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Designed for Life on The Move

Somali men and women make durable and portable tools and furnishings from natural resources. Women make baskets from reeds and storage bags from leather. Men carve wooden head rests, bowls, and containers. As some natural resources become rarer, however, materials change. Polyethylene sheets can replace women mats, plastic containers replace gourds.

Who Owns The Family Home?

Women. Builders of the family’s portable home, they bind its framework of arched acacia roots and insulated it with woven mats. When it is time to move to greener pastures, they disassemble the house or aqal, into a bundle that packs snugly on a camel’s back.

When a bride sets up a house, her mother provides foundation poles and mats from her own aqal. The bride will do the same for her daughters. A divorced woman retains the rights to her house and goods, and, at a woman’s death, her daughters inherit their mother’s aqal.

Details

  • Title: Somali Hut
  • Type: Hut
  • Rights: This image was obtained from the Smithsonian Institution. The image or its contents may be protected by international copyright laws. http://www.si.edu/termsofuse
  • Photo Credit: James Di Loreto, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History
  • Field: Ethnology

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