Figural fragment
Description
wood, light greyish brown patina, flat face, accentuated breasts, striking large fan-shaped hands, strong traces of old age and weathering, missing parts (both legs, right arm), cracks (chin, back), base;
the Dutch anthropologist Walter van Beek found out, that sculptures of the Dogon serve as intermediaries between people and a variety of spirit beings, including gods and ancestors. They are the locus of prayer and sacrifice to obtain desired goals, such as children, crops, wealth, and health. The sculpture is said to help focus the attention of both the supplicant and the god, and to prolong and intensify the spiritual contact between them. As one of van Beeks informants told him: “One cannot always pray and kneel at the altar, but the statue can!” Sculptures called “dege” are kept in a variety of household altars, lineage altars, and ward shrines, or “binu ginu”, dedicated to mythical ancestors who unite several clans. Dogon sculpture always captures a person performing an action. Present figure might have been kneeling, representing the supplicant performing a gesture of prayer.