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Sculpture
Fertility Doll (Akuaba)
Asante artist, (active )
Asante artist
Ghana
Primary
12 3/8 x 4 7/8 in. (31.4 x 12.4 cm)
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Wood
Wood
Asante; made in Ghana
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0
African art, religious & ritual objects
Sculpture
Fertility is a universal human concern that has long been a central issue in Africa where the infant mortality rate remains high to this day. An akuaba is a fertility talisman meant to aid an Asante woman yearning to become a mother. The horned hairdo of this akuaba is that of a priestess and indicates the child, if allowed to live, will become a priestess dedicated to a goddess. Normally it is not necessary to dedicate a child; this is more common among older women who had already lost several children.
Akuaba are affectionately bathed, dressed, fed and carried by women as they would a living child. Their slight, flat shape is designed to be carried on a woman’s back in her cloth wrapper. When the woman’s child survives childhood, the akuaba is sometimes placed in a shrine as an offering of thanks to the god responsible. Almost all of these fertility dolls are female as the Asante are a matrilineal society and most women wish for daughters to carry on their family line.
[Gallery label text, 2009]
1967.31
item
Memorial Art Gallery
11/28/2000
67.31SL1
slide
2 x 2
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glossy
8 x 10
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67.31DI1
digital image
2 x 2
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67.31DI#2
digital image
Front
1/22/2008
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67.31DI#3
digital image
back
1/22/2008
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negative
8 x 10
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negative
3 x 5
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