Anthropomorphic headrest "musamo" ·  D. R. Congo, Luba · ID: 3037336

Description

wood, partly shiny brown patina, female caryatid figure rising from a round base, supporting a waisted pillow, rich scarification marks, the navel accentuated by a brass tag, ep. (breakage at the pillow), small missing parts, slight traces of abrasion, base;
Luba headrests were certainly used by their sleeping owners to help preserve the elaborate coiffures the Luba are noted for. A style such as the Shankadi cascade was styled over a canework frame, it took almost fifty hours to complete, and with the use of a headrest at night, it could last two to three months. While the coiffures are appreciated aesthetically by the Luba, they are also an integral element of social identity. Different Luba coiffures and headdresses are associated with different status and ranks, and with different events in a persons life, like engagement, marriage, widowhead etc. There is also an interesting conceptual link made by the Luba between headrests and scarification, for the name of one pattern usually put on the inside of the upper arm is known as “musamo” or “headrest”. Nooter was told this was because it is the place “where the husband lays his head at night.”

Comparing literature

Dewey, William J., Sleeping Beauties, Los Angeles 1993, p. 70, ill. 64