earring

Mamuli earring or pendant, brass. Roughly diamond-shaped with a slit at the base leading to a circular aperture at the centre. A foot at each side of the base with figures under a parasol. In the past mamuli were made of gold. Plain mamuli were given by wife-takers to wife-givers as bridewealth gifts, while more decorated mamuli were kept as sacred house altar objects. Now they are used by girl dancers in Lauli and Anakalang, sometimes worn in one earlobe and sometimes suspended round the neck by a chain. Sumba, Indonesia.

object
MUSEUM NUMBER
2012.43
Date
20th century
PLACE
COLLECTION
MEASUREMENTS
overall: 160 mm x 163 mm x 35 mm
MATERIAL/TECHNIQUE
brass
CATEGORY
Anthropology: Ethnography
LOCATION
In storage
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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.

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