Wristlet (Inkipilat oo nkaik)

Maasai

These bracelets are a pair and are made for a newly initiated woman; uninitiated women are not allowed to wear them. The patterned one is worn on the left arm; the large red, blue, and white striped one is worn on the right. In recent years, Kaputiei and Kisongo men have begun wearing similar bracelets, though women still wear them more than men do.

Glass beads and plastic dividers

4 1/4 x 3 1/2 in. (10.8 x 8.9 cm)

General Acquisition Fund

2000.12.15.1

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, A Maasai Community Adorns a Bride, May 31, 2001 - Mar. 1, 2005.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back, Feb. 7 - May 19, 2002 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Oct. 2, 2004 - Jan. 2, 2005; Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum, Feb. 12 - June 19, 2005; Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, Oct. 8, 2005 - Jan. 1, 2006; Nashville, Tennessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Jan. 27 - Apr. 30, 2006 [as African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back]). Text by Pamela McClusky. No cat. no., p. 276, reproduced pl. 106.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Lessons from the Institute of Empathy, Mar. 31, 2018 - ongoing.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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