is considerable variation in the number and sequence of fine lines in the frame and dividing bands and in
the number of horizontal rows, there appears to be no rule as to the number of the hourglass-shaped elements which
make up the pattern. The pattern could, of course, also be read in terms of the resulting negative diamonds, but the
hourglass-shapes are always shown completely, while the diamonds are divided at the ends, and in UL 2 of the Berlin
hide a blank space is left at the left side rather than finishing the diamond. A detailed investigation shows that some rows
were painted from left to right and others from right to left, but this could easily have resulted from the painters locating
themselves at different sides of the hide.

The major deviation from the simple hourglass pattern is found on the hide in Philadelphia, which appears to be unfin-
ished in UR 1, UR 2, and LR 3, and completely erratic in LR 2. Being the last hide to be collected, this may show the
decay in traditional painting practices rather than any meaningful variation.

The substantially greater complexity of the Bororo da Campanha paintings (including the preparation of the hide) is
remarkable in view of a century of military conquest, misery, abuse, and forced acculturation on the property of the
 Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 111

Leite family and the later owners of the Descalvados ranch. This is even more surprising when considering the fact that
the painted designs were not displayed, as among the Eastern Bororo, but hidden from public view (especially of the
women) by being worn on the inside.

Even more puzzling is the fact that the designs on all Bororo da Campanha jaguar hides correspond to those owned by
a single Eastern Bororo clan, the Baadojebage Cebegiwuge, as if the Bororo de Campanha had only been members of a
single clan – the very clan which according to our internal reconstruction of the Eastern Bororo clan system may have
replaced a “lost” clan.21 If so, this would have required a major rearrangement of their social organization, away from
the reciprocity of the two moieties and their clans, with a resulting decline in the complex mortuary rituals in which the
painted jaguar hides are prominently featured among the Eastern Bororo. All that Johann Natterer had to say around
1825 about Bororo da Campanha burial customs was: “[they] bury their dead reclining on their backs – and bury him
with his belongings” (Kann 1989:108; Natterer 2014:204). But from the reports of Waehneldt (1864:217-218) and
Koslowsky (1895:398-399) it is abundantly clear that the Bororo da Campanha also practiced secondary burial. Jaguar
hides are mentioned by Koslowsky as wrappings for the corpse both in the primary and secondary inhumation, but there
is no indication whether they were painted or not.

While the form of the painting, although reflecting the independent stylistic changes that occurred after the separation of
the Bororo da Campanha from the Eastern Bororo, has remained essentially the same, the function of the painted jaguar
hides has obviously undergone a dramatic change. While among the Eastern Bororo their association was exclusively
with the funerary cycle, in which the clan-specific designs were publicly displayed, the Bororo da Campanha used them
for the representation of jaguars in hunting-related rituals, in which the design was hidden from view and was consid-
ered taboo for women. This did not affect the practice shared by the Eastern Bororo and Bororo da Campanha of using
painted and unpainted hides of jaguars and other wildcats as sleeping mats.

Natterer’s assertion that the painted design was worn on the outside, which is contradicted by all other sources on the
Bororo da Campanha, may indicate that the practice of hiding and tabooing it did only originate in the course of the
nineteenth century. It may also be suggested that the transformation of the function was related to the gradual loss of the
21
Lévi-Strauss (1936:278) was told by his informants that the clan structure among the Bororo da Campanha, which may have started after their move from the Poconé region to the
Baadojebage Cebigewuge were an especially “poor” clan.
area around Cáceres and was apparently completed at the time when they were living near Descalvado. It is, of course,
22
An investigation of other Bororo da Campanha objects
also possible that the modern Eastern Bororo clan structure was only fully developed in the course of their consolidation
(including especially arrows and featherwork), that among the in the São Lourenço basin.22
Eastern Bororo are found in clan-specific variants, is presently
being undertaken by the author. First results indicate that, just
as in the case of the jaguar hides, there is generally one major
type with minor variations, rather than the clan-specific diversity
found among the Eastern Bororo.
112

A Note on Fuegian Hide Painting

Given the original identification of the painted jaguar hide in Stuttgart as “Patagonian” or “Fuegian” it may finally not
be totally inappropriate to look at the evidence for hide painting in the southermost part of South America. Surveys of
the distribution of fur cloaks (Nordenskiöld 1919:93-98) and hide painting (Lothrop 1929) in South America have
noted the universal use of fur cloaks among the peoples of Tierra del Fuego, but do not supply evidence that they were
ever painted.

In his monograph on the Selk’nam, however, Martin Gusinde (1931:976-977) describes in some detail the paintings
executed on fur robes used in the impersonation of a set of supernatural beings (Tánu) in the context of the Kloketen,
the men’s initiation ceremony. Based on one photograph published by Gusinde and on his descriptions the four variants
of the painted design have here been reconstructed (Figs. 30-31); I am not aware of any examples of painted Selk’nam
cloaks in any museum collection Together with the accompanying information these southernmost examples of South
American hide painting offer an interesting comparison with the painted jaguar hides of the Bororo that represent the
northernmost extension of this art form.

Like most of the other known forms of South American hide painting (except for those of the Bororo and the Kadiwéu)
the Selk’nam paintings are executed on square robes sewn together from small pieces of fur (generally of guanaco legs
among the Selk’nam, sometimes also of the hides of the coruro, a local rodent; Gusinde 1931:212-213), but like in the
Bororo case (unlike in most other forms) the painting is done on the whole cloak rather than on its component pieces
before these are sewn up. Like elsewhere in South America, the pictorial field is rectangular, but since the robes are also
rectangular, the two are identical, with no unpatterned margin as among the Bororo.

The basic pattern of the Tánu costume consists of black area above a larger red area and separated from it by a white
stripe. The black portion, which represents the Tánu’s face, is decorated with one vertical and two slanting lines of wads
of white down attached with saliva to the black paint. The red section is evenly divided by vertical white stripes, which
enclose additional dark red and generally also black stripes, which may or may not be further decorated with a series of
small white circles. On special occasions wads of white down may be also applied to the dark red stripes. While the design
of the black section is always the same, there are four variants of the red section, which characterize four different kinds
of Tánu associated with the cardinal directions (Fig. 31); depending on their location in the Selk’nam territory, local
groups identify themselves more closely with the respective Tánu, vaguely resembling the ownership of certain patterns
by the Bororo clans.

Contrary to the use of fur cloaks as garments where the fur side is worn on the outside, it is worn on the inside in the
representation of the Tánus for the obvious reason that it is the painting that identifies the supernatural being as what it
 Christian Feest Painted Jaguar Hides of the Bororo da Campanha 113

Fig. 30 A Tánu impersonator, Selk’nam. Tierra del

Fuego. Photograph by Martin Gusinde, 1922(?). Anthro-
pos-Institut, photo collection GU 24.7
114

Fig. 31 Reconstruction of the painted patterns on

the fur cloaks worn by the four Tánu impersonators
among the Selk’nam, based on the descriptions given
by Martin Gusinde (1931). From left to right: the Tánu of
the north, east, south, and west.

is. For the same reason, in the Jaguar dance of the Bororo da Campanha the fur side is displayed because it is the jaguar
that is impersonated and the painted decoration has apparently nothing to do with the purpose of the dance, whereas
among the Eastern Bororo it is displayed as the marker of a specific clan in its reciprocal relationship with another clan
from the opposite moiety.

To our present knowledge, the Selk’nam and Bororo painted hides are the only examples of South American hide paint-
ing that are used in a ceremonial context – and exclusively so. Other than the polychrome Patagonian robes with their
tripartite vertical division, their color spectrum is limited to black, red, and white (including the occasional use of down)
and they feature an asymmetrical horizontal division.

While certainly intriguing, the possible significance of the similarities and differences can hardly be assessed as long as
the data continue to be fragmentary and scattered. It is to be hoped that the results of this systematic and comparative
approach to the painted jaguar hides of the Bororo da Campanha will encourage similar research based on the physical
evidence of objects preserved in museums.

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