Curator Laura Osorio examines an Amazonian dolphin tooth necklace and discuss the dolphin's cultural significance to indigenous Amazonian people. #CuratorsCorner #Amazon
The Amazonian dolphins are also known as Botos and they are involved in a legend in the northern region of Brazil, usually told to justify a single woman's pregnancy, because of its shape shifting powers. Thus, the children without known father are called, sometimes, sons of boto.
@@novusvoss to go inside indigineous culture in general, the first thing you MUST do is eraser from your brain everything you have in mind. Open space for a new point of view. The second thing as important as the first one is to undesrtand their environment. From where their symbology comes from and why. After practicing these two steps your doudt will be solved.
I always look forward to these videos, they've become my favourite way of learning about world history. I'd never known about necklaces like these, such a fascinating window into the world and its varied cultures.
@@djStrimmer The people who are now custodians of these objects were once the reason for their creation. As opposed to many other cultures that just want their belonging back, they simply asked them to take care of them. Either they are very big people, or they hope that the dolphin necklace will keep doing it's magic here in dolphin land :P
@@Gwyd13 I think they were "healed" as in; they were happy that someone is caring for their heritage while their own stuff is gone forever. I hope they can get it back some day, but for now I think they were happy that people want to learn about them at all.
What an interesting video. Thank you so much for sharing this and explaining it especially well. It’s very clear that you love your work and have great respect for the history and significance of these necklaces. Meeting the elders, hearing their stories and learning from them must have been a wonderful experience. So sad the suffering we inflict upon each other.
Thank you very much for that lesson on the Amazonian culture and history that I'm sure a lot of people didn't know about. It was very sad and also interesting at the same time. Strange how such an item can mean so much to the Tribal Elders and we look at them as just another piece of jewelry. I hope the Elders left there with some peace within themselves, with any connection they made with their Elders. So educational! Great Job!!
Im glad you didn't sweep the history of these objects, specifically the circumstances surrounding why it is that y'all have these objects, under the rug.
@Upgrayedd Wow look at all that implied and explicit racism. It truly is a thing of beautiful self-deception. Next you'll tell me the Atlantic slave trade was all the fault of one guy named Joe.
SA: She said nothing about how each of these objects were collected. She gave some general background history of the era, but none of that did she ascribe to these necklaces.
@Upgrayedd Rubber plantations operated pretty much like banana republics. So most of the workers weren't even doing it for a good and fair payment nor the companies followed any restriction or respected local laws. The Peruvians let the english and US companies exploit their resources, and these started to traverse into Colombian territory to take upon our rubber trees on our part of the Amazon with no permission at all, the only population of that region at the time where the indigenous, so those rubber companies lead a massacre over these invaded territories, killing many entire communities, while the Peruvian army advanced and took over various bordering towns and claimed many of our Amazonian territories. A conflict between bot nations was started, and the Peruvians mostly retreated back to their country, but it finally ended up with treaty, a redistribution of land and better definition of the border.
I cannot express how happy I am to see reporting like this, please keep it up! Uncovering and showing the atrocities of the past AS atrocities I sincerely hope can be somewhat healing, or at the minimum make people think about where their products are coming from and how they can take personal interest in the wellbeing of those workers and communities. That last sentiment that he left you with, “I saw the objects of my ancestors and I was healed,” is a precious insight. A lot of us don’t know what it feels like to be from those cultures and areas that were ripped apart and enslaved in various fashions. Understanding what those people need for healing is imperative.
Dude the dolphin or "boto" legend is used as a mean of explaining fatherly sexual abuse on thdir own children... i know the lady's explanations agree with yout white guilt but the reality is that those indians are as shitty as everything from the western hemisphere - if not worse
"I saw the objects of my elders/ancestors and I was healed." That is a really powerful sentiment right there, and I would give much to see the objects of mine.
She matched her gloves, shirt, filing cabinet, scenery out the window and even some of the books all in green. Even the sticker on the right side of the bookshelf is green. Very coordinated.
Someday we will all be healed. And the evil within mankind will fade. Like a beautiful sunset. And a new Dawn will rise without Hate and injustice. But we need to keep history alive Thanks British museum. That was a great story wovin with sadness. Like most history, lest we forget. Thanks
In the Upper Orinoco of Venezuela very similar beliefs on dolphins changing to human form at night. My late brother in law Biyi Melgueiro in his book 'Sobrevivir En Amazonas' has a quite detailed account relating to a dolphin shape changer attending a dance and indigenous belief in these changelings. By the way dolphin changlings have no belly button and strangers especially at night and at fiestas are asked to show their belly button. Their impregnating girls and young women results in the death of the woman in childbirth.
Wow, I didn't knew the dolphin legends were present in other amazonian regions out of the Brazilian territory. And they have some other interesting particularities. Love the video!
There are similar stories in Northern Europe where I live but all the ones I've heard relate to seals rather than dolphins. We don't have very many dolphins but we've got lots of seals. I have always loved folk stories since I was a child. When my children were young I read them a lot of stories from other parts of the world (South America, Africa, China, Australia etc.) and although they were quite varied, there are lots of themes and structures that seem to pop up over and over again.
I noticed there's some comments about the photo shown around 3:30, specifically that it looks weirdly photo-shopped. Apparently it's from a book called "The Putumayo: The Devil's Paradise; travels in the Peruvian Amazon region and an account of the atrocities committed upon the Indians therein", published in 1913. You can see the whole book on the Internet Archive and the photo really looks like that. There's no explanation for why it looks edited, just a caption: "chained Indian rubber gatherers in the stocks on the Putumayo river".
Thanks for the source! I found that the book also can be read and downloaded from Project Gutenberg. I suspect the film or print was a bit damaged, rather than being edited. The frontispiece says it was first published in 1912, apparently as part of a British campaign to expose slavery on rubber plantations. If the photos came from Hardenburg (from the US) whose narrative makes up much of the book, his exposed film no doubt traveled with him through a long trip by foot and canoe.
If you are interested in the rubber boom and Amazonian cultures, I highly recommend the movie Embrace of the Serpent. It is currently available on Amazon prime.
A wonderful film! It was beautifully shot, and it seems the Colombian filmmakers worked respectfully with indigenous people on this fictionalized depiction of two white men who traveled through the Amazon in 1909 and 1940. The character of the shaman who guides both men is shown wearing a tooth necklace.
Makes me so happy to see them talking about Amazonian culture! Even though the region is made out of many different countries, there are lots of common aspects between them, specially our legends and empirical knowledge : ) the legend of the boto is very popular on Brazil's Amazon, but they just make babies and vanish lol and the male children become a boto as well. It's something made to make the girls and families feel better about having a fatherless child, basically
Shape-shifting plays great part in Native American theology/spiritualism. Ancient myths from all over the world hint that this was once a pan-human spiritual construct. I am a Chickasaw/Cherokee mixed Native from the US and I have made similar necklaces. I'm wearing one right now. It has a centerpiece of a thunderbird carved out of oak and is hanging next to a bronze Mjolnir because I may be Native, but I'm also proud of my Germanic heritage.
Thank you so much for your lecture, maybe the best I ever listen to because it was so complex and complete, in less then 10 minutes: you started with that enjoyable story of the Dolphins cruising the bars at night, then you taught us about the rubber slavery. Finally, you made clear the function of the museum: to connect the living people with their past through conservation and exposition of objects. I m serious when I m telling you that you are great narrator: I would listen to your knowledge all the time. I'll bookmark this video and PLEASE, I m expecting more lessons from you... Go in politics, we need you!
A beautiful video, and wonderful presenter. I would ask that, if anyone from the British Museum reads this comment, can you please transcribe the native names she used beyond those already spelled out in the video? I apologize deeply for the request, but I was not able to quite make out some of the words she used.
Acho que no Brasil o buraco do Boto fica na cabeça e não na nuca, por isso do chapéu. Mas não sei se tem essa parte de ser um cara branco (nunca fui pras regiões da origem das lendas, mas não lembro de ter ouvido essa caracteristica específica, apesar que é o Boto rosa mesmo).
I do love your videos, but this handled the destruction thanks to westerners that I feel is lacking from a lot of the other British Museum videos. Well done!
I don't think anyone can be healed from genocide, slavery and theft. But at least she pointed out that, most of the treasures in British museum have one of those treats incommon. She did a great and fair job, regarding the sircumstances.
I really enjoyed this video and I think it was well presented. I like that it went from a light-hearted explanation of the necklaces to a more serious tone. Was the shape shifting hairstyle on purpose or just different takes? Not complaining.
The legend of the botu. The pink dolphins who come when the rivers run high. They come while the men are away, the woman fall under a love spell from the botu and they make love with the village woman. When the men come home to find their women pregnant the women say they were charmed by the beautiful botu who pretended to be men. Something like that.🐬🐬🐬
Given that Amazonian River Dolphins are all so endangered, even seeings them, let alone making new necklaces out of their teeth, must be incredibly rare nowadays. I wonder whether the elders she mentioned made a note of that?
Interesting video. My girlfriend has a thing for teeth , has a bunch of teeth tattoos and I’ve given her human teeth, mostly children’s baby teeth, that she keeps in a fancy jar on the mantles I had a tooth that was giving me problems, loose and hurting. I finally pulled it out myself using a chisel to pry it up. I made a setting for it out of a sterling ring and put it on a chain for her and gave it to her for her birthday...she loved it of course!
That's a thing. Teeth are super specific , micro minerals in water , form teeth slightly different for each well , teeth are very kewl. They last a long time. . they are strair up kewl.
The dolphins, called the pink dolphin, are characteristically fair in tone and with a flush of pink. This might be why only the dolphins were used? considering the white men would have gone up the rivers in boats? Indigenous people's symbolism was incredible.
I think all of the museums across the world that have native artifacts owe it to those cultures & survivors of genocide to share their story as often as possible. People really want to erase them.
@Mycel Yes, because of the ridiculously badly painted face and the chains. Think about it now...would you let that 'artist' paint over flaws in your photographs?
I love these Brit museum bits, but I find this lady very hard to understand. I had to replay several bits multiple times before understanding dawned. Still, well worth the effort.
We're getting an increase in these kinds of comments. Were the subtitles working for you? We make them manually to make sure they are correct and live when a video goes up, but we're not sure they're going live now...
@@britishmuseum as I am from the US, I also had a bit of difficulty at times understanding your lovely English accent. I really appreciated the closed captions (also helpful for the South American words). Since you have an international audience, perhaps these videos could have a note at the title section alerting people to the fact that the captions are available? Anyway, thanks for the wonderful talk!
The "boto" or dolphin legend is actually used as a cover up for indian fathers that sexually abuse their own baby girls. The museum may try to have a monopoly on knowledge, but the truth is EVERYONE in the amazon knows that "dolphin" cases mean sexual abuse by the ones you trust the most - guess what, indians can be as evil as the colonizers
I recall a book 'speaking with vampires', an examination of vampire stories in East and Central Africa during the colonial period. A lot of sad similarities there between the vampiric actions of white colonialists there, and the rapacious actions of white colonialists here. Interested parallels with how the oral traditions of the local communities responded to the presence of colonial exploitation.
