Man's Neck Ornament

Item number 88.89.10 from the Brooklyn Museum.

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Description

Man's neck ornament composed of two narrow panels covered with dark gray and turquoise feathers (it looks like bird skins are sewn to cotton cloth); a front pendant with a hollow bird-bone flute flanked by two small bird bodies and long red Scarlet macaw feathers; and a smaller back pendant made of outspread bird wings surrounded by additional feathers. Each section is attached with a fiber cord. The bird bodies (Cotinga?) on the front pendant are small and flattened with attached feathers in purple, white, turquoise blue, black, gray, and red; the bird bodies are surrounded by six long red Scarlet Macaw feathers, which are decorated with disks of turquoise and dark blue feathers at the tips. The bird body on the back pendant has two outspread black wings, a turquoise feather disk and a small red feather, surrounded by additional blue, yellow and orange feathers. The ornament is worn during a male child's naming ceremony during which the flute is played. Condition: good; one of the turquoise feather disks on the long red Scarlet Macaw feathers is missing.