Armband
Arts of the Pacific Islands
Throughout northern Vanuatu, an island nation in the Southwest Pacific, men gain political power by participating in a series of complex economic tests. Each achieved social rank grants a man the right to wear specific insignia or ornaments. This armband would have been worn on the upper left arm to signify a particular economic accomplishment and to mark the man as someone of high status.
Starting in the mid-nineteenth century, ni-Vanuatu artists began replacing white and brown beads made from shell and coconut wood with more colorful European glass beads.
MEDIUM
Glass beads, fiber
DATES
mid 19th–mid 20th century
DIMENSIONS
3 3/8 × 3 15/16 × 4 5/16 in. (8.5 × 10 × 11 cm)
ACCESSION NUMBER
64.248.51
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Ingeborg de Beausacq
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Armband of woven fiber cord decorated allover with glass beads in geometric patterns.
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
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