Museo di Antropologia ed Etnologia dell’Università di Firenze

The American collections of the Museo di Antropologia di Firenze have their roots in the sixteenth century, when the Medici acquired “exotic” artifacts to be preserved in the Guardaroba and the Armeria, such as the two Tupinambá feather cloaks, several Taíno artifacts, two Mixtec atlatl, and clubs from Guyana. With the dismantling of these collections (1775), many objects were transferred to the Regio Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale, founded by Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine, and were further enriched with materials from the voyages of James Cook and from Giuseppe Bigeschi’s mission among the Sioux peoples. In 1869 Paolo Mantegazza founded the Museo di Antropologia, contributing to the increase of artifacts, particularly from South America, thanks also to his relations with scientists, collectors, dealers, and missionaries. Among the most significant collections are the Andean materials gathered by Ernesto Mazzei, those from the Gran Chaco assembled by Guido Boggiani, Amazonian artifacts collected by Felipe Lopes Neto, and objects coming from religious missions. Of North American origin are materials gathered by James Cook, rare Lakota objects from the Borg de Balzan collection, Cree artifacts acquired by Enrico H. Giglioli, as well as donations by Paolo De Vecchi, Frederick Triebel, and the Kingsmill Marrs family. More recent are the collections of the Karajá people (Boris Malkin, 1960s) and of the Yanomami (Missionaries of the Consolata, 1996), on which projects involving the communities were initiated between 2012 and 2016. The museum has recently hosted Glicéria Tupinambá, engaged in the study, reproduction, and restitution of the Tupinambá feather cloaks preserved in Europe.