NEO-CANNIBALISM

Reinterpretation of the work Tapuia Woman (1641), by the Dutch painter Albert Eckhout, for the exhibition of the Fashion course at the Istituto Europeo di Design - IED Madrid.

This work presents a photographic series that explores the subtlety and details of the "clothes" and adornments of an indigenous woman from the Tapuia tribe, one of the native groups that inhabited colonial Brazil.

However, beyond the aesthetic and costume research present as part of the Fashion Course in which this work was developed, students have been invited to reflect on the cultural context in which the original work (currently preserved in the National Museum of Copenhagen in Denmark) contributed to the development of a stereotypical image of indigenous peoples in the minds of Europeans.

The accounts of cannibalism depicted in the work in question were used as evidence of the supposed "barbarism" of indigenous peoples, depicting them as "savages" and justifying their subjugation and exploitation by European colonizers. These accounts were also distorted and exaggerated as part of a propaganda strategy to dehumanize indigenous peoples and legitimize colonization and the "civilizing mission" of Europeans.

In fact, cannibalism used to represent a ritual practice among American indigenous peoples, based on spiritual beliefs, in which the consumption of the flesh of defeated enemies was carried out with the conviction that the group would receive their powers and attributes, with the aim of strengthening the community.