Additional Information: Zulu Figural spoon in the form of a finial female figure with a spoon bowl on the top. Dark, natural worn patina! Zulu spoons were carved by men only, out of a variety of hard and soft woods indigenous to the KwaZulu area. They were used with great formality. Each spoon had a handwoven basketry holder, made by women. Spoons had to be placed in a specific pattern around a communal food dish, and not left standing in it , to avoid sympathetic magic--food sticking in one's stomach. In households with more than one wife, each would have commissioned for her a set of spoons. A young bride could not share the milk and meat of her husband's home until the gift of a goat had been exchanged between her husband's and father's families. The goat was known as the "goat of the spoon," for with it was given the spoon with which the wife would eat sour milk and other food in her husband's household. I fell in love with Zulu spoons when one was the cover object on a Sotheby's catalog some years ago. In a year of traveling through South Africa, by far the best collection we saw was in the KwaZulu Cultural Museum in Ulundi. Recommended Reading: See Lindsay Hooper's article "Domestic Arts-Carved Wooden Objects in the Home" in "ZULU TREASURES"-AMAGUGU kaZULU.

• Type of Object: Ceremonial spoon, artifact
• Materials: Wood
• Country of Origin: South Africa
• Dimensions: Height: 22 InchesWidth: 2.5 Inches
• People: Zulu

Type of Object: Ceremonial spoon, artifactAfrica Direct