Marcos Cesar Florian - Dermatological Atlas of Indigenous People

Universidade Federal de So Paulo, So Paulo, Brazil

The body and, in particular, the skin are a persons introduction to their environment and community , which is why it is believed to represent an individuals contact with the external, ruled by culture. Such signs as tattoos, paintings, and scarifications can be registered on the body and reveal what group a person belongs to, her social status, or even her state of mind.

As a canvas, the skin can display several drawings, combining colors and adornments, depending on the moment, ones state of mind or health, or the ritual one is participating in. In general, during mourning periods the body is not painted or adorned, thereby revealing sorrowful feelings.

According to David Le Breton , in his book A Sociologia do Corpo on bodily inscriptions:

Social and cultural bodily markings can be completed by direct writing by the collective on the actors skin. It can be made in the form of removal, deformation, or addition. This symbolic modeling is relatively frequent in human societies: ritual ablation of a bodily fragment (prepuce, clitoris, teeth, fingers, tonsure, etc.); epidermis marking (scarifications, incisions, apparent scar, infibulation, teeth modeling, etc.); tegumentary inscriptions in the form of permanent or temporary tattoos, make-up, etc.; body form modifications []; use of jewelry or objects that deform the body: reed rings and pearls that cause, to the individual growth, a neck extension, inserting disks in the upper and lower lips []. These bodily markings fulfill different functions in each society. Seduction instruments are more often a ritual way of indicating affiliation or segregation. They symbolically integrate people within their community or clan, separating them from other communities or clans and, at the same time, the surrounding nature. They humanize the person, putting him socially in the world []. They reproduce the social status or, more specifically, the matrimonial status in a world that can be read by everybody.

Regarding the body and the skin as the center of social meanings, Clastres reveals another perspective, the body as written surface [] able to receive the legible law text,, obedience to rules and social laws , particularly when referring to the role of suffering and scars. The body is the memory, for example, in the initiatory rituals of indigenous societies, scarifications, tattoos, or other procedures that leave a mark, a mark that tells the story of the subjects life. Changes in the body and skin occur during every biological cycle, and such changes are for adolescents the most important moments for modeling purposes.

In the initiatory ritual, the society prints its mark on the youngest bodies The mark is an obstacle for forgetfulness, the body brings printed on itself the skin grooves memory the body is a memory. The mark proclaims surely its belonging to the group The society dictates its laws to the members, inscribes the law texts on body surface []. The mark on the body, like on all bodies, states: you will have no desire for power, neither covet be submissive, and this law does not separate and can be only inserted in a non-separated space: the body itself (Clastres, 2000, p. 196).

Among the Ikpeng , for example, children around seven and nine years old must have a tattoo on their face, which is a characteristic mark of this people, in a rite of passage. The whole village mobilizes for the party:

Concern for the body, and the skin in particular, is huge among indigenous peoples, aesthetically and functionally. The aesthetics and beauty are adored from the beginning of life, in early childhood.

The skin, the bodys boundary and place of contact with the external, also has a key role in the protection of the body and, at the same time, works as an entry way for medicines. Many procedures are performed on the skin to protect the body using special paints, mainly on children, using pequi , tucum , or maripa palm fruit oils. Annatto or saffron, for example, keeps bad spirits and insects away. Annatto paste, genipap, bird feathers, certain tree resins, and cotton are used as clothes or costumes in rites and parties. For indigenous people, a painted body is a healthy body.

Body modeling starts in toddlers, tying the leg under the knee, so that the childs leg will get more beautiful. Tying is also done in the arm, at the height of the deltoid muscle insertion, so it becomes more beautiful and rounded.