id: 156295 accession number: 1992.129 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1992.129 updated: 2023-01-11 07:01:51.221000 Beer Container (Máhuetan), c. 1940. Amazonia, Peru, Ucayali River region, Shipibo people. Ceramic, slip; diameter: 79 cm (31 1/8 in.); height: 68 cm (26 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Elizabeth M. Skala 1992.129 title: Beer Container (Máhuetan) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1940 creation date earliest: 1935 creation date latest: 1945 current location: creditline: Bequest of Elizabeth M. Skala copyright: --- culture: Amazonia, Peru, Ucayali River region, Shipibo people technique: Ceramic, slip department: Art of the Americas collection: AA - Andes type: Ceramic find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Diameter: 79 cm (31 1/8 in.); height: 68 cm (26 3/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Stories From Storage opening date: 2021-02-07T05:00:00 Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * The Cosmos Encoiled: Indian Art of the Peruvian Amazon, Center for Inter- American Relations, New York, NY (February 15- April 29, 1984). --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: This jar is a beer keg used during festivals in the Shipibo-Conibo area of Amazonian Peru. digital description: Jars like this one are used as beer kegs during multi-day feasts. The shape and colors may reference a tiered cosmos, graduating from the earthen tones of the dark underworld to the bright, light-filled celestial realm. Perhaps extending this idea, the brown, tapered base is buried in the earth to keep the vessel’s contents cool. wall description: Large jars like this one are used as beer kegs during multi-day feasts among the Shipibo, who live in Peru’s eastern, Amazonian region. The beer—made from the starchy tuber known variously as manioc, yuca, or cassava—is more than required festival fare. The Shipibo seem to compare it to fertilizing body fluids, especially semen. Also, the jar’s shape and colors may reference a tiered cosmos, graduating from the earthen tones of the dark underworld to the bright, light-filled celestial realm. Perhaps extending this idea, the brown, tapered base was buried in the earth to keep the vessel’s contents cool. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Gebhart-Sayer, Angelika. The Cosmos Encoiled: Indian Art of the Peruvian Amazon. New York: Center for Inter-American Relations, 1984. page number: p. 11 url: Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1992." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (1993). page number: p. 76 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161388 --- IMAGES