Conservação preventiva de plumárias indígenas em acervos museológicos: avaliação das condições de conservação dos adornos plumários Kaapor na coleção etnográfica do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi

Abstract

The feather adornments are a part of the material culture of several Brazilian indigenous groups. Saved in museums, collections of featherwork need special care that allow longevity to this material of extreme fragility. Despite this vulnerability and the importance of the preservation of these objects are still incipient the researches of conservation of this matter, mainly in Brazil. Therefore, starting from the concept of Preventive Conservation, this work aimed to adjusting the Pearlstein model (2017) to evaluate the conservation status of feathered adornments safeguarded at the Curt Nimuendajú Storage Room, of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. For this, it was sought to know the material and technical properties of the featherwork; know the featherwork collection and the conditions of safeguard present in this Storage Room, apply the models and generate results that can be compared temporally in future research, allowing to evaluate if there was a qualitative change in the conservation conditions of the collection. Therefore, the Model of evaluation of the conditions of conservation of feather adornments MACCAP is divided into five sections: identification, techniques, materials, damage mapping and safeguard conditions. To test its applicability within the Storage Room, were selected 40 Ka'apor ornaments distributed in 8 collections formed between 1900 and 1985. The results demonstrate that this collection is in good conservation condition, but with reservations to be made both in terms of documentation, organization and practices that allow greater care with fragile pieces. The study concludes the need for more studies and exchanges of experiences on the conservation of such a specific material, especially among Brazilian museological institutions.