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Selu

human history
  • Other Name

    Comb (English)

  • Description

    Selu. Comb. This particular type of comb may also be referred to as selu tuiga. This comb is of Samoa and made for the purposes of adorning the hair, primarily for female but can also be worn by male. It is made up of four components: tuāniu (coconut leaflet midrib), wire, glass beads and vulu (wool). It is vertical in nature and its framework is made entirely from dried tuāniu.

    The lower part shows a row of twenty-one tuāniu, lined neatly in a flared manner and used as selu teeth for hair insertion. Wires, light brown and dark brown in colours, are used to lash the tuāniu together across the mid-section. These lashings are arranged in ways to create serrated patterns. Furthermore, four small-scale wire lashings are on both sides/edges. Four beads (x2 red, x1 white and x1 blue) are each individually attached to one of the four peripheral lashings. The upper or crowning area of the selu shows the truncation of tuāniu just above the mid-section, except for five tuāniu in the centre. The five remaining tuāniu is extended vertically and is the basis for more embellishments in which it is intertwined with orange, mustard, red, blue and purple vulu.

  • Place
  • Accession Number
    1949.146
  • Accession Date
    1949
  • Other Id

    31058 (ethnology)

  • Department
comb, 1949.146, 31058, Photographed by Jennifer Carol,… … Read more

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