Congolese Kuba People Palm Wine Cup

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, palm wine, "malafu ya ngasi" in the Kikongo language, is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of wild date, oil, coconut, raffia, and Jaggery palms. The sap is sweet when it is first collected. Palm wine is fermented and stored in calabashes.

Palm wine plays an important role in many ceremonies in Congo. Guests at weddings, birth celebrations and funeral wakes are served generous amounts. As a token of respect to deceased ancestors, many drinking sessions begin with a small amount of palm wine spilled on the ground.

In the precolonial period, Kuba titleholders and other high-ranking officials drank palm wine from sculpted wooden cups in the form of human heads or full human bodies. The cups also served as display pieces. The faces are not intended as portraits of specific individuals, although they convey important information about identity. The hairline shown on this head is
a Kuba style that was worn by men and women in the 19th and early 20th centuries by shaving a straight hairline with a curved or chiseled angle at the temples. The marks in front of each ear are scarification patterns, serving both as protective devices and as marks of Kuba social identity.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_wine Democratic Republic of Congo - Kuba Palm Wine Cup (Toledo Museum of Art)