American Collections

The Museum's American collections include mostly pieces from the many Amazonian cultures of Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. The oldest form part of the collections gathered by the Pacific Scientific Commission (1862-1865).

The bulk of the Amazonian collections is made up of the items collected by Captain Francisco Iglesias Brage between 1933 and 1934, mediator for the League of Nations in a border conflict between Peru and Colombia in the area known as the Leticia Triangle. Pieces from the Ticuna, Cubeo, Karajá and Parintintin cultures, among others, stand out. These include ornaments, masks, weapons, domestic equipment and musical instruments, as well as an interesting collection of Shipibo pottery.

These two collections stand beside others, the result of fieldwork carried out by Spanish anthropologists in different communities in Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador. Of all the Amazonian pieces, the most spectacular are the collection of featherwork headdresses and ornaments, with examples from the Tapirapé, Kayapó, Karajá and Erigpatsá cultures.

The Andean area is well represented with masks, musical instruments and clothing from various regions of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. From the Southern Cone, some 19th century objects from various Patagonian cultures stand out.

The Caribbean, and its communities of African descent in particular, anchor two unique collections of musical instruments and ritual objects, the collection on voodoo religion (Haiti), and that of the Abakuá Society and ñáñigos from Cuba.

From Mesoamerica, the important collection of Purchase cultural objects (Mexico) is worth mentioning, as well as the collection of clothing from various Mayan cultures in Guatemala.

In North America, the clothing of groups from the Great Plains area stands out, as well as the Kachina dolls of the Hopi and the basketry collection from the Southwest. The museum has important collections from the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic, with items from the late 19th to the late 20th century.

In addition to ethnographic materials, there are some examples of items from pre-Hispanic cultures, especially Andean ceramics, as well as examples of colonial art, including two series of 18th century casta paintings.