P. leucoptera

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Catalog # Name Description
1 1970.78.10.13 Headdress This particular headdress was made using the body feathers of a trumpeter bird. The trumpeter bird body feathers form a three quarter fan around the band of the headdress that is crafted from vines and wrapped in a woven cotton pattern with pink, white, and blue-gray patterns. The featherless section of the band shows all of the cotton strings wound around the end and fastened together. Some of the black trumpeter bird body feathers have colourful macaw tail and body feathers attached to the tip of them using the native mixture of "bui". There are also a few harpy eagle body feathers woven into the feathers throughout the three quarter fan. 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"). The name of the headdress is further changed to detail what kind of feather or hair was used in the making. 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). 1970.78.10.13 (Headdress) image