Necklace

ClassificationsClothing and Adornments-neck ornaments

Culture Maasai

Date20th Century

Made AtTanzania, Africa

MediumLeather, beads and fiber

Dimensions17 × 4 1/2 × 1/4 in. (43.2 × 11.4 × 0.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of Anne and Long Shung Shih

Object number2020.14.1

DescriptionThis is a beaded necklace from the Maasai people of Tanzania. The Maasai are nomadic herders, whose culture largely gravitates around the cattle that they raise. Adornment is very important among the Maasaii, particularly beadwork which is mostly created by women. The history of beadwork dates back hundreds of years, with the oldest examples having beads whose colors are determined by their mediums; white beads made from bone, red beads from dried berries and so on. With Europeans colonization of Africa around the turn of the 20th, there was an influx of multicolored glass beads which quickly replaced the traditional mediums. The Maasai have five major clans, and both dress and beadwork are indicative of the different clans. The dark reds and blues of this necklace indicate that it would have been made and worn by the Ilkisongo Maasai who occupy the southern range of Maasailand in north-central Tanzania.

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