Richard Cochran Gill and the Search for Curare
Gill Biography
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The Richard C. Gill Curare Collection was donated to the Guedel Center by the wife of the famous ethnobotanist for whom it was named. The collection includes crude curare, the utensils for its production and the containers for its use and storage. It also has blowguns with darts and arrow cases as well as personal adornments made from beads, feathers, hair and beetle wings.
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Bead & feather adornment;art.focus();)
Beetle wing adornment;art.focus();)
Detail of beetle wing adornment;art.focus();)
Ceremonial necklace
Rio Corriente Oriente;art.focus();)
Wood flute;art.focus();)
Close-up of ceremonial crown;art.focus();)
Ceremonial crowns;art.focus();)
Gourds of various sizes for tubocurare ;art.focus();)
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Cylindrical wooden quiver holding many arrows attached to a gourd filled with kapok for the arrow ends and a piranha-teeth arrow cutter. For use in hunting the sharpened end of an arrow was tipped with curare while the opposite end was wrapped in kapok (a cotton-like fiber from a kapok tree) and shot from a 9 foot long blow gun.;art.focus();)
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Detail of woven pouch with strap. Tag: "Cocopouch. Container for Beetle Nuts. Stimulant chewed by Jivaro Indians.
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