Dance club (puppet head), vor 1914

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Description

wood, colour pigments, metal, drilled holes for feather ornament, collection number “T20”

This object is a very early example of the Kuyu dance club. For a comparable piece from the Guillaume Appolinaire collection see AHDRC 0013328.

The Kuyu are geographically and culturally divided into two halves - the eastern and the western Kuyu.

The Kuyu consider the mythical snake as the creator of the first humans and as their protector. The club heads depict the Serpent god or the mythical ancestral couple. They appear in dances which are known as “eouya” in the east and as “kebe-kebe” among the western Kuyu.

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Comparing literature

Grootaers, Jan-Lodewijk & Ineke Eisenburger (ed.), Forms of Wonderment, Vol. II, Berg en Dal 2002, p. 522

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