“Identical” Designs On Three Bora Artifacts

A wooden mask and a gourd rattle were among the artifacts collected in a Peruvian Bora community in 1982. In order to preserve the design, the vendor of the mask had his wife copy the design on a new gourd rattle in my presence. The designs on all three objects were said to be "identical.” However, examination of the designs suggests that they are quite dissimilar, at least in a western sense. Several points of interest arise. First, the mask was the master from which the new gourd was copied, not the original gourd. Second, the dissimilarity of the designs on the three artifacts indicates that "identical" means something quite different to my Bora informant than to this anthropologist. Third, Bora art is a living tradition which can still be studied in the field.