Extensions of the self: artistry and identity in the headrests and stools of Southwest Ethiopian peoples

In this article in African Arts, J. Abbink presents a survey of head- or neck rests or stools in Southern Ethiopia, a still widespread object serving as personal and artistic identity marker of many peoples. His analysis takes the headrests and stools out of the domain of 'functional objects' and considers them primarily as artefacts that combine a number of aspects: functional, but also aesthetic, social and rhetorical, thus contributing to the formation of social and personal identity of the users. He also briefly addresses questions of commoditization and of conditions under which people may abandon their use.

‘Extensions of the self: artistry and identity in the headrests and stools of Southwest Ethiopian peoples’, African Arts, Vol. 48, No. 4, pp. 46-59.