Long black hair tassel made of antelope tail. [MJD 17/10/2012]

Collection type: Object
Description: Long black hair tassel made of antelope tail. [MJD 17/10/2012]
Long description: Long black hair tassel made of two antelope tails joined together. Worn when dancing - probably around the waist. [MJD 17/10/2012]
Geographical reference: Kenya
Africa > Eastern Africa > Kenya; Kavirondo Nyanza
Cultural groups: Luo
Person: Field collector Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard; PRM source Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1936
Date collected: 1936
Acquisition information: Donated: 1937
Materials and processes: Material Antelope Tail Animal, Process Stitched
Dimensions: Diameter 450 mm coiled
Object numbers: Accession number: 1937.34.16
Research and responses: Examined by Gilbert Oteyo and Jeremy Coote in September 2002 as part of the British Academy funded project 'Luo Histories and Material Culture at the Pitt Rivers Museum': Dance ornament (riwo) made from pieces of hartebeeste's tails fixed together in a complex construction that is difficult to understand from an examination of the finished object. Such high-status ornaments were worn only by senior men and women, by men over the shoulder and by women around the waist. This particular example seems to have been made to wear around the waist. [JC 4 9 2002]