Parts of protective image ·  Indonesia - Nias · ID: 3040774

Description

wood, brown patina, remains of rattan, two staff figures with stylized anthropomorphic faces, one of them with fork-shaped ending/legs (possibly cut), slightly dam., cracks;
presumably once part of a protective image called “adu fangola”, which was sacrificed during pregnancy and child-birth. In that case a horizontal crossbar would have been fixed between the forked legs with a number of wooden sticks “adu bihara” attached by rattan.

Comparing literature

Nias, Tribal Treasures, Cosmic reflections in stone, wood and gold, Delft 1990, p. 250, ill. 118