Rough Notes:
Crown (headgear)
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
|
A crown is a traditional symbolic form of headwear worn by a monarch or by a deity, for whom the crown traditionally represents power, legitimacy, victory, triumph, honor, and glory, as well as immortality, righteousness, and resurrection. In art, the crown may be shown being offered to those on Earth by angels. Apart from the traditional form,[clarification needed] crowns also may be in the form of a wreath and be made of flowers, oak leaves, or thorns and be worn by others, representing what the coronation part aims to symbolize with the specific crown. In religious art, a crown of stars is used similarly to a halo. Crowns worn by rulers often contain jewels.
Contents
[hide]
As an emblem[edit]
A crown is often an emblem of the monarchy, a monarch's government, or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, particularly in Commonwealth countries, as an abstract name for the monarchy itself, as distinct from the individual who inhabits it (see The Crown). A specific type of crown (or coronet for lower ranks of peerage) is employed in heraldry under strict rules. Indeed, some monarchies never had a physical crown, just a heraldic representation, as in the constitutional kingdom of Belgium, where no coronation ever took place; the royal installation is done by a solemn oath in parliament, wearing a military uniform: the King is not acknowledged as by divine right, but assumes the only hereditary public office in the service of the law; so he in turn will swear in all members of "his" federal government.
- Costume headgear imitating a monarch's crown is also called a crown. Such costume crowns may be worn by actors portraying a monarch, people at costume parties, or ritual "monarchs" such as the king of a Carnival krewe, or the person who found the trinket in a king cake.
- The nuptial crown, sometimes called a coronal, worn by a bride, and sometimes the bridegroom, at her wedding is found in many European cultures since ancient times. In the present day, it is most common in Eastern Orthodox cultures. The Eastern Orthodox marriage service has a section called the crowning, wherein the bride and groom are crowned as "king" and "queen" of their future household. In Greek weddings, the crowns are diadems usually made of white flowers, synthetic or real, often adorned with silver or mother of pearl. They are placed on the heads of the newlyweds and are held together by a ribbon of white silk. They are then kept by the couple as a reminder of their special day. In Slavic weddings, the crowns are usually made of ornate metal, designed to resemble an imperial crown, and are held above the newlyweds heads by their best men. A parish usually owns one set to use for all the couples that are married there since these are much more expensive than Greek-style crowns. This was common in Catholic countries in the past.
- Crowns are also often used as symbols of religious status or veneration, by divinities (or their representation such as a statue) or by their representatives, e.g. the Black Crown of the Karmapa Lama, sometimes used a model for wider use by devotees.
- A Crown of thorns according to the Bible, was placed on the head of Jesus before his crucifixion and has become a common symbol of martyrdom.
- According to Roman Catholic tradition, the Blessed Virgin Mary was crowned as Queen of Heaven after her assumption into heaven. She is often depicted wearing a crown, and statues of her in churches and shrines are ceremonially crowned during May.
- The Crown of Immortality is also common in historical symbolism.
- The heraldic symbol of Three Crowns, referring to the three evangelical Magi (wise men), traditionally called kings, is believed thus to have become the symbol of the Swedish kingdom, but it also fits the historical (personal, dynastic) Kalmar Union (1397–1520) between the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
- Dancers of certain traditional Thai dances often wear crowns (mongkut) on their head. These are inspired in the crowns worn by deities and by kings.
- In India, crowns is known as makuta (Sanskrit for "crest"), and have been used in India since ancient times and are described adorning Hindu gods or kings.
- In pre-Hispanic Philippines, a crown-like diadems or Putong is wore by elite individuals and also deities, include array of golden ornaments.[1][2]
Terminology[edit]
Three distinct categories of crowns exist in those monarchies that use crowns or state regalia.
- Coronation: worn by monarchs when being crowned.
- State: worn by monarchs on other state occasions.
- Consort crowns: worn by queens consort, signifying rank granted as a constitutional courtesy protocol.
Crowns or similar headgear, as worn by nobility and other high-ranking people below the ruler, is in English often called a coronet; However, in many languages, this distinction is not made and the same word is used for both types of headgear (e.g., French couronne, German Krone, Dutch kroon). In some of these languages the term "rank crown" (rangkroon, etc.) refers to the way these crowns may be ranked according to hierarchical status.
In Classical antiquity, the crown (corona) that was sometimes awarded to people other than rulers, such as triumphal military generals or athletes, was actually a wreath or chaplet, or ribbon-like diadem.
History[edit]
The precursor to the crown was the browband called the diadem, which had been worn by the Achaemenid Persian emperors, was adopted by Constantine I, and was worn by all subsequent rulers of the later Roman Empire.
Numerous crowns of various forms were used in antiquity, such as the Hedjet, Deshret, the Pschent double crown, and Khepresh of Pharaonic Egypt.
The corona radiata, the "radiant crown" known best on the Statue of Liberty, and perhaps worn by the Helios that was the Colossus of Rhodes, was worn by Roman emperors as part of the cult of Sol Invictus prior to the Roman Empire's conversion to Christianity. It was referred to as "the chaplet studded with sunbeams” by Lucian, about 180 AD.[3]
Perhaps the oldest extant Christian crown in Europe is the Iron Crown of Lombardy, of Roman and Longobard age, later again used to crown modern Kings of Napoleonic and Austrian Italy, and to represent united Italy after 1860.
In the Christian tradition of European cultures, where ecclesiastical sanction authenticates monarchic power, when a new monarch assumes the throne in a coronation ceremony, the crown is placed on the new monarch's head by a religious official. Some, though not all early Holy Roman Emperors travelled to Rome at some point in their careers to be crowned by the pope. Napoleon, according to legend, surprised Pius VII when he reached out and crowned himself, although in reality this order of ceremony had been pre-arranged (see coronation).
Today, only the British Monarchy and Tongan Monarchy continue this tradition as the only remaining anointed and crowned monarchs, though many monarchies retain a crown as a national symbol in heraldry. The French Crown Jewels were sold in 1885 on the orders of the Third French Republic, with only a token number, with their precious stones replaced by glass, held on to for historic reasons and displayed by the Louvre. The Spanish Crown Jewels were destroyed in a major fire in the 18th century while the so-called "Irish Crown Jewels" (actually merely the British Sovereign's insignia of the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick) were stolen from Dublin Castle in 1907, just before the investiture of Bernard Edward Barnaby FitzPatrick, 2nd Baron Castletown.
Special headgear to designate rulers dates back to pre-history, and is found in many separate civilizations around the globe. Commonly, rare and precious materials are incorporated into the crown, but that is only essential for the notion of crown jewels. Gold and precious jewels are common in western and oriental crowns. In the Native American civilizations of the Pre-Columbian New World, rare feathers, such as that of the quetzal, often decorated crowns; so too in Polynesia (e.g. Hawaii).
- Coronation is often combined with other rituals, such as enthronement (the throne is as much a symbol of monarchy as the crown) and anointing (again religious sanction, the only defining act in the Biblical tradition of Israel).
In other cultures, no crown is used in the equivalent of coronation, but the head may still be otherwise symbolically adorned, as a royal tikka in the Hindu tradition of India.
Image gallery[edit]
-
Crown of the Essen Cathedral Treasury (11th century)
-
Crown of the Holy Roman Empire (11th century)
-
Medieval Crown of Bulgaria kert in the National history museum of Bulgaria
-
Holy Crown of Hungary(12th century)
-
Crown of Eric IX of Sweden (12th century)
-
Crown of Saint Wenceslas (1347; modern replica shown)
-
The crown of King Christian IV of Denmark(16th century), currently located in Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen.
-
St Edward's Crown(1661)
-
Crown of Louis XV
-
Reproduction of Imperial Crown of Napoleon III of France.
-
Imperial Crown of Pedro II of Brazil (1822)
-
The Imperial Crown of India, worn by Emperor George V at his Delhi Durbar (1911).
-
The Imperial crown of Japanese emperorKōmei (1831–1867).
-
Imperial Crowns of Head of the States of Kingdom of Nepal (19th century). Preserved at British Museum, London.
-
Pahlavi Crown (1926)
Numismatics[edit]
Because one or more crowns, alone or as part of a more elaborate design, often appear on coins, several monetary denominations came to be known as 'a crown' (see Crown (British coin)) or the equivalent word in the local language, such as krone. This persists in the case of the national currencies of the Scandinavian countries and the Czech Republic. The generic term "crown sized" is frequently used for any coin roughly the size of an American silver dollar.
See also[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Crowns. |
External links[edit]
- Fallow, Thomas Macall (1911). "Crown and Coronet". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 515–518.
References[edit]
[hide] |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||||||
Helmets |
|
||||||||
Other protective | |||||||||
Eyewear | |||||||||
Hairwear and other items |
Native American Language Native American Culture Authentic Indian Craft
Native American Headdresses: Facts for Kids
When most people think of an American Indian headdress, the first image that comes to mind is a full eagle-feather warbonnet like the Lakota Sioux headdress above. But in fact, American Indians in most tribes never used feather headdresses like these. Feathered warbonnets may be the best-known American Indian headdresses, but they were not the most commonly used-- and they were certainly not the only ones.
Sponsored Links
Read on for pictures and descriptions of the most important Native American headdress styles of North America and the differences between them.
Native American Headdresses
Native American Warbonnets
Warbonnets (or war bonnets) are the impressive feather headdresses commonly seen in Western movies and TV shows. Although warbonnets are the best-known type of Indian headdress today, they were actually only worn by a dozen or so Indian tribes in the Great Plains region, such as the Sioux, Crow, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, and Plains Cree. In the first photograph, you can see a Dakota Sioux warrior wearing a trailer warbonnet (native headdress with single or double rows of eagle feathers descending in a long 'tail' all the way to the ground). In the second photo, modern Crow elders attend a formal event in halo warbonnets (native headdresses with eagle feathers fanned out around the face in an oval shape). The third photograph shows a Blackfoot man wearing a straight-up feather headdress (taller, narrower headdresses where the eagle feathers stand up straight.) All three types of Indian war bonnets were made from the tail feathers of the golden eagle, and each feather had to be earned by an act of bravery. Sometimes a feather might be painted with red dye to commemorate a particular deed. Besides the feathers, Plains Indian warbonnets were often decorated with ermine skins and fancy beadwork.
trailer war bonnet halo warbonnet straight-up warbonnet
Native American warbonnets were important ceremonial regalia worn only by chiefs and warriors. Also, only men wore warbonnets. (Women sometimes went to war in some Plains Indian tribes, and there were even some female chiefs, but they never wore these masculine headdresses.) Plains Indian men occasionally wore warbonnet headdresses while they were fighting, but more often they wore roach headdresses into battle (see below) and saved their war bonnets for formal occasions. In particular, long feather trailers were never worn on the battlefield. It would be impossible to fight while wearing them!
In the 1800's, Native American men from other tribes sometimes began to wear Plains-style warbonnets. Partially this was because of the American tourist industry, which expected Native Americans to look a certain way. Partially it was because many Native American tribes were forced to move to Oklahoma and other Indian territories during this time in history, so tribes that used to live far apart began adopting customs from their new neighbors. In most cases, the feather warbonnet did not have the same significance among the new tribes that adopted it. For them, wearing a feathered headdress was a matter of fashion or a general symbol of authority. But for the Plains Indian tribes, feather warbonnets were a sacred display of a man's honor and courage, and each feather told a story. Eagle feathers are still sometimes awarded to Plains Indians who serve in the military or do other brave deeds today.
Roach Headdresses (Porcupine Roaches)
Feather warbonnets are better-known to popular culture, but roach headdresses (also called porcupine roaches or artificial roaches) were the most widely used kind of Indian headdress in the United States. Most Native American tribes east of the Rocky Mountains were familiar with some form of roach headdress. These native headdresses are made of stiff animal hair, especially porcupine guard hair, moose hair, and deer's tail hair. This hair was attached to a bone hair ornament or leather base so that it stood straight up from the head like a tuft or crest. Often the hair was dyed bright colors and feathers, shells, or other decorations were attached. In some tribes, men wore their hair in a scalplock or crested roach style (frequently given the name Mohawk or Mohican after two tribes in which roached hair was common), and the artificial roach was attached to the man's own hair. The Caddo man in the first picture is wearing his roach headdress this way. In other tribes, porcupine roaches were attached to leather headbands or thongs and worn over long hair or braids. This is how they are most commonly worn today.
Caddo warrior's roach powwow dancer's roach Indian roach for sale
Roach headdresses were usually worn by warriors and dancers. Like war-bonnets, the porcupine hair roach is traditionally men's headwear, not worn even by female warriors. Their use varied from tribe to tribe. In many tribes, roaches were worn into battle, while more formal tribal headdresses (like warbonnets, otter-fur turbans, or gustowah caps) were worn to ceremonial events. In other tribes, roaches were worn primarily as dance regalia or sports costume. In some tribes, individual men chose to wear porcupine roaches while other men did not. Like other clothing styles, roaches sometimes went into and out of fashion. They were not generally as spiritually meaningful as Native American warbonnet headdresses, though a boy earning the right to wear a roach for the first time was an important ceremony in some tribes. Today, porcupine roaches can be commonly seen at powwows, where they are still worn as regalia by male dancers from many different tribes.
Basket Hats
Basket hats (also known as twined caps or basketry hats) were the most common type of Native American headdress west of the Rocky Mountains. Different tribes made basket hats in different shapes and styles. California Indian tribes usually made small rounded or fez-shaped basket caps from tightly coiled sumac, like the Hupa Indian hat below. Northwest Coast tribes like the Haida and Salish often made larger hats in more conical or brimmed shapes from fibers such as cedar bark or spruce root.
Hupa basket cap Haida basket hat Nootka whaler's hat
In California and the Plateau tribes, basket hats were normally worn only by women and girls, and their designs were mostly decorative. On the Northwest Coast, both men and women wore basketry headgear, for dance regalia and ceremonial purposes as well as everyday life. Northwest Coast basket hat designs often conveyed information about a person's clan, achievements, or status within the tribe.
Feather Headbands
The Indian headband is also well-known from movies and other popular images of Native Americans. However, this style of headband was typically only used by a few tribes of the northeast Woodlands. Usually the headband consisted of a finger-woven or beaded deerskin strip with tribal designs on it. This band was then tied around the brow with a feather or two tucked through the back. Not only eagle feathers but turkey, hawk, egret, and crane feathers were also used for Woodland Indian headbands.
Abenaki headbands Lenape Indian headbands
Unlike many of the Native American headdresses on this page, both men and women wore headbands, which were not associated with war. The number and type of feather did not usually have special symbolic meaning, though in a few tribes that bordered the Plains eagle feathers were reserved for warriors. For the most part, Woodland Indian head bands were worn for their beauty, and were often decorated with intricate patterns, wampum, beads, and quillwork.
Buffalo Headdresses (Horned Warbonnets)
Like feather war bonnets, buffalo horn headdresses were traditional regalia of certain Plains Indian warriors. These were helmets of buffalo hide with a pair of buffalo horns attached, frequently adorned with shaggy buffalo fur and a buffalo tail trailing behind. In many cases ermineskins and war feathers were hung from the headdress, as in the second picture. Sometimes a horned headdress was even combined with a feather trail, as in the third picture.
Sioux buffalo headdress Piegan horn headdress Buffalo warbonnet
The spiritual and ceremonial importance of horned headdresses to the Plains Indians was similar to that of feathered warbonnets. Only distinguished male warriors wore this sacred kind of regalia. Horned headdresses were rarer than eagle-feather warbonnets, because they were used by fewer tribes (only the Sioux and a few other tribes of the northern Plains wore this kind of headdress) and also because only warriors of certain clans or who had accomplished specific deeds wore bison horns.
Otter Fur Turbans
Otter-fur turbans (also known as otter-skin caps) are ceremonial headdresses worn by men in certain Prairie and Southern Plains tribes, such as the Potawatomi, Pawnee and Osage. These are round hats made of otter fur with the otter's tail either hanging behind or jutting out to one side in a beaded sheath. The turbans and tail sheaths were often elaborately decorated with beaded and painted designs symbolizing the owner's war honors, and a chief and his descendants usually attach eagle feathers to the back of their turbans.
Pawnee chief's turban Otter turban Otter cap with sheath
Otter-skin turbans were formal head dresses with great symbolic importance. They were worn at ceremonies or other solemn occasions, not by warriors entering battle (who usually wore porcupine roaches.) Even today, otter-fur caps are sometimes worn at formal events by Southern Plains Indian men.
Mexican, Central and South American Headdresses
The Aztec and Highland Maya Indians of Mexico were also famous for their feather headdresses, but these headdresses looked very different from the Plains Indian warbonnets. To make their native headdresses, the Aztecs and Mayans sewed together a large fan of feathers and then attached it to the back of their head with straps and a headband or metal circlet. Another difference is that parrot, macaw, and quetzal feathers were used instead of eagle feathers. This style of Indian feather headdress was not only popular in Mexico but also in Central America and in parts of South America as far south as Brazil.
Montezuma's Aztec headdress Mexican headdress Brazilian headdress
Both men and women wore Indian headdresses like these. They didn't have any connection to war, but in the Aztec Empire, the fanciest ones (adorned with gold, jewels, and jade stone) symbolized nobility. Today, feather-fan headdresses are worn as regalia by Nahua, Mayan, and other native dancers in Mexico and Guatemala, and colorful headdresses modelled on traditional Brazilian Indian ones are worn as costumes for Mardi Gras Carnival in Rio de Janeiro every year.
American Indian Masks
Masks are another kind of headgear used by many Native American tribes from Alaska to Argentina. In most tribes, masks are used for religious rituals or festivals, but there are nearly as many different American Indian mask-making traditions as there are American Indian tribes. We have a separate page of Native American masks that you may like to visit to learn more about the diversity of tribal masks, but here are photographs of a few of the most common types. Plains Indians typically crafted simple animal masks from the heads or skulls of important animals such as the buffalo bull, bear or wolf. Most tribes carved masks from wood and decorated them with leather and fur, like the Hopi kachina dance mask below. In some of the northwestern tribes, mask makers carved particularly complex hinged transformation masks that opened when a cord was pulled to reveal a second face within the first one. Metal masks were rare in North America but some South American tribes, like the Inca tribe, created beautiful beaten gold and silver masks. And in some eastern tribes like the Seneca and Tuscarora tribes, making false face masks is considered such a sacred ritual that no one is allowed to take photographs of them.
Mandan buffalo dance mask Hopi kachina mask Haida transformation mask Incan sun mask
Other Tribal Headdresses for Men
Iroquois gustoweh cap Hupa flicker headdress Seminole cloth turban Pueblo headband
The gustoweh cap is a formal feathered skullcap used only by men from the Iroquois tribes. The big eagle feathers on top of the cap were symbols that showed which specific tribe an Iroquois man belonged to. (The three straight feathers on the cap in this picture mean that the owner is Mohawk.) In some northern California tribes, men wore flicker headdresses as dance regalia. These California Indian headdresses are made of wide leather strips decorated with the red scalps of woodpeckers. During the 1800's when cloth became more readily available, cloth turbans decorated with feathers became stylish among Cherokee, Seminoles and other southeastern Indian men, and cloth headbands became everyday wear for men from the Navajo, Apache, and Pueblo tribes.
Other Tribal Headdresses for Women
Cayuga beaded tiara Peaked hood Wishram bridal headdress Eskimo dance headdress
Iroquois ladies often wore a distinctive tiara style of beaded headband. This high crown-like headdress is still used at formal events today. Wabanaki women in Maine and New Brunswick sometimes wore peaked caps with a floral bead design. In many Plateau tribes, brides wore elaborate beaded head coverings like the Wishram woman above, crafted from dentalium shells, abalone, and other precious materials. The Eskimo people (Inuit, Aleut, and Yupik) did not normally wear headdresses, but women did use headbands with long fringes, sometimes ringed with caribou fur like the one in this picture, as dance regalia.
Answers to Common Questions about Native American Headdresses
Did Native American children wear the headdresses on this page?
Hochunk child's headband |
Traditionally, no. Most of these headdresses were never worn by children. Native American boys usually began wearing porcupine roaches as teenagers, when they were ready to become warriors. Feathered war bonnets, buffalo headdresses, and otter-tail hats were worn by men who were already good warriors and had earned honors. Most other Indian masks and headdresses were worn only by adults for special ceremonies or dances. Some California Indian girls did wear basket hats, and on the east coast, some children wore headbands (though usually without any feathers in them.)
Today, Native American children often wear ethnic dance headdresses at powwows and other cultural festivals. The most common are beaded headbands like the one this Ho-Chunk child is wearing. But in some tribes, even young children wear Indian roaches as dance regalia today. |
Was there a special kind of Indian headdress used by princesses?
Mayan queens headdress |
Not in the tribes of the U.S. or Canada. Almost none of these tribes had royalty the way Europeans did-- a chief's daughter was more like a general's daughter or a governor's daughter than a princess, and she did not wear a crown or other special clothing.
Many Mexican Indian tribes had royal families, however. The wives, sisters, and daughters of Mexican Indian kings and emperors wore feather headdresses adorned with gold, jade, and jewels just like the male members of their families did. This is a stone carving of a Mayan queen wearing a royal feather headdress. |
Is it true that Aztec and Mayan headdresses resemble the headdresses of Egyptian pharaohs?
Aztec headdress Egyptian headdress |
No, this is false. Probably this rumor got started because the Aztecs and Mayas, like the ancient Egyptians, built pyramids. But their headdresses have nothing in common at all. As you can see here, Aztec and Maya Indians wore large fan-shaped feather headdresses. Egyptian headdresses were made of draped cloth or of a reed frame with cloth stretched over it into a high crown shape. Here is an extensive website where you can see the different kinds ofEgyptian crowns and headdresses. They didn't look anything like the Aztec and Maya ones. |
Where can I buy a Native American headdress or find instructions to make my own?
Porky roach for sale |
On our Native American regalia page, you can find links to tribal members who make dance roaches and other ceremonial Indian clothing. A good place to buy kits for making your own porky roaches or other dance accessories is the well-known pow-wow vendor Crazy Crow.
If you are not Native American but are just trying to make a native headdress for an art project, we recommend making a beaded headband, since headbands do not have the same sacred meaning of many other Native American Indian headdresses and do not require you to understand complex cultural traditions to create one properly. The book North American Indian Beadwork Patterns includes a nice pattern for beading a Native American headband. |
Sponsored Links
Recommended Native American Headdress Books
Encyclopedia of American Indian Costume:
A good book about clothing and regalia in different tribes, including native headdress styles.
The Plains Warbonnet: Its Story and Construction:
Detailed book about the history and importance of the Native American war bonnet.
Warbonnets:
Another book about Plains Indian feather headdresses.
Powwow:
Beautiful photographic book of powwow regalia, including dance roaches and other Indian headdresses.
Further Reading
Infinity of Nations: Native Headdress:
Online museum exhibit of American Indian headdresses from North, Central, and South America.
Porcupine Hair Roach:
History and construction of roach headdresses, with many old photographs.
Pow Wow Images Intertribal Pow-Wow Photo Gallery Gathering of Nations Powwow Pictures:
Powwow picture galleries, displaying the native headdress and other regalia of the dancers.
Native American War Bonnets Porcupine Hair Roaches Native Roach Headdresses:
Native American Indian headdresses for sale online by tribal artists.
Return to Native Americans for Children
Return to our main page of Indian Clothes
Return to our menu of First Nations
Indian hairstyles Indian names Basket crafts Indian tattoos
Would you like to help support our organization's work with endangered American Indian languages?