Loin cloth of dark blue textile decorated with cowrie shells and red wool designs in supplementary weft. The belt is fastened with a conch shell button. [JMC 11/12/2020]

Collection type: Object
Description: Loin cloth of dark blue textile decorated with cowrie shells and red wool designs in supplementary weft. The belt is fastened with a conch shell button. [JMC 11/12/2020]
Long description: Loin cloth of very dark blue textile, probably indigo-dyed, decorated with cowrie shells and red wool designs in supplementary weft. The loin cloth comprises two rectangular strips of cloth for the flaps and a length of textile folded and rolled into a belt. The top of the two flaps are folded over and stitched to the belt, which is fastened with a conch shell button beside the top right of the flap. The front flap is decorated with two vertical rows of zigzags, woven with a supplementary weft of red wool. A vertical row of cowrie shells runs down the centre, and ten shells are spaced in pairs along each side of the flap. Ten small rings of copper alloy secure the belt in place. [JMC 11/12/2020] The textile is woven using Z-yarn-twisted cotton (dark blue and dark red) and Z-yarn-twisted animal fibre, likely wool. It is warp-facing and plain-woven mostly in dark blue warps and wefts except for the four dark red warps at the centre. 24 warps and 12 wefts are counted in 1 square centimetre. Red-wool supplementary weft begins with 1/3 in from the top of the visible end of the front flap. One pick of under two/over, followed by another pick of under two over three, then under two /over two. The same sequence follows after 5 picks of plain weave with cotton threads. Two rows of the same sequence also occur at the bottom edge of the flap. between these two areas are two vertical rows of zig-zags, woven in the manner of two down twills. The belt is comprised two longitudinally folded layers bound with copper-alloy rings. Edges along the flaps have simple looping stitches. Shells are sewn onto the textile substrate (front flap) separately, each of which is knotted at the reverse of the textile. [MT 15/12/2020]
Geographical reference: India
Asia > Southern Asia > India; Nagaland
Cultural groups: Sümi Naga
Person: Field collector John Henry Hutton; PRM source John Henry Hutton
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1919
Date collected: By 1919
Acquisition information: Donated: 1919, uncertain Donated: 1923, uncertain
Materials and processes: Material Textile, Material Cowrie Shell, Material Conch Shell, Material Copper Alloy Metal, Material Wool Yarn Animal, Process Woven, Process Dyed, Process Supplementary Weft Woven, Process Stitched
Dimensions: max 650 mm belt, Width: max 68 mm flap, Length: max 269 mm flap
Object numbers: Accession number: 1923.84.757
Associated publications: Reproduced in colour on page 272 of The Nagas - Hill Peoples of Northeast India: Society, Culture and the Colonial Encounter, by Julian Jacobs with Alan Macfarlane, Sarah Harrison and Anita Herle (London: Thames and Hudson, 1990). [SM 20/10/2011]

Search terms: Clothing, Status, Textile, Groin-cover