Snuff Container
- Medium
- Horn, beads, metal, and animal hide
- Dimensions
- with chain extended: 56.6 × 3.9 × 3.2 cm (22 1/4 × 1 1/2 × 1 1/4 in.); container only: 7 × 3.9 × 3.2 cm (2 3/4 × 1 1/2 × 1 1/4 in.)
- Genre
- snuff bottle
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
beadssnuff bottleEastern and Southern Africamaasaiafrican Artarts of Africahorncontainersmetalhide
About
Snuff containers made from small gourds are highly personal items among the Samburu and other nomadic herder groups. Typically carried on the body and used to store tobacco snuff, they were decorated with glass beads or iron chains. A costly luxury product, tobacco is consumed by both men and women for social and medicinal purposes, or sniffed as a means of communicating with ancestors and other spirits during divination.
