Figural carved staff

Description

wood, leather, cowry shells,
This staff is crowned by a standing female figure in contrast to the “tefalipitya” staffs, which are always carved with seated females.

Himmelheber assumed that this type of staff was associated with fertility, and reported that they belonged to young girls and that they were employed as a sort of badge to demonstrate their status to the young men as being newly circumcised and untouchable.