In the museum catalogue
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Female Figure (Bateba Phuwe)
LobiLate 19th or early 20th century
- Attribution
- Lobi Burkina Faso Northern Africa and the Sahel
- Medium
- Wood and sacrificial material
- Physical dimensions
- 78.1 × 20.3 × 15.2 cm (30 3/4 × 8 × 6 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Richard Faletti, the Faletti Family Collection
CATALOGUE RECORD
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Source rights statement: Public domain
View the museum record ↗From the museum
Among the Lobi and their neighbors, protective spirits associated with families and the land reside in shrines like the one pictured here that are filled with offerings of bottles, iron staffs, pottery vessels, clay figurines, and wooden statuary. A figure like this may be placed in such a shrine to serve as an assistant to the spirit. Devotees spread offerings of chicken blood, millet beer, and shea butter onto the sculpture to ensure the benevolence of the spirit world.
Description: Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0