sticks, both as a tool to combat both as a sign of social status, objects are very common in pastoral societies in East Africa. This board has four specimens, very linear and simple in form but with a good patina.
sticks, both as a tool to combat both as a sign of social status, objects are very common in pastoral societies in East Africa. This board has four specimens, very linear and simple in form but with a good patina.
As always happens, however, in Africa, such objects are never "in themselves" and I am not only used for recreational purposes or, as in the West, only for social purposes, transmission an identity of gender roles within the culture of belonging, but also roles have always symbolic magic. In this case, the "dolls" of Africa have often, almost always, the function to promote and encourage female fertility, especially in cases where this is made to wait even after marriage. There are three most popular types of "dolls" of the Akuaba Ghanaian Akan and Fante, dolls Mossi of Burkina Faso and, specifically, These "dolls" Zaramo of Tanzania that we present in this sheet. As do the other types mentioned, these Zaramo "dolls" are characterized by a pronounced stylization of the female image, which calls for both the vertical and forms an image too phallic, consisting of a simple truncated cone surmounted by a characteristic ridge-hair bilobed. Genuine synthesis of female and male dolls Zaramo belong to the iconography of the most popular African arts and are among the most popular types of ethnic groups in East Africa, an area valued only in relatively recent times within the collector and art-historical .
These two specimens are excellent in their specific field, and can boast a pedigree more than good.
The first, high 20 cm. Comes from the gallery of Craig De Lora (USA) and previously by Noble and Jean Endicott collection, was published in volume To Cure and Protect: Sickness and Health in African Art of Frank Herreman (The Museum for African Art, New York, 1999) on page 48.
The second, only 10 cm high. Is another impressive collection of American, to Nicole and John Dintenfass of NYC, and is adorned with a pink beads necklace very minute, almost microscopic, like the first, this you purchased Craig De Lora web since tribal arts (NJ - USA).
Bibliografia
sulle "dolls":
1) Is not s / he a doll? Play and ritual in African sculpture
Elisabeth L. Cameron, Doran Ross - UCLA, Los Angeles, 1996
2) African dolls for play and magic
Esther A. Dagan - Gallery Amrad African Arts, Montreal, 1990
3) ritual or game? Dolls from Africa and Egypt
AA. VV. - Exh. cat. Berlin-Munich, 2004
sugli Zaramo:
1) Mwana Hiti. Life and art of the matrilineal Bantu of Tanzania
Marc L. Felix - Fred Jahn, München, 1990
2) Tanzania
Marc L. Felix, Maria Kecskési - Kunstbau Lenbachhouse, München, 1994
3) Ostafrikanische Plastik
Kurt Krieger - SMPK, Berlin, 1990
4) Masks and Figures from Eastern and Southern Africa
Ladislav Holy - Paul Hamlyn, London, 1967
5) Glaube Kult und Geisterwelt
Ralf Schulte - Bahrenberg - Edition Phaistos, Steinheim, 2007