The set consists of four wooden spoons made for the Angami Naga tribe of Nagaland, India. Everyday objects can be symbols of ritual and identity for people. These spoons are ceremonial and have carved handles. These features show how good the Angami people's woodcraft is in its very much cultural aesthetics. One of the four spoons has a big decorative motif in which the handle has a pair of birds carved, along with that some flower and leaf patterns, depicting fertility, nature, and harmony. Birds are one of the common symbols in Naga folklore: it is a signal of spiritual message, not surprisingly, also an ancestor's presence. The imagery-evidence combination, floral, and avian shows how the earthly and the natural world would have connected—that in Angami tradition.
These spoons are carved out of a single piece of wood, usually from durable local hardwoods. Primarily ceremony-oriented, such spoons are used during festive feasting, rites of passage, or religious rituals, but their elaborate ornamentation is also an indicator of the social rank of the owning household or individual. Such artifacts are functional, yes, but also embodiments of cultural storytelling and spiritual belief. Their importance lies chiefly in the transmission through generations or during significant events; thus, such spoons have become valued items of Angami heritage linking the past to the present.