Title
Woman's tube-dress
Year/Period
20th century
Region
Sumba, Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesian Archipelago
Material
Dimension
Object size: L149 x W73.5 cm
Accession No.
2000-01254
Collection of
This textile was sewn together to form a rectangular cloth to serve as a costume for women and it is worn wrapped around the wearer. Textiles in Sumba have historically been major prestige markers for the noble caste and their exchange validates alliances between the clans. They also carry cosmological symbolism based in local animist concepts and are crucial in the rituals of the Marapu (ancestral) belief system.
