Reed necklace and pair of ear ornaments
Kikuyu people, Kenya
![[b]Left:[/b] Collected and donated by William Scoresby Routledge in 1913; 1913.5.119[br][b]Right:[/b] Collected by William Scoresby Routledge and donated by John Harington in 1951; 1951.10.7 .1–.2](../../../images/stories/kikuyu_ornaments.jpg)
Left: Collected and donated by William Scoresby Routledge in 1913; 1913.5.119
Right: Collected by William Scoresby Routledge and donated by John Harington in 1951; 1951.10.7 .1–.2The necklace is made of reed pendants strung on a fibre cord. It is made and worn by boys who have not yet been circumcised.
Kikuyu boys and girls both undertake circumcision ceremonies and uncircumcised members of both sexes wear round wooden ear ornaments during the circumcision dancing. These examples are decorated with white beads. It takes about five months to dilate the earlobes so they are large enough to take the wooden discs. However, men and women never wear the discs so once the child has been circumcised and is recognized as an adult, the wooden discs are removed and plant stem is worn in the ear holes instead. The practice of female genital cutting (female circumcision) still takes place in some North African and Arabian cultures but is prohibited in the West.
