Shackles

African

  • Titles Shackles (Descriptive)
  • Medium iron
  • Dimensions 21 x 4 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (53.3 x 12.1 x 3.8 cm)
  • Credit Line Gift of Mortimer B. and Sue Fuller, 2006.226
  • Work Type shackles
  • Classification Tools & Equipment

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Vertical iron pole with six iron currency objects attached at top; three objects are iron hoe-blade currencies, and three are possibly rattles, hoe-shaped but open in center and with an enclosed portion that could have held percussive elements Function: Currency staffs constitute a display of wealth; if it is Fulani, it would have been owned by settled Fulani rather than nomadic herders.
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.
Dark blackish-brown vessel with rounded bottom has inward-curving neck and everted rim; shoulder has repeating diamonds with protruding oval inside each.
Gold Weight in the Form of a Peanut, Asante people or, Baule people, Akan group, Ghana or, Côte d'Ivoire, African, brass