Zoomorphic pendant ·  Ghana, Akan / Côte d'Ivoire, Baule/ Lagoon people · ID: 3041964

Description

gold (wax thread technique), round form, pierced in the middle, three eyelets, base;
among the Baule and certain neighbouring Akan groups, gold jewellery indicates wealth and status. If a man was certain that his self-acquired gold ornaments were sufficient in number and quality he provided a feast where his wealth was laid out on tables for the community to see. Thus he established his status as “big man”. The participants are dressed in their finest cloth and wear some of the most stunning of the ornaments. According to Baule goldsmiths the ornaments had verbal equivalents in proverbs. The most common ornaments represent human heads, crescent moons, rams’s heads and mudfish. In addition the gold pendants had religious or medicinal significance, offering spiritual or physical protection for their wearer.

Comparing literature

Ross, Doran H., Gold of the Akan from the Glassell Collection, Houston 2002, p. 244 ff.