Headrest

Description

wood, rich dark brown shiny patina, female caryatid figure rising from a rectangular plate, supporting a waisted pillow, rhombic tribal marks on the belly, slightly dam., abrasion of paint (pillow);
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.”

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