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

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.