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A Figure of a Kneeling Woman with Offering Bowl
Olumeye Yoruba society, Nigeria. Wood.
Fowler Museum of Cultural History
http://lists.village.virginia.edu
A kneeling women holds an Ifa divination Kola nut bowl
in the the shape of a chicken. Decorative detail is kept
to a minumum revealing a smooth surface and traces of
the carvers tool, such a quality suggests vitality. Her
youthful body, stylization of her hair, posture of her
offering, and self-contained composure of her face
reveals her inner beauty, inun, in Yoruba language .
Kneeling suggests a relationship to a higher force. The
attitude of kneeling is idealized, the face is
impassive, the arms are strong and calm, and the head
and trunk are held erect. The heads of the figures are
large and oval. The chicken represents the mother
in a transformed state. Mothers shown carrying children
suggest a long period of sexual abstinence as well as
supressed menustration, suggesting purity and
cleanliness, a pleasing female attribute. The child on
the mothers back holds a Shango dance wand in one hand
and a rattle in the other. On the mothers back is a
Islamic charm tirah, a protective amulet, suggesting the
northern Oyo in this work. Kola nut, obi , were given to
the Kings as an act of hospitality. (Pemberton)
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