Apalai Ritual Headdress

Ritual Headdress, Wayana-Apalai

This headdress is a ceremonial artifact from the Apalai tribe of Brazil. This headdress is used in a male puberty ritual, called Marake. Among the Apalai, the completion of this ceremony marks the crossing from childhood into adulthood. In order to prove that they are worthy of the responsibilities of adulthood, initiates must endure the stings of fifty or more wasps or ants, which are applied to the initiate’s skin using baskets held by the ceremony’s leaders.

Girls of the Apalai tribe must also endure this same excruciating tradition, but they do so within the home, and without the public ceremony. This idea of the puberty rite occurring behind closed doors for women versus during a public ceremony for men is an interesting example of gender imbalance within the Apalai tribe.