BAMBARA, CEREMONIAL VESSEL 2, CAST COPY , 7.5", Ivory Coast $70

The Bambara, who inhabit upper Niger River in Mali, West Africa, attach a religious significance to all objects they create. Guided by a powerful feeling for tradition, they preserve their beliefs from generation to generation. Through their rituals, they pay homage to ancestors, placate the guiding spirits of the universe and initiate the young into adulthood. This reproduction of a Bambara 19th century ceremonial vessel is decorated with the stylized female figures revealed on bowls used by Bambara fertility cults. Such bowls keep butter, a ritual ointment applied after a bath of purification. The original is in the Detroit Instistute of Art.

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