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Divination head for "ifa", "olori ikin" ·  Nigeria, Yoruba · ID: 3050957

Starting price EUR 400
Estimated price EUR 800
Provenance
French Private Collection
Size
H: 7,2 cm
H: 2.8 inch

Description

bone,

“Ifa” priests use sixteen sacred palm nuts for their divinations. Many of them have a seventeenth nut called “olori(n) ikin” (“chief of the palm nuts”). It is often replaced by such a small human head made of bone (or ivory).

Usually it is believed that the heads represent “eshu’”, but they are more likely to allude to “orunmila”, the supreme deity of the “ifa” oracle.


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