OTHER PAST EXHIBITS

Naga Tribal Adornment: Signatures of Status and Self
Opening September 21 at the Bead Museum
by Christine Brown

A new exhibition of Naga jewelry, textiles and artifacts, drawn from the Harry L. and Tiala Marsosang Neufeld collection, will be on display at the Bead Museum from September 21, 2003, through May 31, 2004. A catalogue written by Ayinla Shilu Ao, a journalist and niece of the Neufelds, with photographs by Robert Liu, will be published in conjunction with the exhibition. The exhibt is being co-curated by Harry and Tiala Neufeld, Ellen Benson and Christine Brown.

As indicated by its title, the exhibition will explore the means by which individual Naga men and women manifest the status they have attained within their society either by virtue of their birth into a particular lineage, village, etc., or through the accomplishment of certain tasks (e.g., head-taking, feasting). The exhibit will present items of personal adornment which denote individual accomplishment (status) and which commemorate rites of passage in the lives of Naga people (self). The exhibition will present a stunning array of objects made by the Naga from natural materials they have hunted or gathered, from imported materials they have traded for and made into adornment, and from items they have woven or produced themselves. Many of these items are no longer made or worn in the traditional way and some are no longer used at all.

 Contact us via e-mail at: info@beadmuseumdc.org

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