Mamulengo hand puppet of a 'Padre' (priest) character. Head and hands are carved from wood and painted. He has light pink-beige skin, wide almond-shaped black eyes, rounded eyebrows, large triangular nose, and a small rectangular mouth with thin red lips. He has painted short black hair. His fabric body / tunic is black with a lace scarf draped around his neck and down the front. The fabric is adhered(?) to the hands and head, and wrapped with shiny black ribbon at the wrists and white ribbon at the neck. Operated by inserting a hand inside the body of the puppet to control its head and movements.

• History Of Use

  The puppet represents a character from a form of popular puppet theatre, found in northeastern Brazil, called mamulengo. This type of theatre is prevalent in disenfranchised communities with ancestral ties to colonized Indigenous peoples and uprooted, enslaved Africans. Mamulengo performances are entertaining events that can last all night long, with puppeteers (mamulengueiros) using 70 to 100 puppets in one staging. The stages are pop-up stands (empanadas), made of brightly coloured, floral-printed cloth. The shows consist of short sequences (passagens), or skits from popular stories that expose the inequalities and dramas of everyday life, profiling stock characters such as rich landowners and peasant labourers. The whole is spun together with humour, satire, lively music, and audience commentary.

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• Type of Item puppet
• Culture Brazilian
• Material wood, fibre, paint
• Measurements height 62.0 cm, width 57.8 cm, depth 9.0 cm (overall)

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• Creator Jose Edvan Ferreira de
• Previous Owner Associacao Cultural de Amigos do Museu de Folclore Edison Carneiro
• Received from Associacao Cultural de Amigos do Museu de Folclore Edison Carneiro, Museum of Anthropology Exhibitions Budget

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• Made in Gloria do Goita

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• Creation Date during 2018
• Ownership Date before July 25, 2019
• Acquisition Date on July 25, 2019

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• Condition good
• Accession Number 3381/0008