Tunic
date: label: Accession Date
content: 24 Nov 2000
label: Collection Date
content: 1980
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Labelle Prussin
label: Donor Name
content: Dr. Labelle Prussin
notes: label: Notes
content: Made from a length of white commercial cotton cloth, folded over, with a neck hole cut and hemmed at the fold. Strips of cloth sewn on to make short sleeves, but the underams and sides are unsewn. Entire shirt, front and back, is covered with ink-drawn grids with Arabic writing in the squares.
label: Notes
content: According to the donor, this is a tunic or healing shirt (diousene in Peul/Fulani) to be worn hidden under regular clothes. Inscribed with magic squares in Arabic script designed to bring the owner "power over others, luck in love and protection from ill-wishers." Commissioned by the donor from an Imam at Bafodea, northern Sierra Leone, spring 1980. Made at night, hidden in secret. References: Related to a warrior's robe from Senegal at the Musee de l'Homme. See Prussin, Hatumere, 1986, p 90 and for discussion. Illus. Fig. 4.11, p. 62 in Kreamer, Christine Mullen, and Sarah Adams. 2007. Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 20 Jan 2015
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Bafodea, Sierra Leone, Africa
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 420734
label: USNM Number
content: E431607-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Tunic
physicalDescription: label: Length - Shoulder To Bottom Hem
content: 73 cm
label: Width - Bottom Hem
content: 27.5 cm
label: Width - Across Shoulders
content: 77.5 cm