Although they look like an African version of the famous Russian babushka dolls, the baskets reflects a man’s dignity among the Karaboros in Burkina Faso. In a traditional Karaboro wedding, the future husband buys a set of Bobochiaas, which is a set of ”wedding baskets” […]
Museum storage rooms hold thousands of objects, and sometimes treasures evade our notice, until an outsider spots their value. Such was the case with the Thai temple scroll tucked away on a shelf at The Ethnographic Collections at Moesgaard Museum. The scroll was gifted to […]
“What is old junk to you, can be another’s treasure.” Winnie-the-Pooh For children and adults alike, Winnie-the-Pooh is a rewarding acquaintance. I was reading a story to my sons the other day, where Winnie is about to trash an old honey jar, but ends up […]
The word ‘fetish’ probably brings up some rather saucy mental images to most of our readers. But in anthropology, a ‘fetish’ is an object, which is considered to be imbued with spiritual power or magical potency. This metal spear from Boulon in Burkina Faso might […]
ethnographica 