Necklace with zoomorphic pendants

Tukúna women make necklaces made from the shells of tucúm palm nuts. Half a nutshell is the perfect material for a skilled artist to carve various figures, usually zoomorphic. The pendants on this necklace represent capybaras, birds, lizards and beetles. The necklace was made with great precision and attention to detail, thanks to which it perfectly imitates the world of animals surrounding the Indians: Not only the general types of animal but even the genus can be distinguished without difficulty, for example, certain types of beetles, the pupae of a specific family of moths. These figures, a dozen or more, threaded on a thin string made of tucúm fibre, are worn by women and girls every day as necklaces - this is how Boris Malkin, a collector and researcher of Latin American cultures, wrote about the work of Tukún Indians. Boris Malkin was born on 20 November 1917 in Vitebsk. From his early youth, he developed geographical and naturalistic talents and showed a great passion for collecting. In 1938, he moved to the United States, where he studied anthropology and biology. He obtained his master's degree at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. His first trip to South America was in 1957. During the trip, he saw the enormous research potential of the Indian communities and the continent's natural world, which led him to give up his academic career. His goal became research expeditions and collecting collections for world museums. He participated in dozens of expeditions documenting the lives of 42 ethnic groups. His exhibits influenced the development of American ethnographic collections of many museums in the Americas and Europe, including Poland. He collected 17,500 ethnographic objects and over a million natural specimens. The most extensive ethnographic collection - 3520 objects - is currently held by the Museum der Kulturen in Basel, Switzerland. Szczecin's collection contains about 150 exhibits. Borys Malkin died on 12 August 2009 in Warsaw.

Katarzyna Findlik-Gawron