drinking-bowl
- Museum number
- Am1983,Q.445
- Description
-
A drinking-bowl made from the lower half of a gourd, painted red inside and with a concentric floral pattern on the underside. Lengthy crack near rim historically repaired using fabric tape.
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 18.40 centimetres
-
Height: 9 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Painted gourd bowls are common among the Yaqui communities and utilised for various purposes. During ceremonies and performances such as the Deer Dance and Pascola, they are used for offerings. The painted motif on the surface invokes the fruits that grow after flowering. (Source: Selina Martínez, Yaqui architect, Arizona, US). This object featured in ‘Species of the River: Yaqui (Yoeme) communities in Mexico and the United States’, a collaborative project developed in 2023 with Selina Martínez, a Yaqui architect from Penjamo – Scottsdale, Arizona (US) and the Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research (SDCELAR) at the British Museum.The project grows from fieldwork research in Sonora (Mexico) and Arizona (US), and collection research around the cultural and material heritage of Yaqui peoples in the British Museum and other UK institutions. This research informed a digital interactive exhibition, premised on multimedia storytelling with historical and contemporary audio recordings and 3D models of objects from the collections and scans of the built environment by Selina Martínez. For more information see https://www.sdcelarbritishmuseum.org/projects/mesoamerica/species-of-the-river-yaqui-yoeme-communities-in-mexico-and-the-united-states/.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Severe crack near rim, poor quality historical repair.
- Acquisition date
- 1855
- Acquisition notes
- Acquisition details not recorded in register. Bowl is very similar in design to Am1855,1220.163 and it is very likely that it formed part of the same collection but was not registered at the time of donation, probably due to its damaged condition.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Am1983,Q.445
