Sleeping mat, "Tassalilt"
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 on the mat gives the design names as "Chamanokach" and "Halou". According to a report by Jane Rands of World Vision (a copy is in the accession file,) the latter simply means "very pretty", but she does not give the meaning of the "Chamanokach".
label: Notes
content: Mat woven with long, stiff blades of grass and strips of leather. Mostly woven in a twill herringbone pattern. Along the long sides, several borders in various other patterns, some with black or yellow cotton thread or green dyed leather strips. The final border is a single, very wide (3 cm) strip of leather. The edge is bound with a wide piece of leather folded over the edge and sewn down. The ends of the leather strips hang loose on the back, and along the short edges. Tag attached reads "Chamanokach / Cercle de Menaka / avec Halou". Tag made with masking tape (price tag?) says "#51 / 20,000".
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: E431600-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Mat
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 175 cm
label: Width
content: 62.5 cm