Palm nuts with blue cloth bag, Nigeria, 1880-1920

Palm nuts with blue cloth. Yoruba people, Nigeria. 1880-1920 Palm nuts with blue cloth bag, Nigeria, 1880-1920 Palm nuts with blue cloth bag, Nigeria, 1880-1920

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

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Palm nuts with blue cloth. Yoruba people, Nigeria. 1880-1920
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Palm nuts with blue cloth bag, Yoruba people, Nigeria, 1880-1920

A set of palm nuts usually kept in the blue cloth bag. Diviners of the Yoruba people of Nigeria pass sixteen palm nuts from hand to hand eight times. Each time, one or two nuts are kept in the hand and this is marked on a board. The diviner reads the pattern of these marks and matches it to one of 256 odu (signs or messages).

Details

Category:
Ethnography and Folk Medicine
Collection:
Sir Henry Wellcome's Museum Collection
Object Number:
A234414
Materials:
kernels, pine and cloth
Measurements:
overall: 0.154 kg
overall (bag only): 60 mm x 155 mm x 400 mm, .032 kg
type:
divination set
credit:
Glendining