Arbre de l’Ahouaï. · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Arbre de l’Ahouaï.
Period: 1550-1600;
Geographic: Brazil; South America; Paris; France
Description: Two Indigenous men and a child stand around an ahouai tree (as named by the author, today known as thevetia ahouai). The man on the left threads the items harvested from the tree (dried fruit or nuts) onto a string to make a leg rattle, like those worn by the man on the right. The man on the right dances with one hand on his hip, wearing leg rattles and holding a maraca or religious item in the other hand. Both men wear feathered headdresses. This image is identical to one found on page 922 of Paris 1575 (Chaudière), and in Thevet’s Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique (page 66 verso of Paris 1557, page 66 verso of Paris 1558).
Image Creator: Unknown (Woodcutter);Pierre l'Huillier (Printer); Unknown (Woodcutter); Pierre l'Huillier (Printer)
Type: StillImage; Woodcut
Identifier: mta:23501
Language: fre
Source Name: La Cosmographie Vniverselle d’André Thevet Cosmographe du Roy
Parent Collection: 1575 Huillier; 1575 Huillier
Image: mta_23501_OBJ.png
Collection: European Illustrations of Native Americans
Subject: Indigenous peoples – Brazil; Tupi; Tupinamba; Indigenous peoples – South America – Music; Maraca; Rattle (Musical instrument)