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Tangas of the Marajó (Brazil): ornamental pubic covers, their typology and meaning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

André Prous
André Prous*
Affiliation:
*Centro especializado de arqueologia pré-histórica, Museu de História Natural, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Rua Gustavo da Silveira, 1035, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31080-010, Brazil (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Tangas are small convex triangular pottery covers found in large numbers in the Amazon delta. Their suggestive shape has long been attributed to use as a cover or shield for the female Mound of Venus, for protection, modesty (‘cache-sexe’ is the French term) or embellishment. Here the author offers a typology and searches for correlations between the shapes, sizes and patterns of the tangas and the date, location, purpose and status of the women who wore them. He emphasises that in spite of this advance, better understanding requires new information from properly designed excavations; 85 per cent of known tangas have been acquired by looting, purchase or low-precision digging.

Keywords

BrazilAmazonMarajófirst millennium ADAD 500–1300sexfemininitypubic covertanga
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 337 , September 2013 , pp. 815 - 828
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

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