Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen e os trajes dos ameríndios

Abstract

In 1644, in the heart of The Hague, in present-day Netherlands, Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen promoted a party for the wealthy citizens to display his Cabinet of Curiosities and his conquests in Brazil. In a moment of horror, there was a performance with 11 native Brazilians: all the doors were closed and the “anthropophagous Amerindians” did their presentation, some dressed in ritualistic attire, some nude, in a never seen before scandal in The Hague, powerful enough to perpetuate the image of the “South American savage” that still prevails today. This article is about the attire and the (non)costume habits of the Brazilian Indians. The main theoretical references are Buvelot (2014) and Françozo (2014).