y'all, please send virtual hugs to the Brazilian people tonight, who lost their entire national museum in a catastrophic fire. thousands of artifacts that date back thousands of years were lost, as well invaluable artworks from many cultures. this is a terrible loss for humanity.
as an anthropologist, artist and a lover of brazilian culture, and as someone who studied tupi, this loss is staggering and tremendous.
Approximately 20 million artifacts were held in the Museu Nacional
These included:
-very ancient artifacts from many Latin American culture groups
-the earliest hominid in Brazil
-the earliest documents in Old Tupi, including many state letters to the Portuguese Crown
-the personal items of Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil
-musical works by Heitor Villa-Lobos
-the Brazilian Crown Jewels
-documentation related to Operation Condor and the US-backed coup d'état