An exhibit of headgear — from practical to ceremonial — is on display at UMFA
You can look at these hats and see how different they are. One has feathers; another is made of felt. One is made of tortoise shell; another is of fabric.
But you can also see the similarities. They are all worn on the head — for protection; to show status; as part of ritual or ceremony.
That's the fun thing about hats, says Bernadette Brown, curator of African, Oceanic and New World Art at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on the University of Utah campus. Hats are as different as the people who made them, yet they show us how alike we are. It seems that every culture, every society has had a need to cover and adorn their heads, she says.
That's the premise behind "Head Trip: Around the World in Forty Hats," an exhibit at UMFA, which runs through mid-August.
The show features hats drawn from the museum's permanent collection, as well as some borrowed from the Museum of Peoples and Cultures in Provo and the Utah Museum of Natural History at the U.
"We're very excited about the exhibit," says Brown. "It was something that just grew idea by idea." A Bawami Society hat, topped with the skull of a ground hornbill, is what started it all. "That got us thinking about hats and how hats are used."
The first hats were simply functional, answering the need to keep warm or keep cool or provide protective covering. Those hats range from simple scarves wrapped around the head to provide warmth, to a woman's chadurn worn in desert areas for protection during sand storms.
That tradition continues today in such things as bicycle and football helmets, camouflage army helmets, sun visors and more.
Hats have long been used to show identity and belonging. Before ID cards, people identified themselves by wearing distinctive costumes and hats, says Brown. "In Africa, for example, the colors and patterns used in such hats as the Boende woman's hat indicated what village she came from."
Today, baseball caps worn by team members serve that same function. The same can be said of the brightly colored headgear of today's "Red Hat" clubs and groups.
Another purpose of hats is for fashion and status. "Your hat could tell how important you were in society." Particular styles, materials and decorations were used to advertise one's class or wealth. Large, weighty hats made of expensive materials, rare dyes and precious gems were common for shaman, rulers and other people of importance.
Fashion has dictated a variety of head adornments. Consider the powdered and pompous wigs of the 18th century or the felted beaver hats of the 19th century — which almost wiped out beaver populations in the New World.
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