Barkcloth from the Pacific island nation of Tonga, which is known tapa, is made of the pounded inner bark of the Paper Mulberry tree. Raw material is taken from young trees, dried and soaked, and then beaten with a wooden mallet called an ike. Women […]
The Yup’ik people of Alaska use hand-held dance fans, called tegumiak, to emphasize the graceful motions of dancers’ arms during ceremonial dances. Yup’ik dancing is most commonly performed during the winter ceremony known as Kelek, or the Inviting-In Feast. The ceremony, held in the communal […]
Goat horns like this one are used by Zulu healers, known as isangoma, who specialize in divination and mediation with ancestral spirits. Many illnesses are thought to be connected to spiritual troubles, so Zulu healers are valued for their ability to travel between physical and […]
Used in the Amazon rainforest by members of the Matis tribe, these blowgun darts are typically tipped with curare, a poison made from scraping and boiling bark from a poisonous vine found in the area. The poison can kill a bird in less than two […]
In Japan, May 5 is Children’s Day, known as Kodomo-no-hi, which celebrates the health and happiness of children. Though it was previously known as Boy’s Day, the date was made a national holiday celebrating all children in 1948. One of the most recognized traditions associated […]
Made of silk and cotton, textiles like this one are referred to as suzani, which comes from the Farsi word for needle. Though they are found across Central Asia, the textiles originated in Uzbekistan and are most commonly created by Uzbek women, as this one […]