Superb neck support - kaffa - Ethiopia (No reserve price)

Neck support - Kembatta / Kambatta - Ethiopia
These objects are often described as supports intended to protect elaborate hairstyles, which can often take many hours or even days to create.

But hairstyles are not just a decoration: they dignify and signal age, gender, and social status to those who know how to read them.

Still often, they serve as support for magical-religious signs and symbols. Adapted from page 21 of the book 'Sleeping Beauties.'

The neck support is also, and above all, a 'support of dreams.' It encourages dreams filled with symbols that influence the owner's or the clan's daytime life. Like with the Chokwé, they can also serve as a tool for divination. Sometimes, it also functions as a small seat.

Other uses may add to this list, varying by tribe. Slightly caricaturing, one could compare the support neck to a Swiss Army knife! A few random examples:

Among the Somali, masculine neck supports are relatively unstable. This instability prevents shepherds from falling into a sleep that is too deep.

The neck support can also play a role in wedding ceremonies. The virgin woman, defibulated, will exchange the neck support received on this occasion for a sum that will allow her to buy an amber necklace, a symbol of her married woman status.