Antique African Tribal Loma Toma Peoples Carved Wood Headrest Stool, West Africa

Description

This is an antique, hand carved, wooden African headrest and or small stool which was tribally made from a single piece of wood by the Loma tribe of West Africa.
The Loma people, sometimes called Loghoma, Looma, Lorma or Toma, are a West African ethnic group living primarily in the northern mountainous, sparsely populated regions of Guinea and Liberia.They are exogamous people, with patrilineal social organization in matters related to inheritance, succession and lineage affiliations with one-marriage rule. Joint families, or virilocal communities are common, wherein families of brothers settle close to each other.The Loma People regulate and organize their political and social aspects of communal life around a powerful men's secret society which is called Poro.The Malinke, Konyaka, and Kissi people refer to the Loma as Toma. The Loma people refer to themselves as Löömàgìtì.These wood headrests are multifunctional objects for the Loma and can also serve as small sitting stools.
African tribal people use their hairstyles to proudly show their age, gender and status.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 rare African headrest or small stool measures 14.50 inches long across the top and is 7.50 inches tall and 9 inches wide. This piece weighs 6 pounds and 9 ounces.
Great condition with slight wear from tribal use including some burned spots, chips and some cracks in the wood and one side of the seat is taller than the other side of the seat. 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 where I have thousands of items to browse through.