collar (neck ornament (personal adornment))

Bead collar made of multicoloured beads strung onto wire and held together with strips of leather. The beads ard wire were bought in Maralal.

Beads collars of this type are made and used by older girls and women. It is worn underneath all other beads, outside the house and especially at dances and ceremonies. When a moran makes a girl his mistress, he will give her lots and lots of strings of beads to wear. When either of them marry they must reject each other and she must give away his beads. The moran is taken on one side and told by the elders how unsuitable this girl is for him, and from then on he may not eat or drink in her father's house.

Some women attach leather purses on the front of their collars, containing the umbilical cords of their children.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

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