{"id":"MUS2026-020","label":"Matapu, the fish spirit of the pequi festival","people_or_site":"Wauja (Waurá)","country_current":"Brazil","historic_region":"Upper Xingu, Mato Grosso","macroregion":"South America / Brazil","local_name":"matapu / aripe","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"Portuguese / French / English","object_description":"Flat wooden fish-shaped bullroarers, normally made in male-female pairs, 40–70 cm long, painted for the fish represented and tied by cord to a pole about two metres long; NMAI 25/4970 is a 63.5 × 11 × 0.4 cm Wauja example with one terminal hole and surviving cord. Quai Branly 71.1971.43.104 and 71.1971.43.105 are a Wauja pair from the Upper Xingu (43.5 × 9 × 1 and 45 × 8.5 × 1 cm, wood with polychrome painting), each made for the pequi festival and representing a fish spirit; .104 keeps its twisted-fibre cord, .105 a twist of red fibre at the tail slot.","function_summary":"Restricted Wauja instrument of the pequi-harvest cycle; during the celebration performers carry matapu to guardian-spirit masters' houses and spin them before each house while women remain indoors.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"smithsonian_nmai","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ws63e8674c8-ae05-4440-b312-8e394d3a24d8","page_or_plate":"National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) | Ball 2011:105–106; Barcelos Neto 2021:11–12, fig. 9; NMAI 25/4970; Quai Branly 170656/170657; Coelho 1991/92 (BSSA 55/56): 37-56, esp. 39-42, 45, 52-53, 56","map_confidence":"medium_high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Piyulaga village used as a representative modern Wauja community anchor. Ball's pp. 105–106 matapu passage does not name the village, and none of the pictured museum objects is localized there.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"During the pequi festival, Wauja performers carry fish-shaped matapu from the village centre to the houses of the guardian-spirit masters and spin them before each house. The painted blades embody fish spirits, made in male-and-female pairs — a smaller one is aripe, 'grandfather,' and miniatures are whittled for children. Women stay indoors, forbidden to see them turning; the men who spin them are painted with temepé-aná, the anaconda motif. Wauja myth remembers an earlier age when women owned the sacred kawoka flutes, before the matapu helped drive them off and men took the instruments. The matapu's songs demand porridge and fish; the supernatural prototype, matapu-kumã, is itself a fish spirit.","pull_quote":"As mulheres ficam presas dentro de casa, pois não lhes é permitido ver o matapu em movimento.","pull_quote_translation":"The women stay shut inside the house, for they are not permitted to see the matapu in movement.","pull_quote_cite":"Mello, Música e Mito entre os Wauja do Alto Xingu (Diss., UFSC, 1999:142)","term_gloss":"matapu: the Wauja bullroarer, itself an apapaatae (supernatural being) and not merely a spirit's instrument; sexed male or female. matapu-kumã: the supernatural or prototypical bullroarer represented as a fish spirit. aripe: 'grandfather', the smallest roarer of the set, who in his song wants only to eat pequi uncooked. mulu-mulu: boys' miniature roarers. Alapaga-kuma: chief of the roarers.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","snake","women_taboo","women_special","female_priority_myth","agriculture"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":true,"f_snake":true,"sources":[{"citation":"Vera Penteado Coelho, 'A festa do pequi e o zunidor entre os índios Waura,' Bulletin de la Société Suisse des Américanistes 55/56 (1991/92): 37-56, pp. 39-42, 45, 52-53, 56"},{"citation":"Aristóteles Barcelos Neto, Apapaatai (PhD thesis, USP, 2004), p. 150"},{"citation":"Aristóteles Barcelos Neto, 'A flauta-jaguar e outros aerofones wauja,' Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi 16(3), e20200127 (2021), pp. 11-12, fig. 9","url":"https://doi.org/10.1590/2178-2547-BGOELDI-2020-0127"},{"citation":"Christopher Ball, 'As Spirits Speak,' Journal de la Société des américanistes 97(1) (2011): 87-117, pp. 105-106","url":"https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/11657","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260208185741/https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/11657"},{"citation":"Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, object 25/4970","url":"http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ws63e8674c8-ae05-4440-b312-8e394d3a24d8"},{"citation":"Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, objects 170656 and 170657"},{"citation":"Mello, Música e Mito entre os Wauja do Alto Xingu (dissertation, UFSC, 1999), p. 142"}],"source_citations":"Vera Penteado Coelho, 'A festa do pequi e o zunidor entre os índios Waura,' Bulletin de la Société Suisse des Américanistes 55/56 (1991/92): 37-56, pp. 39-42, 45, 52-53, 56; Aristóteles Barcelos Neto, Apapaatai (PhD thesis, USP, 2004), p. 150; Aristóteles Barcelos Neto, 'A flauta-jaguar e outros aerofones wauja,' Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi 16(3), e20200127 (2021), pp. 11-12, fig. 9; Christopher Ball, 'As Spirits Speak,' Journal de la Société des américanistes 97(1) (2011): 87-117, pp. 105-106; Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, object 25/4970; Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, objects 170656 and 170657; Mello, Música e Mito entre os Wauja do Alto Xingu (dissertation, UFSC, 1999), p. 142","source_display":"Vera Penteado Coelho, 'A festa do pequi e o zunidor entre os índios Waura,' Bulletin de la Société Suisse des Américanistes 55/56 (1991/92): 37-56, pp. 39-42, 45, 52-53, 56; Aristóteles Barcelos Neto, Apapaatai (PhD thesis, USP, 2004), p. 150; Aristóteles Barcelos Neto, 'A flauta-jaguar e outros aerofones wauja,' Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Flat wooden fish-shaped bullroarers, normally made in male-female pairs, 40–70 cm long, painted for the fish represented and tied by cord to a pole about two metres long; NMAI 25/4970 is a 63.5 × 11 × 0.4 cm Wauja example with one terminal hole and surviving cord. Quai Branly 71.1971.43.104 and 71.1971.43.105 are a Wauja pair from the Upper Xingu (43.5 × 9 × 1 and 45 × 8.5 × 1 cm, wood with polychrome painting), each made for the pequi festival and representing a fish spirit; .104 keeps its twisted-fibre cord, .105 a twist of red fibre at the tail slot.","function_display":"Restricted Wauja instrument of the pequi-harvest cycle; during the celebration performers carry matapu to guardian-spirit masters' houses and spin them before each house while women remain indoors.","confidence_display":"medium to high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"wauja","display_name":"Matapu, the fish spirit of the pequi festival","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-020_nmai_25-4970_wauja.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-020_nmai_25-4970_wauja_thumb.jpg","credit":"National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution (25/4970)","license":"Usage Conditions Apply (NMAI)","source_page":"https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_270836","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Wauja matapu painted with interlocking black diamonds and chevrons.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_15/MUS2026-020_barcelos2021_fig9.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_15/thumbs/MUS2026-020_barcelos2021_fig9_thumb.jpg","alt":"Ajoukuma Wauja’s drawing of the matapu-kumã fish-spirit blade: red-and-black, forked at the top, with a cord arcing to a tall narrow whirling pole.","credit":"Ajoukuma Wauja, drawing of matapu-kuma (2000), in Aristoteles Barcelos Neto 2021, fig. 9","license":"CC BY 4.0","source_page":"https://doi.org/10.1590/2178-2547-BGOELDI-2020-0127","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Ajoukuma Wauja's supernatural matapu-kumã: fish-spirit blade, cord, and long whirling pole."},{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-020_mqb_71-1971-43-104_wauja.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-020_mqb_71-1971-43-104_wauja_thumb.jpg","credit":"© Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac","license":"N/A","source_page":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/#/objet/170656","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Wauja fish-spirit matapu made for the pequi festival, with its twisted-fibre cord."},{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-020_mqb_71-1971-43-105_wauja.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-020_mqb_71-1971-43-105_wauja_thumb.jpg","credit":"© Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac","license":"N/A","source_page":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/#/objet/170657","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Wauja fish-spirit matapu made for the pequi festival, a twist of red fibre at its tail slot."}]},"slug":"mus2026-020-wauja-waura"}