Standing female figure

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Description

wood, reddish brown patina, encrusted with clay, rising from a round base, extremely long arms, stylized facial features and crested coiffure, slightly dam., minor missing parts, cracks, paint rubbed off, on metal plate;
these figures belong to female societies and were used for the education of young girls. They were displayed on funerals and presumably on certain fertility and rain-making rituals as well. According to H. Leloup they were called “so-ma-so” (“listen to me”), a sentence effective for education and for prayers for fertility as well.

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Littérature comparée

Vogel, Susan, For spirits and kings, African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection, New York 1981, p. 16

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