Love those, thanks for showing them! Had no idea they were used in this way. I was excited to find a long strand of these at a rummage sale last year. But their holes are end to end, not side to side.
Martine—When you write "temple decoration" I suppose you mean flanking the face, and not "for a place of worship." Correct? JDA.
Indeed. That is the term used in literature. Head adornment/decoration is too general and it is not an ear decoration. It really is a piece that is either attached or braided into the hair in such a way that it falls along the ears. We haven't found a picture yet of a person wearing these specific ones.
I am adding a picture of a Mauritanian temple ornament for a little girl. There is a big chance the pusiostoma balls were also attached to one another.
..., (and some men) in different parts of Asia and Africa, wear head ornaments that frame the face on both sides (and may cascade onto the shoulders). This includes pieces that are easily mistaken for "earrings," and also those that may be more properly called hair-strings. As a Jewelry Historian, I am well-familiar with these adornments.
JDA.
Evidently Peul hairstyle I am thinking. Sorry no source for photo. The Photographer is perhaps accredited somewhere in the many pics on Pinterest (my pet peeve with Pinterest is that so many photos are poorly or mistakenly described or unaccredited). This does not show the grouping of the shells- though maybe a looser gather, but does show them being worn:
To my knowledge they don’t though it could be handy with these hairstyles. To be sure I checked with my brother who is a headrest collector and he never saw or heard about them. I quickly went through some headrest books and the Fulani are completely absent in
there.
Who knows it might come into fashion one day....