|
Tribal piercings.
Only the Matses women insert ornaments in their nose to imitate felines. Matses
men have never used nose ornamentation; instead they traditionally placed
“whiskers” in tribal piercings extending upward on the upper lip. In addition, the
“whiskers” were not straw colored, instead they were black. The male
ornaments were made out of the black veins of a growing palm trunk.
Interestingly, younger men enhanced their appearance by using longer
splinters than did older men. Currently, very few Matses men use lip
ornaments or tribal piercings.
|