Tupinamba

The Tupinamba are Indigenous peoples whose sixteenth-century communities occupied large stretches of Brazil's Atlantic coast. Tattooing, painting, warfare and ceremony feature strongly in early European accounts.

Hans Staden described enemies kept as captives before a public ritual killing. A prisoner might live among the community and be fed before the appointed ceremony. The event was connected with warfare and revenge.

Women prepared the captive and the wooden club called ibirapema. One striking detail is that the prisoner's face and the club were painted in a similar way, while women sang around them. Decoration became part of the ceremony itself.

The prisoner was killed and the body prepared for a ritual meal. Such accounts produced many dramatic images of cannibalism in Europe. The pictures show the violence, but the clothing, painted bodies and objects also reveal the care given to appearance during an event with meaning for the community.