black plastic arms and head, black wool yarn hair, white cotton dress and headdress, necklace of black, white and yellow glass beads; body is a plastic foam cylinder glued to a stiffened cotton base.
Donor:
Judah L. Magnes Museum
Collection place:
Suriname
Verbatim coll. place:
Suriname
Collector:
Ralph Bennett
Collection date:
1979-1980
Materials:
Cotton (textile), Glass (material), Plastic (organic material), and Wool yarn
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Dolls (figurines)
Function:
5.7 Objects made for sale, souvenirs, models, and reproductions
Context of use:
Collector's information concerning doll's costume states, "Kotto-missi is an expression that is short for 'cotton covered miss' and stems from the fact that when the Hernhutter Protestant missionaries arrived from Holland and Germany in the early 1700's they were shocked to see the Negro women walking around bare breasted. Similarly to what was done in Hawaii, voluminous mumu type dresses with lots of fabric were used to cover up the black women's bodies. Another part of the costume was the elaborate headdress, tied in various ways to indicated whether the wearer was single, married or a widow, etc.”