Ceremonial container

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Description

wood, brown patina, rectangular, flat-bottomed container with a projecting horse’s head and tail, both sides filled with deeply cut crocodiles, slightly dam., cracks, paint rubbed off, on plate;
this container resembles large, through-like vessels called “aduno koro”, “ark of the world”, or “vageu bana”, “dish of the ancestors”. These containers are kept in each lineage head’s house, “ginna”, and are used to hold the raw and cooked meat of the sheep and goats that are sacrificed to the family’s altars dedicated to Amma, the Creator, and the family’s own ancestors, “vageu”, at the annual ritual known as “goru”.

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Comparing literature

Ezra, Kate, Art of the Dogon, New York 1988, p. 100 f. , ill. 51 Leloup, Helene, Dogon, Paris 2011, ill. 63, 64

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