This blanket was made by stitching nine strips of cotton together—a standard technique used by the Dogon people to create the shroud used in funerary rituals for an important man or woman. The wrapped body would be displayed in the courtyard of the deceased for six days as a tribute. Blankets constructed in this way were also worn as prestige wrappers by elders among the nomadic Fulani, pastoralists who range across northern and western Africa.