Standing male figure ·  Côte d'Ivoire, Atié · ID: 3035593

Description

wood, middle brown patina, two strings with antique glass beads around neck and hips, of slender stature with schematized limbs, the coiffure arranged in six bulges, separated from the triangular facial plane by a ribbed headband, plaited beard, raised scarification marks on the back, slightly dam., cracks (coiffure), missing parts (base), socle;
the Atié, who also call themselves “Akye”, are an ethnic group settling in the eastern part of the Ivory Coast’s Akan territory, sometimes already considered to be part of the Lagoon Peoples. Their figurative sculptures served both, the veneration of the ancestors and at the ceremonies of the “logbu” ritual. Ancestor figures should protect the family and the whole ethnical group and should help to keep them together.

Comparing literature

Scanzi, Giovanni Franco, La statuaire Akan de Cote d'Ivoire, Gêneve 2010, p. 153 ff. Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Encyclopedia of African Art and Culture, Munich 2009, p. 47