Belt

The anthropologist Laura Benedict, who studied the Bagobo people of the southern Philippines in the early 1900s, described both their intricate and colorful clothing and their use of beaded jewelry, brass bells, and bangles. She writes that their presence was announced by the tinkling of their hollow bracelets and brass bell ornaments.

This belt with its attached silver beads gives us a fine illustration of how clothing could announce one’s presence. The Bagobo were known for their fine beadwork as well as metalwork.