Standing female figure ·  Ivory Coast, Senufo/Kulango · ID: 3034009

Description

wood, shiny brown patina, with funnel shaped crest and symmetrical arranged limbs, slightly dam., cracks, traces of abrasion, on wooden base;
the exact use of this object is unclear, but it is possible that it was utilized by the “poro” society. In ths context, it might have been placed in a shrine dedicated to the mother of the “poro” camp. Alternatively this image may have served as the figurative embodiment of a tutelary or divination spirit and remained in a ritualist’s personal shrine.

Comparing literature

Bourgeois, Arthur & Scott Rodolitz, AK Remnants of Ritual, New York 2003, p. 10, ill. 23