BRASS NAGA HEAD-TAKERS' PENDANTS, NAGALAND, NORTH-EAST INDIA

A. A brass pendant in the form of the front half of a head, punched designs, old repairs, suspended from cotton threaded with cylindrical coral beads
B. A brass pendant in the form of two heads joined along one edge, each with one loop for suspension
C. A necklace composed of coral, turquoise and amber beads, a mother-of-pearl disc attached by a clump of hair

A. India, Art and Culture 1300-1900, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985

A. Welch 1985, p.78, fig.33

These brass mask-form pendants were worn as emblems of head-taking status. They could also indicate the number of heads taken by the wearer and so pendants frequently appear with several heads joined together (Jacobs 1990, p.253).  The pendants were often handed down from generation to generation and hence acquired an heirloom status. The form of these single head pendants would appear to be evolved from that of brass box lids which were imported from the plains to be adapted for use as Naga jewellery.

A village headman of Pangmi village in the Naga Hills of Burma is recorded in a photograph showing him wearing several of these pendant-laden necklaces, the combined number of heads on the pendants indicating the number of heads he took as a youth (Jacobs 1990, p.169).