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Kali - or headrest - from Tonga or Fiji. Made of wood, the headrest is composed of a circular bar of wood with four short legs.The legs are attached to the headrest bar with internal coils of braided fiber. Headrests were important personal possessions because the head is where mana - sacred and ancestral power - is most concentrated.
headrests
wood (plant material)
Tongan
Fijian
Headrest
E47,135 (Painted on)
Original to Phillips House (Salem, Mass.),
E47,135
Unknown
Pacific Island Group
5 5/8 x 19 3/8 x 6 (HxWxD) (inches)
Gift of the Stephen Phillips Memorial Charitable Trust for Historic Preservation
2006.44.1214
Possibly Fiji
Possibly Tonga
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