Monobloc wooden piece used to protect the hairstyle during sleep. These types of artefacts carry symbolic meanings, reflecting a worldview based on binary metaphors: eclipses, the lunar cycle, life and death. In various cultures, sleep and dreaming are privileged means of communicating with another world inhabited by distinct entities: deities, the dead, and ancestors.
At the same time, they fulfil often complex functions: protecting the head from contact with the ground, enhancing the dream experience, or forming a crucial element of funerary furniture, acting as a mediating support between death and the afterlife.
Headrest (Mozambique, 19th century)