New IndiGen Blogpost

Paying a visit to the masked figures of the Tikuna/Magüta at a shallow river

By Gabriele Herzog-Schröder

At the beginning of the 19th century, the two Bavarian naturalists Johann Baptist von Spix and Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martius traveled up the Amazon on their ‘Reise in Brasilien.’ They met representatives of Indigenous societies and collected numerous items of different kinds, which, since their return to Munich, are kept in Bavaria's scientific collections. In Tabatinga, Spix witnessed a festive procession of the Tikuna and he took the masks which they used in the ceremony back to Munich. Descendants of the Tikuna, who today call themselves Magüta, still undertake such rituals and in two communities they maintain their own museums. These Indigenous museums are located in the border triangle of Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, some 60 km apart from each other, in two countries. Both are located close to the Solimões riverbanks on the upper part of the Amazon. Although internationally connected via two airports near the cities of Leticia in Colombia and Tabatinga in Brazil, this area has no road connections to other parts of the countries. Here, the river is the most important transport artery and this river, the Amazon, is currently experiencing the worst low water in history [...]

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