The Sculpture of Ritual

The ceremonial paraphernalia attributed to Brazil's Rio Trombetas region - including elaborate rattles, trumpets, mortars, containers and snuff tubes - typically combines animal/human imagery ('alter-egos'), 'comma-shaped' eye inlays, curved leg joints and rectilinear two-dimensional design panels (which are loosely parallelled in designs on the double-handed clubs). The select iconography includes jaguars and raptors which have a deeply embedded potency in the region - as significant players in origin myths and, given their predatory nature, epitomise virility and prowess. They also feature anthropo/zoomorphic transformative iconography, of creatures merging and morphing into each other. These are carefully made according to recognised stylistic conventions, carved from dark, dense woods and inlaid with white shell for enhanced contrast: while small in scale they have monumental impact. They are not simple, personal items made for private use, but made to be seen, as integral parts of community ceremonies, reflecting the power of ritual and linking the user with the numinous through hallucinogen-inspired trance.

A study of these artefacts can provide a chronological context to the stylistically similar stone carvings (left) that mark for many the apogee of the region's artistry, but lack any associated histories, having been found outside of archaeological contexts.