Artwork Page for "Spider" Prestige Headdress (shüötu kam tet)

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Details / Information for "Spider" Prestige Headdress (shüötu kam tet)

"Spider" Prestige Headdress (shüötu kam tet)

1900

Possibly Bamum style, unknown maker, Grassfields region, Cameroon

Medium
Cotton, natural dyes including indigo
Measurements
Overall: 24.1 x 31.8 x 31.8 cm (9 1/2 x 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Alma Kroeger Fund 2024.71
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

Spider motifs are only used on royally connected objects in the Cameroon Grassfields.

Description

This extremely rare, deconstructed headdress has openwork that invokes the Mygale occidentalis spider (a kind of tarantula). This spider indicates the high status of the fon (ruler) and symbolizes traits of wisdom and truth. The carefully constructed textile mesh simultaneously evokes the spider and its web, a vessel for catching the dream-messages sent from the ancestral world.
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"Spider" Prestige Headdress (shüötu kam tet)

1900

Possibly Bamum style, unknown maker, Grassfields region, Cameroon

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