Bowl Cover "Assahar"
date: label: Accession Date
content: 15 May 2002
label: Collection Date
content: 1987
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Mary Jo Arnoldi
label: Donor Name
content: Dr. Mary Jo Arnoldi
notes: label: Notes
content: According to the donor/collector, Curator of African Ethnology Mary Jo Arnoldi, this mat was woven by members of a women's cooperative in the Cercle de Menaka, for sale at an exhibit in Bamako in 1987. Tuareg women make and use mats as tent furnishings, or to sell for extra income. They are made from long grass ("afaso") and leather. The designs are inspired by images found in the women's environment or by concepts that are significant in their culture. A tag attached to this piece identifies the design as "amagaydar". According to a report by Jane Rands of World Vision (a copy is in the accession file,) this design means "something that moves back and forth", such as the way a large woman sways when she walks, or the canter of a camel. This is represented in the mat design with a triangle pattern.
label: Notes
content: Mat woven with long, stiff blades of grass and strips of leather. Background of plain narrow dark brown stripes. An overall diamond pattern is stitched in, using thicker dark and light brown leather strips, with the ends hanging loose on the back. Along the border of the long sides, small chevron shapes in green dyed leather, red cotton, and dark brown leather. The short ends are wrapped in leather to bind them, and one of these ends has leather fringe. The long ends are simply cut, unbound. Tag: "'Amagaydar' Assahar Cercle de Menaka". Another tag made of masking tape (price tag?) reads "#54 / 3,500"
label: Record Last Modified
content: 28 Nov 2014
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Bamako / Not Given, Bamako / Cercle de Menaka, Mali, Africa
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Tuareg, Tamashek
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2023380
label: USNM Number
content: E431601-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Bowl Cover
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 48.5 cm
label: Width
content: 36 cm