Collection of Hats from Different Villages in Afghanistan

About this piece

Details: Origin: Afghanistan Age: Recently Assembled Dimensions: 41” Length x 11” Width x 7” Height Description: Hats have a very special significance to the culture of Afghanistan. When boys become men between the ages of 14-15 years of age, a very special hat is made for them to be worn during a special ceremony. Each hat was hand-made and hand-woven. Silver ornaments were added to most of these hats to express value, importance, and wealth. These valuable ornaments were added with the intention of reminding the young men that they should be creating value through their work. The silver basically indicates that play-time is over, and now it is time to get to work. This unique, varied collection of hats comes from from Turkmen, Kazakhs, Baluchis, and more. Even though these tribes were fairly close to each other, travel over the mountains and through the deserts that separated the villages was difficult and not often done. Thus, hat appearances varied greatly from village-to-village, and these design differences were retained for many years. Materials used to create the hats include silver, German cotton, silver coin, silver wool, colorful beads, velvet color full cloth, and silk fabric.