Baga, Guinea, 50".
This is a nimba fertility figure, one of a group of
masks from three to six feet tall which were carried over the
shoulder. The exaggerated, pendulous breasts are typical of
this group of masks, which had a double function: sterile women
in the Simo society invoked it as a goddess of fertility, and
it was used at the first-fruit (rice) rituals, symbolically
associating female fertility with the increase of the grain. |
Baga,
Guinea, 38".
Another nimba shoulder mask. |
