February 1, 2012 0

African marriage rituals

By lucy in costume

Berber Mother and Daughter, Morocco Photograph by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher. Conveying blessings and bittersweet good-byes, a Berber mother in Morocco plants a kiss on her daughter’s knee as she gives her in marriage to a man more than twice her age. Days of feasting will weave into nights of singing and dancing for the bride, who has captured the liver—the Berber embodiment of love—of the man sworn to protect her.

Maasai Wedding Day, Kenya Photograph by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher. A single tear marks the moment of farewell for lavishly beaded Nosianai as she leaves her family home in the Loita Hills of southern Kenya. Wedding-day tears may express true sadness among Maasai girls, who submit to arranged marriages with much older men whom they barely know.

Rashaida Bride, Eritrea Photograph by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher. Veiled behind an elaborate mask called a burga, a Rashaida bride stays in seclusion before her wedding. The Muslim Rashaida are Bedouin merchants and camel breeders, originally from Saudi Arabia, who keep to themselves and marry only their own.

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/african-marriage-rituals/

Tags: africa, berber, bride, headdress, maasai, marriage, photography, rashaida

January 28, 2012 0

Anishinaabe outfit

By lucy in costume

Anishinaabe outfit collected by Andrew Foster ca. 1790 Fort Michilimackinac, Michigan Birchbark, cotton, linen, wool, feathers, silk, silver brooches, porcupine quills, horsehair, hide, sinew The Andrew Foster Collection

Tags: Anishinaabe, clothing

January 28, 2012 0

Arctic clothing

By lucy in costume

Inuit amauti or tuilli (woman’s parka) ca. 1890–1925 Iqluligaarjuk (Chesterfield Inlet), Nunavut, Canada Parka: caribou skin, glass beads, stroud cloth, caribou teeth, and metal pendants; needlecase: ivory, seal hide; carrying strap with toggles: caribou hide, ivory 143 x 65 cm

Cree misko takiy (hide coat) ca. 1780–1820 Alberta, Canada Moose hide, paint, porcupine quill, hair 125 x 160 cm

Kenneth Kaiona (Copper Inuit, ca. 1850–d.?), dance cap ca. 1920 Coronation Gulf, Alaska Caribou hide, ermine fur, yellow-billed loon skin, sinew, wool, cotton fabric 20 x 23 x 32 cm Gift of John D. Ferguson

http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/infinityofnations/arctic-subarctic.html

Tags: amauti, arctic, canada, clothing, coat, cree, hood, inuit, parka, tuilli

January 11, 2012 0

Pascal Sébah

By lucy in costume

(1) and (2): Zeı̈bek; and (3): Artisan of Aı̈din (Aydın). Studio portrait of models wearing traditional clothing from the province of Aı̈din (Aydın), Ottoman Empire

(1): Peasant woman from the environs of Damas (Damascus); (2): Druze woman from the environs of Damas (Damascus); and (3) married woman of Damas (Damascus). Studio portrait of models wearing traditional clothing from the province of Surı̈yè (Syria), Ottoman Empire

(1): Kurdish woman from the area of Yuzgat (Yozgat); (2): wife of a Christian artisan of Angora (Ankara); and (3): wife of a Muslim artisan of Angora (Ankara). Studio portrait of models wearing traditional clothing from the province of Angora (Ankara), Ottoman Empire

(1) Married Muslim woman of Skodra (Shkodër); (2) Married Christian woman of Skodra (Shkodër); and (3) peasant woman of Malissor. Studio portrait of models wearing traditional clothing from the province of Skodra (Isķodra), Ottoman Empire

(1) Resident of Mostar; (2) bourgeois of Bosna-Seraı̈ (Sarajevo) ; and (3) married woman of Bosna-Seraı̈ (Sarajevo). Studio portrait of models wearing traditional clothing from the province of Bosna (Bosnia), Ottoman Empire

(1): Bachi Bozouk (mercenary soldier) of Angora (Ankara); (2): Muslim peasant from the area of Angora (Ankara); and (3): Muslim peasant woman from the area of Angora (Ankara). Studio portrait of models wearing traditional clothing from the province of Angora (Ankara), Ottoman Empire

Photographs by Pascal Sébah

Tags: clothing, ottoman empire, Pascal Sébah, photography

December 10, 2011 0

Kimiko Yoshida

By lucy in inspiration

Kimiko Yoshida - 04 The Golden Yoruba Bride, Nigeria. Self-portrait, 2005

Kimiko Yoshida - 23 The Blue Wari Bride with a Mortuary Head of a Pre-Columbian Mummy with Human Hair, 1,400-1,100 years before present, Amazonia. Self-portrait, 2005

Kimiko Yoshida - 32 The Yanomami Bride with a Tembe Neck Ornament and a Kayapo Headdress, Amazon, Brazil. Self-portrait, 2005

Kimiko Yoshida - 34 The Karaja Bride with an Urubu Kaapor Labret Ornament, Amazon, Brazil. Self-portrait, 2005

Kimiko Yoshida - 42bis The Palestinian Bride from Hebron, Self-portrait, 2005

Kimiko Yoshida - 43 The Berber Bride, Morocco, early XX th Century. Self-portrait, 2005

Kimiko Yoshida - 43bis The Golden Bride from Fez, Self-portrait, 2005

Kimiko Yoshida from her 2005 self portraits.

Tags: art, artist, bridal, bride, headdress, kimiko yoshida, mask

November 3, 2011 0

Tlingit Shaman mask

By lucy in inspiration

Kunstkammer Exhibits, originally uploaded by haruspex.

Via Flickr:The Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera)

October 19, 2011 1

Shaman headdresses

By lucy in costume, spiritual

Coiffe de chamane evenk Musée du Quai Branly / Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle - deposit of the Musée de l'Homme. 71.1887.42.2.1-2

: A FINE AND RARE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS SHAMAN’S HEADDRESS

Tags: aleutian, evenk, headdress, mongolian, shaman

October 15, 2011 0

Persian talismans

By lucy in magic

Talisman of a magic square and patterns to enable a woman to control her husband, from 'Persian Charming Talisman Genie White Magic Book'

From The Patterns of Persian Henna (pdf) by Catherine Cartwright-Jones

Pictorial Book on Talisman, Charm & Mysterious Sciences in Persian ( Farsi ) via Asherah6666

Tags: book, magic, persian, talisman

October 2, 2011 0

Mongolian Shaman

By lucy in costume, spiritual

Shaman costume from the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts

Shaman helmet from the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts

Shamans helmet. Silk, cotton, eagle feather. Early 19th Century. From the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts

Above own photos taken at the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts, Ulan Bator, Mongolia.

Collection: Danish National Museum, Copenhagen. lllustration courtesy Danish National Museum, Copenhagen

From Tigerbells

Shaman's mirror costume from North East Manchuria, The Peoples Republic of China.

“This Shaman’s costume (pictures above) is one of a series of elements which allowed a shaman’s body to transform into a ‘vessel’ that received different spirits. Among the Imin Numinchen, shamans were primarily concerned with healing, prediction and with people’s relations with their ancestors. This costume belonged to a young female shaman who died in the 1930s, aged 25. No two costumes are identical. They are assembled and added to as a shaman becomes more experienced, incorporating materials from different sources. The brass mirrors came from Chinese merchants. The heavy shaman’s mirrors act in a double capacity – they protect the shaman by deflecting harm, while revealing what is normally invisible to the human eye. The number of mirrors on the costume indicates the shaman’s powers and maps a geographical cosmos. By wearing the costume, the shaman is located in the centre of this cosmos. During performance, a shaman is seized by one or more ancestral spirits, so that what is inside the mirror-costume is the spirits, rather than the shaman’s body. Here, the body is something open to forces that can control it, inhabit its form and shape its physical features.”

From ebay user spiritual-sky‘s Mongolian shaman’s bronze mirror auction.