cuia (Dish)

About this object

History of use

Gourds have several uses: as food recipients, vases, fruit plates or planters, or for bathing or removing water from canoes. Painted gourds have been documented as an indigenous art form in Amazonia since the 17th century. Gourd painting was slowly appropriated by settler communities over time, but had become rare by the early 21st century. In 2004, the Ministry of Culture of Brazil launched a project to revitalize this women’s knowledge and practice in communities around Santarém, in the state of Pará. Calabash gourd making processes in the Lower Amazon were classified as Brazilian intangible cultural heritage in 2015.

Specific techniques

The gourds are made from the non-edible fruit of the calabash tree (Crescentia cujete). The fruit is cut in half and emptied. It is then polished inside and out with the scales of the fish locally known as pirarucu (Arapaima gigas). The outside surface is further polished with leaves of the imbauba tree (genus Cecropia). Once dried, polished and decorated, gourds have several uses: as food recipients, vases, fruit plates or planters, or for bathing or removing water from canoes. There are two types of modern gourds: the pitinga or natural gourd and the tingida, the painted or tainted gourd. The latter is dyed with cumatê, a natural extract from the bark of the axuazeiro tree (Myrcia atramentífera). Both natural and painted gourds are decorated with incisions.

Physical description

Painted gourd dish. Dish is light with a very thin wall, oblong in shape, with a slightly concave area at the shoulder on one side. From a rounded bottom the dish flares toward the rim. Vessel is painted a shiny black on both interior and exterior, with an incised decoration in a wide strip around the rim. Pattern is of sets of concentric triangles facing each other on the long edge, each with a large dot in the corner. The decoration is unpainted, and left a raw light brown.