Browse Items (49 total)

Bocio are power objects (bo) that represent deceased human beings (chio). A bocio is not a spirit, but a kind of decoy meant to trick death by acting as a substitute for a real person. Formerly, the Fon people of Dahomey (now Benin) placed bocio…

This embroidered cloth is sometimes called "Kasai velvet" after the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo from which they originate and the cut-pile technique of their manufacture. The underlying raffia structure is woven by men on upright looms…

Sons battle their father and uncles in this illustration of a scene from a later version of the Ramayana. Now ruling in Ayodhya, Rama begins the Ashvamedha, a horse sacrifice to define his territory. In this ritual, a horse, followed by the king’s…

Bocio are power objects (bo) that represent deceased human beings (chio). A bocio is not a spirit, but a kind of decoy meant to trick death by acting as a substitute for a real person. Formerly, the Fon people of Dahomey (now Benin) placed bocio…

Numbered "52" on verso.

Suite 19/20 High Water Hog Blues T. Huck 2000

This figure represents "Mami Wata," the pidgin English term for "Mother of Water," a water spirit who has enjoyed a wide following in Central Africa, West Africa, and regions of the African Diaspora. It was carved by an Ibibio artist living in…

Suite 19/20 Bed of Bones T. Huck 2000

from the Small Woodcut Passion, a series of 36