dancing staff; reddish brown wood w/ double axehead motif at top (6 engraved elliptical eyes on each face); string of cowries attached at base; l. 18.5 cm.
Donor:
Joan Wescott
Collection place:
Nigeria
Verbatim coll. place:
Africa; Nigeria; Yoruba
Culture or time period:
Yoruba
Collector:
Joan Wescott
Collection date:
unknown
Materials:
Wood (plant material)
Object type:
ethnography
Function:
5.1 Religion and Divination: Objects and garb associated with practices reflecting submission, devotion, obedience, and service to supernatural agencies
Accession date:
July 25, 1989
Context of use:
for 'orish oko'. these staffs are sacred symbols of the deity (orisha) Oko, whose cult center and pilgrimage place is the village of Irawo in the northwest Oyo Province. Irawo smiths produce the cult staffs from hoe blades taken there by both male and female devotees of Oko.