The Amazonian statue. A biography of a famous and polemic artifact from Brazil

A large stone statue was brought from the Amazon to France in 1848 by the explorer Francis de Castelnau. It depicts a being, apparently human, squatting, with his hands on his chest. Now exhibited at the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, this piece created a strong controversy since it was made public. In the mid-19th century, several Brazilian intellectuals strongly criticized the arrogant attitude of the Frenchman who had ‘looted’ their heritage. In reality, the reasons for this conflict are much deeper since they affect the very identity of the nation, then in formation. In any case, even a play was written to mock the explorer. This gave rise to doubts about the authenticity of the object, which has persisted to this day. The authors therefore studied the artifact to determine its cultural origin, while analyzing existing references to compare it with other pieces from the Amazon. They were thus able to validate the statue’s Amerindian identity, nearly 170 years after its discovery.

Keywords
Amazon; Stone statue; Explorer; Theatre. Iconography; Museum

Authorship

Stéphen Rostain

Centre national de la recherche scientifique. Paris, FranceCentre national de la recherche scientifiqueFranceParis, FranceCentre national de la recherche scientifique. Paris, France

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0985-6406

Cristiana Barreto Autora para correspondência: Cristiana Barreto. Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Coordenação de Ciências Humanas. Av. Perimetral, 1901. Belém, PA, Brasil. CEP 66077-830 (cristianabarreto@gmail.com)

Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Belém, Pará, BrasilMuseu Paraense Emílio GoeldiBrasilBelém, Pará, BrasilMuseu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Belém, Pará, Brasil

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5842-3418

Caroline Hamon

Centre national de la recherche scientifique. Paris, FranceCentre national de la recherche scientifiqueFranceParis, FranceCentre national de la recherche scientifique. Paris, France

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3314-9525

Magdalena Ruiz-Marmolejo

Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle. Paris, FranceMuséum National d’Histoire NaturelleFranceParis, FranceMuséum National d’Histoire Naturelle. Paris, France

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5958-1370

André Delpuech

Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle. Paris, FranceMuséum National d’Histoire NaturelleFranceParis, FranceMuséum National d’Histoire Naturelle. Paris, France

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6104-0856

Autora para correspondência: Cristiana Barreto. Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Coordenação de Ciências Humanas. Av. Perimetral, 1901. Belém, PA, Brasil. CEP 66077-830 (cristianabarreto@gmail.com)

AUTHORS' CONTRIBUTION

S. Rostain contributed conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, project administration, and writing (original draft, review & editing); C. Barreto contributed data curation, formal analysis, investigation, and writing (original draft, review & editing); C. Hamon contributed data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, and writing (original draft, review & editing); M. Ruiz-Marmolejo contributed data curation, investigation, and writing (original draft, review & editing); and A. Delpuech contributed conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, and writing (original draft, review & editing).

Responsabilidade editorial: Lucia Hussak Van Velthem

SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Centre national de la recherche scientifique. Paris, FranceCentre national de la recherche scientifiqueFranceParis, FranceCentre national de la recherche scientifique. Paris, France

Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Belém, Pará, BrasilMuseu Paraense Emílio GoeldiBrasilBelém, Pará, BrasilMuseu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Belém, Pará, Brasil

Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle. Paris, FranceMuséum National d’Histoire NaturelleFranceParis, FranceMuséum National d’Histoire Naturelle. Paris, France

Figures

Figures (14)

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Figure 1
Amazonian statue inventoried under the number 71.1887.160.1 at the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum.

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Figure 2
Temple of the hats among the Carajás of the Araguaia River, Brazil. Originally, the Amazonian statue may have been planted in such ceremonial mound or ritual area of this kind.

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Figure 3
Amazonian statue, on the left very approximately drawn in ‘The Illustration’ (Joanne, 1847Joanne, A. (1847). Voyage de M. de Castelnau dans l’Amérique du Sud. L’Illustration, 239, 59-62.), which most certainly served as a model for the drawing published in the piece ‘A estatua amasonica’, on the right.

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Figure 4
Map of the upper Amazon locating the places and ethnic groups mentioned in the text.

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Figure 5
Funerary anthromorphic urns of Guarita culture (top: from Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi; bottom: from Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, Universidade de São Paulo.

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Figure 6
Figurines of polished basalt from Ecuadorian Amazon, of uncertain provenance (at the left, National Museum of Ecuador). Photo: S. Rostain (2012)Rostain, S. (2012). Islands in the rainforest: landscape management in pre-Columbian Amazonia (New Frontiers in Historical Ecology). Left Coast Press.; at the right, surroundings of Macas, private collection.

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Figure 7
Polished stone sculpture for hallucinogen inhalation, from the Óbidos area, lower Amazon, Brazil. Nearly thirty of these objects have been found in this region and they are considered to be related to the practice of hallucinogenic powder taking (Dobrée Museum of Nantes).

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Figure 8
Protuberance between the legs of the Amazonian statue: a male sex or a small being captured?

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Figure 9
Statue of the site of Alto Lavapatas, Colombia, San Augustin culture.

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Figure 10
Conibo girl, Peru, before her ritual excision marking her passage to adulthood, with her face painted in gold yellow clay, her hair blue and her lower lip pierced by a silver fish. She is accompanied by an anthropomorphic wooden statue.

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Figure 11
Large wooden Witoto statue, Upper Amazon.

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Figure 12
Couple of wooden Witoto statues, Upper Amazon.

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Figure 13
Traces of manufacture, use and mutilation of the Amazonian statue. Six periods of manufacture and use can be recognized on the basis of use-wear: 1. Initial phase of the sculpture’s shaping. 2. Alteration resulting from the exposure. 3. Bush hammering, rectification and remodeling. 4. Levelling of the right flank. 5. Partial destroying of the surface by coarse circular impacts. 6. Recent shocks because of the transport and handling.

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Figure 14
Installation of the statue for the permanent exhibition at Musée du Quai Branly -Jacques Chirac, in October 2019.

Figure 1 Amazonian statue inventoried under the number 71.1887.160.1 at the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum.

Photo: S. Rostain (2019)Rostain, S. (Ed.). (2019). Stupéfiante Amazonie. Éditions du Grand Patrimoine de Loire-Atlantique..

Figure 2 Temple of the hats among the Carajás of the Araguaia River, Brazil. Originally, the Amazonian statue may have been planted in such ceremonial mound or ritual area of this kind.

Source: Castelnau (1848, plate 9)Castelnau, F. (1848). L’Araguaia, scènes de Voyage dans l’Amérique du Sud. Revue des Deux Mondes, 3, 151-169..

Figure 3 Amazonian statue, on the left very approximately drawn in ‘The Illustration’ (Joanne, 1847Joanne, A. (1847). Voyage de M. de Castelnau dans l’Amérique du Sud. L’Illustration, 239, 59-62.), which most certainly served as a model for the drawing published in the piece ‘A estatua amasonica’, on the right.

Source: Porto-Alegre (1851, plate II)Porto-Alegre, M. A. (1851). A estatua amasonica, comedia archeologica. Typographia de Francisco de Paula Brito. [Bibliotheca Guanabarense]..

Figure 4 Map of the upper Amazon locating the places and ethnic groups mentioned in the text.

Drawing: Rostain (2019)Rostain, S. (Ed.). (2019). Stupéfiante Amazonie. Éditions du Grand Patrimoine de Loire-Atlantique..

Figure 5 Funerary anthromorphic urns of Guarita culture (top: from Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi; bottom: from Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, Universidade de São Paulo.

Photo: E. Oliveira (2018).

Figure 6 Figurines of polished basalt from Ecuadorian Amazon, of uncertain provenance (at the left, National Museum of Ecuador). Photo: S. Rostain (2012)Rostain, S. (2012). Islands in the rainforest: landscape management in pre-Columbian Amazonia (New Frontiers in Historical Ecology). Left Coast Press.; at the right, surroundings of Macas, private collection.

Source: Drawing S. Rostain quoted in Paymal & Sosa (1993, p. 38)Paymal, N., & Sosa, C. (Eds.). (1993). Amazon worlds: Peoples and cultures of Ecuador’s Amazon region. Sinchi Sacha Foundation..

Figure 7 Polished stone sculpture for hallucinogen inhalation, from the Óbidos area, lower Amazon, Brazil. Nearly thirty of these objects have been found in this region and they are considered to be related to the practice of hallucinogenic powder taking (Dobrée Museum of Nantes).

Photo: S. Rostain (2019)Rostain, S. (Ed.). (2019). Stupéfiante Amazonie. Éditions du Grand Patrimoine de Loire-Atlantique..

Figure 8 Protuberance between the legs of the Amazonian statue: a male sex or a small being captured?

Source: Scan 3DFaro by G. Chaumet (Institut national d’histoire de l’art - INHA) (2019).

Figure 9 Statue of the site of Alto Lavapatas, Colombia, San Augustin culture.

Photo: A. Delpuech (2017).

Figure 10 Conibo girl, Peru, before her ritual excision marking her passage to adulthood, with her face painted in gold yellow clay, her hair blue and her lower lip pierced by a silver fish. She is accompanied by an anthropomorphic wooden statue.

Source: Waisbard and Waisbard (1958, p. 201).

Figure 11 Large wooden Witoto statue, Upper Amazon.

Source: Yépez (1982, cover).

Figure 12 Couple of wooden Witoto statues, Upper Amazon.

Source: Steward (1948, plate 82).

Figure 13 Traces of manufacture, use and mutilation of the Amazonian statue. Six periods of manufacture and use can be recognized on the basis of use-wear: 1. Initial phase of the sculpture’s shaping. 2. Alteration resulting from the exposure. 3. Bush hammering, rectification and remodeling. 4. Levelling of the right flank. 5. Partial destroying of the surface by coarse circular impacts. 6. Recent shocks because of the transport and handling.

Photos: C. Hamon; scan statue G. Chaumet (2019).

Figure 14 Installation of the statue for the permanent exhibition at Musée du Quai Branly -Jacques Chirac, in October 2019.

Photo: P. Nuñez-Regueiro (2019).

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The Amazonian statue. A biography of a famous and polemic artifact from Brazil

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[1] Autora para correspondência: Cristiana Barreto. Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Coordenação de Ciências Humanas. Av. Perimetral, 1901. Belém, PA, Brasil. CEP 66077-830 (cristianabarreto@gmail.com)