KOBÉUA or related group from the Upper Uaupés River / Caiary - Lot 364

KOBÉUA or related group from the Upper Uaupés River / Caiary-Uaupés, northwestern Amazon, Brazil / Colombia Ceremonial mask and costume with geometric decoration. Painted plant-based coating, plant fibers, natural pigments, aged patina, and signs of wear. Dimensions to be added. Provenance: - Collection from southern France. Notes: This mask-costume is part of the vast array of ritual traditions of the Upper Rio Negro and Rio Uaupés regions, first documented in the early 20th century by the German ethnographer Theodor Koch-Grünberg and later studied by Günther Hartmann in his book *Masken südamerikanischer Naturvölker*. Made of painted plant fiber and extended with fibers to form a wraparound costume, it was worn by slipping the head under the structure so that the dancer would disappear entirely beneath the mask and its fiber cloak. The geometric designs, painted in black and reddish-brown and composed of triangular patterns, scale-like motifs, or rhythmic bands, belong to the graphic vocabulary of the Kobéua, Káua, and Tukano groups of the Upper Uaupés. These masks were used in communal ceremonies associated with animal spirits, forest forces, fertility rites, and seasonal celebrations. The dances often mimicked the movements and behaviors of the beings depicted, based on the belief that the mask allowed for a temporary transformation of the dancer into a spiritual or animal entity. The extreme rarity of these ritual costumes stems from the fragility of the organic materials used and their intensive use within the communal ceremonial houses of the Northwest Amazon. Bibliography: A detailed typology of the specimens collected by Theodor Koch-Grünberg in the Rio Caiary-Uaupés region in the early 20th century and published by Günther Hartmann in *Masken südamerikanischer Naturvölker*.