chief's headdress with plume

unrecorded Chokwe artist, artist

chief's headdress with plume, early 1900s

Where object was made: Africa

Material/technique: plant fiber; beading; coiling; ostrich feathers; cotton; wood

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): a 23 x 24.5 x 21 cm width at ear-like flaps
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 9 1/16 x 9 5/8 x 8 1/4 in

Credit line: Gift of Claude D. Brown

Accession number: 2007.2800.a,b

Not on display

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Exhibition Label: “Conversation I: Place,” Oct-2007, Emily Stamey
Glass beads have long been used within many African cultures to signify wealth, prestige, and power. Historically, most of these beads came to Africa via European trade. In the case of these headdresses, the beads - like the forms of the thrones - likely have Portuguese origins.

Exhibition Label:
"Chokwe Art from the Claude D. Brown Collection," Feb-2000
The form and decoration of headdresses vary, depending on the status of the wearer. A chief would have worn this style of headdress. Its colors and beaded patterns express the power and wealth of the chief. White beads referred to the ritual purity of the chief. The pattern of triangles represents the scales on the viper of the pangolin, animals said to possess supernatural abilities.
The Chokwe word for pangolin also means grandparent, which could be understood as ancestor. The pangolin can move between the world of ancestors, below ground, and the world of the living, above ground.