Kayapo/Mekranoti Headdress (Akkapa-ri)

Brazil

Mid-20th century

Feathers, cotton, reed

The Kayapo’s religious, social, and natural worlds are all interconnected. The Akkapa-ri is worn during the Corn Festival, which celebrates the myth of how their ancestors discovered and learned how to cultivate corn. The headdress reflects the Kayapo view of the cosmos. It is worn by inserting the stick into a decorative beeswax hat called a kutop, which represents the physical world. The feather headdress symbolizes the sky, and the stick is the rope by which the Kayapos’ ancestors descended to earth.