Ancestor Figure

Lobi people, Burkina Faso, African

20th century

  • Titles Ancestor Figure (Descriptive)
  • Medium wood
  • Dimensions 45 x 10 1/2 x 3 1/4 in. (114.3 x 26.7 x 8.3 cm)
  • Credit Line Gift of Stewart J. Warkow, 1988.124
  • Work Type figure
  • Classification Sculpture

See More of the Collection

Doll, Angola, African, cloth, raffia, bead, feather, leather
Carved wooden chair. Animals and figures on back seat crest, stretchers, and front stiles. Brass nail heads form eyes on some animals and figures, also applied as decorative elements. The seat is skin/hide which still has some remaining hair. It has been stretched over the seat rail and tied with strips of gut or hide.
Vessel cover dedicated to the river god, Erinle. Such vessels were used to hold "moving water" from rivers or the sea, but not from wells, Every sixteen days the water is renewed together with two stones taken from a river as symbols of Erinle. The stones are also considered analogous to embryos in the womb. Surmounted by a male figure with his arms around a bowl on a potstand, a salamander or other river animal is behind him, and ritual implements surround him.
Cowrie shell covered shrine with stone axe head, surmounted with bird finial