Tent Divider (Te Saqwit)

Unknown

19th–20th century · Cotton, leather, beads, cowrie shells, palm leaf · Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Designed to be suspended from the rafters of a tent, this mobile architectural element separated daytime and nighttime quarters. Among the nomadic Beja of the Eastern Desert, a woman’s female relatives produce such an elaborate, multimedia composition at the time of her betrothal. The work’s red background, cowrie shells, and applied beadwork designs of crescent and full moons allude to marriage and fertility. Such multimedia creations may also feature embroidered livestock brands, considered potent protective symbols within this pastoralist society. Guarding the threshold of an intimate space devoted to sleep and marital relations, such amuletic compositions contributed to the interior’s physical security and spiritual protection.

Artist

Unknown

Date

19th–20th century

Medium

Cotton, leather, beads, cowrie shells, palm leaf

Culture

Beja peoples

Department

Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Credit line

Gift of Jerome Vogel and Susan Vogel, in memory of Shirley Gordon Nichols, 1996