Filá headdress. Gourd headpiece, with hanging raffia cover. The half gourd is decorated with lace around its rim and across to the top centre where it wraps around a protruding lip. On the body between the strips of lace are woven circles of raffia beneath flower shaped arrangements of cowrie shells and plastic beads. Out the top protrusion emerges a stiff tuft of raffia held together by a wrap of grey plastic twine. From the lower rim of the gourd hang thick, metre long strands of raffia, entirely encircling the headdress so that the fringe hangs down evenly over the wearer’s front and back.

• Cultural Context

  religious; ceremonial

• Narrative

  Top of the Omulu's costume. This item is part of a set acquired from the O Mundo dos Orixás shop, Madureira Market, in Rio de Janeiro.

• History Of Use

  The filá of Omulu Obaluayê is the most distinctive element of this costume (includes 3041/2-3). The costume depicts Omulu Obaluaiê, “King and Lord of the Earth,” one of the core orixá of the Afro-Brazilian religions of Candomblé and Umbanda. Omulu is the son of Nanã and Oxalá (the husband of lemanjá that Nanã seduced). Abandoned by his mother he was saved by Iemanjá and healed by his father Oxalá. He became a wanderer and is an earthly entity, related to death and diseases.

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• Type of Item headdress
• Culture Brazilian
• Material calabash fruit, palm leaf, fibre, cowrie shell, adhesive, plastic
• Measurements height 35.0 cm, width 35.0 cm, depth 134.0 cm (overall)

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• Field Collector Nuno Porto
• Previous Owner Mundo dos Orixas
• Received from Mundo dos Orixas, Museum of Anthropology Acquisitions Budget

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• Made in Rio de Janeiro

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• Creation Date during 2013
• Collection Date during November 2013
• Ownership Date before November 22, 2013
• Acquisition Date on November 22, 2013

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• Condition good
• Accession Number 3041/0001