1937.34.20

Collection type

Object

Description

Head-cover made of hide covered with beads and cowrie shells.

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 Animal Hide Skin, Material Cowrie Shell, Material Bead, Material Sisal Fibre Plant

Dimensions

Height 45 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1937.34.20

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': Head-cover. The base is made of three bands of animal hide (buffalo?), of double thickness in places. These bands are covered with beads strung on sisal fibre. The beads are arranged to form alternating sections of blue and white glass beads, with two of the sections of blue beads having a central band of red beads. Six cowrie shells have been sewn at the front and back. It seems that each band was decorated with the beads and shells before they were sewn together. Such head covers were worn by older married women on important occasions. For a brief account of such Luo 'head covers', see pages 5 and 6 of Material Culture of Kenya, by Sultan Somjee (Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 1993). [JC 4 9 2002]

Associated publications

Illustrated in black and white as figure 2 on page 129 of 'Luo Headdresses: Researching Material Culture in Northwestern Kenya', by Gilbert Oteyo, in East African Contours: Reviewing Creativity and Visual Culture (Contributions to Critical Museology and Material Culture), edited by Hassan Arero and Zachary Kingdon (London: The Horniman Museum and Gardens, 2005), pp. 125-39. [JC 20 2 2006]

Search terms: Clothing Headgear, Ornament, Head Ornament, Headgear