blackened wood carved female antelope with a baby on her back; incised spirals on horns, incised triangular designs on both animals.
Donor:
(anonymous)
Collection place:
Senegal
Verbatim coll. place:
Mali; Guinea or Senegal; Bambara
Culture or time period:
Bambara
Collection date:
before 1970
Materials:
Wood (plant material)
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Carvings (visual works)
Function:
5.1 Religion and Divination: Objects and garb associated with practices reflecting submission, devotion, obedience, and service to supernatural agencies
Accession date:
1972
Context of use:
the antelope symbolizes Tyiwara, a legendary being who taught mankind to cultivate the earth with a digging stick. male and female antelopes appear in pairs. younger members of the Tyiwara society, wearing these headpieces and leaning on digging sticks, imitated the play of young male and female antelopes. rituals performed when a new field was cleared or just before the beginning of the rainy season to propitiate the spirits of the earth disturbed by agricultural activities and to insure the fertility of the fields.