African Wood Carving with Beads and Leather | ||
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Posted 10 years ago
Axolotl
(7 items)
Does anyone know anything about this wood carving from Africa? The skirt is leather, beads and cowrie shells. The necklace is made of wire, beads and zipper. It measures about 13" tall and the wood is light weight and stained. There are no markings. I'm guessing it's for the tourist trade but, I have no idea where it's from or what kind of figure it is (looks ritual).
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Neat --
I only loved it cuz it looks like a VooDoo doll (LOL) --- or one of those Fertility Doll......and Lord knows, I do not want to LOVE a Fertility Doll
roflmao
AR you are too funny!
The only thing I know about this is that the wire necklace was at one time a ritual somewhere in Africa. It was put on girls of a certain stature and they wore it until their wedding day. It used to stretch their necks so they looked taller. Torture really. Don't know if they still do that or not and sorry but I can't remember exactly where that was.
Someone else may know tho...
Elongated necks/brass neck coils/jewelry/tribes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayan_people_%28Burma%29
Vvvvvoooooooddddddoooooooooo !!!!
How cool !!
Just need someones hair and a pin !!! ;-) lol
It is interesting tribal piece but I think sea shells remind me more of a tribe not in Africa . Hard to see how it is made . Most of these tribes had spirit Gods so doubt it was Mary :-)
Most pieces like this were made for tourists .
Nothing to do with voodoo or neck ring torture. This is a traditional type of doll from Kenya, made by the Turkana tribe, called a ngide (child) doll, but more specifically, an ikideet.
There are at least three differenty types of ngide, this one, the ikideet, was traditionally carved for a girl by her father, and wore some of the girl's own beads and leather from her skirt. Most are carved for sale today, and are popular souvenirs from Kenya.
It is not a fertility doll. The two other types of ngide are fertility symbols. The ikideet is often mistakenly identified as a fertility figure, since all three are called ngide.
Thank you so much for the great info CanyonRoad!
Though I don't doubt that the doll was produced for the tourist trade, but just out of (more) curiousity do you have any idea of when it might have been made? I'm guessing souvenirs and art for export were produced in Africa since the days of the Grand Tour or at least since the 1920s when "Art Nègre" was popular in Europe. Might there be a way to date the doll based on the wood, types of beads or other materials used?
Sorry about the garbled first sentence!