Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Suspension hooks were used to protect and keep vermin away from a range of objects including food, clothing, and ceremonial objects. Suspension hooks are usually decorated with figures, animals or humans, which are important to the owner’s family or ancestors and important community spirits.

While many suspension hooks were used for daily tasks and hung from the rafters of a home, others were kept within men’s ceremonial houses. Those that hung within a ceremonial house could have been used to hold skulls, offerings, or other ceremonially important objects. It would not have been unusual for such a ceremonial suspension hook to have not been functionally used and instead considered solely a powerful sculptural representation of an important spirit or ancestor.