Brazil · Raw-hide tanning and multi-layer equestrian tack making
Selaria Pantaneira
The tanning of raw cattle hide and its transformation into the distinctive multi-layer tack of the pantaneiro — the cowboy of Brazil's Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland — including saddles (sela), bridles (freio), stirrups (estribo), lassos (laço), and the perneira, a leather leg guard worn over trousers to protect riders from dry tree branches and their own horses' coats during long days in the flooded terrain. Master artisan Matias Silva, born through the hands of midwife Demétria at Fazenda São Roque in the Pantanal do Paiaguás region, Corumbá municipality, learned saddlery as a child out of genuine necessity: with no way to purchase manufactured tack at the isolated ranch where he grew up, producing leather goods on-site was the only alternative. Now nationally recognized, Silva teaches the full process — from raw-hide tanning through finished piece — to young people through the Saberes Pantaneiros (Pantaneiro Knowledge) project at the Memorial do Homem Pantaneiro in Corumbá, supported by the Instituto Homem Pantaneiro and funded through Mato Grosso do Sul's Fundo de Investimentos Culturais.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not Applicable — no UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage inscription exists for this craft at time of writing
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