Accipitriformes

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Catalog # Name Description
1 1970.78.10.11 Headdress This headdress has one tier of harpy eagle body feathers forming a three quarter fan around the band made from vine. There is a second tier of black macaw feathers and a third tier of blue, yellow, and red macaw feathers that are cut to be the same length that follow the same three quarter path as the harpy feathers. The feathers are held into place by the vines and the vines are wrapped in white, bright pink, and dark gray string that forms a pattern that runs along the base of the feathers and ends with the white cotton string wrapping around two thirds of the proper right side of the featherless band and the pink and white cotton string wrapping around the proper left third of the featherless side of the band. When worn, the feathers will loosely stand straight because of the way they have been attached to the vine. The vines are visible in spaces where the white cotton was wrapped sparingly on the featherless side of the band. Crafting headdresses is a male craft among the Cashinahuans. Though women do know about the art, when interviewed around men they pretend to be ignorant. This headdress is classified among the Cashinahuans as "dani maiti" which titles it as a "body hair" or "body feather" headdress ("maiti" means "headdress" and "dani" means "body feather" or "body hair"). The name of the headdress is further changed to detail what kind of feather or hair was used in the making. Because this particular headdress was made with body feathers from the harpy eagle, it is classified as "nawan tete dani maiti" ("harpy eagle body feather headdress"). Commonly among dani maiti, macaw feathers are added as decorative second tier, because the macaw feathers were cut to be the same length, it is difficult to distinguish where on the macaw the feathers originated, though it is common among the Cashinahuan men to use small feathers from areas like the legs, neck, and under-wing. The dani maiti are made by tying the base of the body feathers to a strip of vine that has been cut and prepared with "bui"- a native mixture of wild rubber, chicle, and beeswax. There may be up to four flattened strips of vine, but only one of them will have the bui on it. Feathers are tied to the strip of vine in bunches of up to six feathers tied about 1cm apart from each other. Doing this enables the headdress to have volume because the feathers are often overlapping. When all the feathers that will be added to the strip are tied on it, the headdress is tied together with cotton and waxed string forming a circle that will fit upon the man's head. In this case, as is occasionally seen, the vine has been covered in a patterned design created by wrapping cotton string around it. Dani maiti are crafted by men, often for their sons, for ceremonial events. Such events include "kacha nawa" (fertility ceremonies), "nishpu pi" (initiation rites), and "chidin" (the headman's ceremony). 1970.78.10.11 (Headdress) image