Balante Beaded Bone and Wood Fertility Doll Guinea
Width: 6.5
Description
A doll made from bovine bone and ornamented with variety of beads and fabrics. The structure of the body is built with a bovine bone (maybe wood sections) and the arms and legs are additional bones fastened with tightly wrapped fabric. This doll is beleived to be from Western Africa, closest example we can find is from the Balante people of Guinea.
"In Various areas on and off the Western coast of Africa, girls make play dolls from sheep, cow, and pig femurs and call them di kori, or "sons of bone"...... The Landuma use these 'bone sons" to encourage conception. A woman treats the bone son as she would a real child, and when the human body is born, the di kori is given to him or her as a plaything (Allainmat 1942:1)"
See "ISN'T S/HE A DOLL,PLAY AND RITUAL IN AFRICAN SCULPTURE," put out by UCLA's Fowler Museum of Cultural History.
Height (In)
14.0
Width (In)
6.5
145316
Approximate Age: 20th Century
People: Balante
Country of Origin: Guinea
Material
Condition
Overall Condition: Good. Most of our pieces have spent decades on at least two continents, and have been treasured by several owners.   Small splits, scrapes and cracks are a normal part of their patina attesting to their age and extensive use.  We examine each piece carefully when we receive it and report any damage we find in our listings.  Please look carefully at the pictures which may also reveal condition and damage.