The Kayapò call themselves Mebêngôkre", which literally means “people who came from the water”. They live in the Amazonian forest (Xingu) in 17 villages. Kayapo villages are usually round, with the men’s house in the middle, which is the hub of village life.
The Kayapo give great importance to the various festivals during which they relive in ritual dance and joy, the wisdom of the ancestors and their birth as a people. They are famous for their body painting, feather art, and craft.
We believe it is a rich display of the artifacts of this people.
It is the oldest and most sought out collection from the early days of our Museum. The first pieces began to arrive in the early years of the 1900. The collection documents the life and customs of the Chinese people and offers a vivid picture of this great civilization, as it appeared in the early 20th century. As is the case for all ethnographic museums, this material shows a picture of a society at that time, but it also shows its genius and innovative approaches. As we admire the solutions adopted by the Chinese culture of that time to solve the problems of life and the environment, we stand in awe in front of the great vitality, ingenuity and dynamism, still present in today’s Chinese society.
