neck support - Shona - Zimbabwe (No reserve price)

NECK SUPPORT MUTSAGO - SHONA - ZIMBABWE
These objects are often described as supports intended to protect elaborate hairstyles, the hairstyles taking often many hours or even many days to complete.
But hairstyles are not only adornment: they dignify and signal age, gender, and social status to those who can read them.
Very often, they also serve as supports for magical-religious signs and symbols. Adapted from page 21 of the book "Sleeping Beauties"
The neck-support is also and above all a "dream support". It fosters dreams charged with symbols that will influence the owner's daytime life or that of the clan. They can also, as with the Chokwé, serve as instruments of divination. It will also sometimes serve as a small seat.
Other uses may complete this list, varying by tribe. In caricature, one might compare the neck-support to a Swiss Army knife! A few random examples:
Among the Somalis, male neck-supports are relatively unstable. This instability keeps shepherds from falling into too deep sleep.
The neck-support can also play a role in wedding ceremonies. The virgin woman, deflowered, will exchange the neck-support received on this occasion for a sum that will allow her to buy an amber necklace, symbol of her status as a married woman
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