String Puppet Item Number: 3352/9 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Description
Mamulengo string puppet (marionette) of a 'Rosinha' character. Head, hands and feet carved from wood and painted. She has orange skin, an open mouth with red lips, and wide eyes with eyelashes. She has long, curly black hair. She wears pink floral pants and a long-sleeved red floral top. The fabric is adhered to the hands and head, and wrapped with shiny pastel green ribbon at the wrists, ankles, and around the waist. Attached by several black strings to a wooden T-shaped control bar.
History Of Use
The puppet represents a character from a form of popular puppet theatre, found in northeastern Brazil, called mamulengo. This type of theatre is prevalent in disenfranchised communities with ancestral ties to colonized Indigenous peoples and uprooted, enslaved Africans. Mamulengo performances are entertaining events that can last all night long, with puppeteers (mamulengueiros) using 70 to 100 puppets in one staging. The stages are pop-up stands (empanadas), made of brightly coloured, floral-printed cloth. The shows consist of short sequences (passagens), or skits from popular stories that expose the inequalities and dramas of everyday life, profiling stock characters such as rich landowners and peasant labourers. The whole is spun together with humour, satire, lively music, and audience commentary.
Item History
- Made by Jacilene Felix de (Maker) in Gloria do Goita, Pernambuco, Brazil during 2018
- Owned by Associacao Cultural de Amigos do Museu de Folclore Edison Carneiro before May 28, 2019
- Received from Associacao Cultural de Amigos do Museu de Folclore Edison Carneiro (Seller) and Museum of Anthropology Exhibitions Budget (Funding source) on May 28, 2019
What
Who
- Culture
- Brazilian
- Creator
- Jacilene Felix de (Maker)
- Previous Owner
- Associacao Cultural de Amigos do Museu de Folclore Edison Carneiro
- Received from
- Associacao Cultural de Amigos do Museu de Folclore Edison Carneiro (Seller) and Museum of Anthropology Exhibitions Budget (Funding source)
Where
- Holding Institution
- MOA: University of British Columbia
- Made in
- Gloria do Goita, Pernambuco, Brazil
When
- Creation Date
- during 2018
- Ownership Date
- before May 28, 2019
- Acquisition Date
- on May 28, 2019
Other
- Condition
- good
- Accession Number
- 3352/0009