A pair of gendered headrests like this is exceptionally rare. Candidly detailed male and female elements appear on the respective pieces. A penis-like form accentuates both ends of the larger headrest, while a raised, vulva-like detail characterises the ends of the more svelte of the pair.

Side views reveal their well-rounded, leg-like struts and their deep, horizontal torsos, which make this pair seem positively bovid. The belly-like sag, with protruding faceted navel below the sleeping platform, amplifies this zoomorphic reading. Human fecundity, the very premise of marriage, is linked to the fertility of the beloved cattle that are central to the family’s livelihood, the clan’s prosperity, and the economy of the group as a whole. The cattle imagery directly invokes the ancestral world, which forms an integral part of the entire social structure and connects the sleeper with his or her forebears.

The substantial wearing away of the poker work on the chamfered legs of both headrests and their identical gleaming surfaces point to many years of usage in a single household.

In summing up, this pair of headrests highlights once more the centrality of cattle to the cultures in this region, their function in braiding together family lineages across the ages, creating alliances beyond the immediate family group. In these two headrests, the link to human fecundity is made explicit, as it was in the pubic triangles and the nubile breasts on the caryatid-like Shona headrests. Although the nexus of ideas in the headrests are very closely related, the astonishing variety of mainly abstract forms attests to the creative ingenuity and pleasure of the carvers working within the parameters of certain accepted proportions.