Flute: "Domba"
date: label: Accession Date
content: 10 Jan 1900
name: label: Collector
content: Mr. James Mooney
label: Donor Name
content: Bureau Of American Ethnology
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "ORNAMENTED WITH LOCKS OF HUMAN HAIR AND BIRD FEATHERS AND PAINTED RED, YELLOW AND BLUE CARVED WITH SYMBOLIC FIGURES. MADE OF CEDAR HOLLOWED BY HAND-BRIDGE OVER ROUND HOLES." LOANED TO RENWICK GALLERY 2/18/82. RETURNED 1983. COURTING FLUTES. AMONG THE PLAINS AND WOODLAND INDIANS, COURTING FLUTES WERE AN IMPORTANT PART OF COURTSHIP RITUALS. A MAN MIGHT PLAY HIS FLUTE OR SING SERENADES WHILE STANDING OUTSIDE THE HOME OF HIS SWEETHEART. HE MIGHT PLAY PREARRANGED CODED MESSAGES TO HER OR GO OUTSIDE THE VILLAGE TO PLAY SONGS OF LONELINESS AND UNREQUITED LOVE. COURTING FLUTE, BEFORE 1900. KIOWA INDIANS; OKLAHOMA. WOOD, PAINT, FEATHERS, HAIR, GLASS BEADS, THREAD LENGTH: 18 1/2 (47). NMNH 204546."
label: Notes
content: Courting flute (Domba). Split section of hollowed cedar painted red and yellow, bound with thongs, elaborately incised and painted designs on body of flute. Diaphragm is rocker engraved. Effigy stop with forked beak. Cut feathers and row of beads surround center. Series of scalp locks hang from buckskin wraps at each end. Braided scalp lock covered with wrapped beadwork, suspended near mouthpiece. 19.5" (50 cm). (from Merrill, William L. et al. 1997. A Guide to the Kiowa Collections at the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, no. 40. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.)
label: Record Last Modified
content: 4 Feb 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Not Given, Oklahoma, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Kiowa
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 036021
label: USNM Number
content: E204546-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Flute