A Dogon neck rest collected in Bandiagra region, Mali, of simplistic form. Glossy patina; signs of use and age. Dogon neckrests, or headrests as they are often described in the literature, occupy a particularly ambiguous position in West African material culture because, unlike in some other African societies, their production and use among the Dogon people of Mali is not clearly attested in ethnographic fieldwork. Archaeological and museum documentation shows that wooden headrests have been found in the Bandiagara Escarpment region associated with deep burial caves above present-day Dogon villages, but specialists attribute most of these to the earlier Tellem inhabitants of the cliffs rather than to the Dogon themselves. Excavations by Rogier Bedaux in such caves yielded headrests dated to roughly the eleventh through fourteenth centuries that the Dogon later claimed as ancient objects while themselves no longer using headrests in daily life. According to Bedaux’s assessments, headrests “do not occur in Dogon contexts,” suggesting that the presence of such objects in the region reflects the material culture of the Tellem rather than a sustained Dogon neckrest tradition. When these objects are examined in museum collections, they are typically described as carved wooden supports with gently curved upper surfaces designed to elevate the head. Some examples excavated from cliff burial sites exhibit minimal decoration or, in a minority of cases, geometric incised motifs. Other examples with projecting animal heads have been noted, and these resemble forms found on Dogon benches and containers, which has led some institutional cataloguers to describe such pieces as “Dogon or Tellem” where provenance and attribution are uncertain. The general functional logic of African headrests or neckrests — to preserve hairstyles, elevate the head above the ground, and provide a firm support during sleep — has been documented widely across sub-Saharan Africa. While specific field accounts among the Dogon as a living practice are lacking, comparison with better-documented traditions elsewhere suggests that objects of this type were both pragmatic and symbolically loaded, often retained as personal property and associated with the intimate sphere of rest and dreams. The assemblage of headrests from the Bandiagara region, whether of Tellem origin or reinterpreted by the Dogon, points to a long history of wooden support objects embedded in local cosmologies of body, sleep, and ancestor veneration. Published examples in major museum collections, including several from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Museum of African Art, illustrate a range of forms attributed variously to Dogon makers or to earlier cliff inhabitants. These include zoomorphic heads carved into the supports and evidence of stylistic continuity with other carved wooden objects from the region, even as direct evidence of headrest usage among living Dogon communities remains scant in the ethnographic record. References: Smithsonian Institution object records for headrests from the Bandiagara region. National Museum of African Art catalog entries for Tellem headrests. Metropolitan Museum of Art collection records for Dogon and Dogon/Tellem headrests. Discussion of African headrests’ context and spirituality in art trade and museum descriptions. Kate Ezra, Art of the Dogon, unpublished manuscript excerpt on neckrests. CAB26962