[Tupinambá people bury their dead] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [Tupinambá people bury their dead]
Subject: Village communities; Indigenous peoples of South America - Brazil; Tupi; Tupinamba; Indigenous peoples – Funeral customs and rites – South America; Burial customs
Period: 1550-1600;
Geographic: Germany; Holy Roman Empire; Brazil; South America; Marburg (Germany)
Description: A group of Tupinambá people are gathered at the center of their village to bury their dead. Two deceased individuals, possibly wrapped in cloth, are being lowered into holes dug in the center of the village. There are women in mourning crouched beside each of the holes, and a line of men standing to the side near the village fence, in discussion with a bearded man (likely representing Staden). The village is comprised of three long structures surrounded by a fence. In the bottom left corner there is a canoe anchored by the shore. There are stars in the sky, and a moon with a face that gazes down at the group. One Indigenous man stares up at the moon with one hand outstretched toward it.
Image Creator: Hans Staden (Artist); Unknown (Woodcutter); Andres Kolben (Printer)
Type: StillImage; Woodcut
Identifier: mta:22927
Language: ger
Source Name: Warhaftige Historia vnd beschreibung eyner Landtschafft der Wilden, Nacketen, Grimmigen Menschfresser Leuthen, in der Newenwelt America gelegen, vor vnd nach Christi geburt im Land zu Hessen vnbekant, biß vff dise ij. nechst vergangene jar, Da sie Hans Staden von Homberg auß Hessen durch sein eygne erfarung erkant, vnd jetzo durch den truck an tag gibt.
Parent Collection: 1557 Marburg
Image: mta_22927_OBJ.png

Media: mta_22927_OBJ.png