Workshop: “The Ethiopian Pillow” – Towards a New Cultural Mapping of Headrests
Headrests have been used for thousands of years in different regions around the world. Therefore, it is not surprising that they can be found in various shapes and sizes in many German ethnographic collections, many of which are from Ethiopia. There, headrests have not merely been functional objects, but have also held different symbolic and social meanings. On 24 June 2025 the Centre for Transcultural Studies/Perthes Collection, together with the SCIFA Science Facilitation (Berlin/Gotha), the KOLUMBA, the Art Museum of the Archdiocese of Cologne, the Frobenius Institute (Frankfurt a. M.) and the “Kulturtechniken des Sammelns” project (Erfurt University) held a workshop to discuss these implications and more. It was enriched by insights of Prof. Takele Merid Afessa, the director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University.
The first part of the event took place at the Perthes Collection where the participants discussed how headrests and their provenances can be traced using historical maps and travelogues, either explicitly, or implicitly through information on trade routes or the distribution of the trees from which they were made. In the second part, the organizers of the event—Dr. Kerstin Volker-Saad (Berlin/Gotha), Prof. Iris Schröder (Erfurt/Gotha) and Prof. Takele Merid Afessa—provided insights into the history and cultural significance of headrests. This was illustrated by a hands-on session in which the participants could touch, smell, and try the headrests. In the evening, Prof. Takele Merid Afessa concluded the workshop with a presentation on the ethnological collection of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa. This was accompanied by a lively discussion about the colonial legacy of ethnographic collections, sensitive objects, and restitution.


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Albert Feierabend (July 8, 2025). Workshop: “The Ethiopian Pillow” – Towards a New Cultural Mapping of Headrests. Mapping Africa and Asia. Retrieved March 11, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/14aon


