Antique African Wooden Tribal Turkana Hand Carved Wood Headrest Kenya, Africa

This is an antique hand carved wooden African headrest which was tribally made from a single piece of wood by the Turkana tribe of Kenya. African tribal people use their hairstyles to proudly show their age, gender and status.
I
n the pastoralist Turkana culture, headrests are carved using a spear blade.These Turkana headrests are multifunctional objects for the Turkana. As Turkana hairstyles are often shaved on the back of the head and focus the hairstyle on the top, these serve to preserve the hairstyles as well as to support the heads and the flat, oval-shaped top surface also allows the headrest to serve as a small sitting stool. This piece is in g
ood condition but has some wear including and old slight chip in the wood of the top of the headrest and some compacted dirt residue on the bottom of the stand.
The elaborate tribal hairstyles are often embellished with beads, shells, butter and colored pigments. Most tribal hairstyles therefore require the use of a headrest which was used primarily to support the neck or back of the head in order to protect the hours of labor intense hair styling as the head could not be directly laid upon for sleep or rest. Headrest were brought with the owner everywhere they went so they could be used whenever required.
This African headrest measures 7.90 inches long across the top and 6.40 inches tall. This specimen is very desirable and would make a fine addition to any African collection. I combine shipping on multiple items so be sure to check out my ebay store Mountainamma’s Marketplace where I have thousands of items to browse through from Africa and beyond. For buyers of multiple items please message me before you buy with help combining shipping fees.