The Making of an Exhibit Hall: Bringing to Life Amazonian Indian Culture

The curator of a major museum tells about the creation of an exhibition, from beginning to end. Never before has the design and installation of anthropology exhibit been described in such detail. Not only are technical matters discussed, such as how to simulate a tropical rainforest in miniature and how the noxious fumes of urea formaldehyde are blocked from harming the specimens on exhibit, but there is also an endless recounting of stories about the various exhibits: Thus we read of a mother who is engaged in funerary endocannibalism, sifting through the shed of her cremated infant daughter, looking for every bit of bone and tooth which she will grind up, mix with banna drink, and ingest... we see shaman blowing tobacco onto a straw doll to bring it to life and help him in drawing a missing soul away from the evil spirit who stole it...the curator tells how he came to have in his office enough curare to kill ten thousand monkeys...then there too is Ogomigi, the dreaded double-headed vulture who devours the souls of dead Kuikuru Indians. And there is a lot more...