article

Marginal men: male artists among the Shipibo Indians of Peru

Anthropologica21 (2)Published In 1979 • Pages: 189-221

By: Roe, Peter G..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article describes the anomalous position of male Shipibo artists in the jungle area of Peru. ' In this society the production of art is theoretically the exclusive domain of women. Since they use it to decorate various craft objects such as pottery , woodcarving and textile, most women are merely fulfilling a conventional role and therefore exhibit little of the marked social deviance which ideally characterizes many artists in the modern world. However, women who have revolutionized the native style as well as rare male artists do exhibit such traits. Tourist art is an area of 'protected deviation' where men may trespass an otherwise strict sexual division of labor. It is also a sphere which limits their impact on the internal expression of the art. Unlike the deviant women, the men are forced to limit their innovation to the manipulation of their social role since the art they produce is very orthodox. Because of their dependence on the tourist market, male artists also engage in more stereotyped aesthetic production' (p. 189). In this paper Roe focuses on the artistic works of two of his male informants, José and Martin of the village of San Francisco de Yarinacocha.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Social personality
Personality traits
Cultural participation
External trade
Division of labor by gender
Visual arts
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Shipibo
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2002
RegionThe area the document pertains to
South America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Amazon and Orinoco
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
article
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle ; 2001
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
no date
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
ca. 1970s
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
village of San Francisco de Yarinacocha, Ucayali River area, Peru
NotesAdditional notes
Reter G. Roe
Includes bibliographical references (p. 218-221)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
56004160
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Shipibo-Conibo Indians