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HOME :
African & Tribal Art :
Mossi : Mossi Wooden Doll
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Mossi Wooden Doll - PF.5822
Origin: Burkina Faso
Circa: 20
th
Century AD
Dimensions:
10.25" (26.0cm) high
x 2.25" (5.7cm) wide
Collection: African
Style: Mossi
Medium: Wood
£1,800.00
Location: Great Britain
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| Description |
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As in many parts of Africa, Mossi dolls function
both as secular playthings for children and as
spiritually charged sources of fertility for women.
Although minimal and abstract in form, these
figures nevertheless embody the most
fundamental elements of femininity: finely
incised lines on the chest, and stomach
reproduce cosmetic scarification obtained by
adolescent girls; the stretched breasts are a sign
of motherhood; and the head shape typifies the
gyonfo or tri-lobed hairstyle worn by married
Mossi women in which the central lobe extends
from the front to the back of the head. The
curved extension falling from the forehead of the
doll represents a braided lock that a girl wears
until she marries. Such dolls may have been
commissioned from a smith or purchased at the
market. They are given to young girls by their
mothers. Like dolls in the western world, Mossi
dolls are educational toys used to train little girls
for their ultimate and important roles as
mothers. In addition to their use as toys, Mossi
dolls serve also as fertility aids to newly married
young women. They serve two important roles
in regard to this function. The first permits the
child’s soul to enter the world of the their
parents, thus inducing pregnancy. The second
assures that the child does not die and return to
the world of the ancestral spirits, but will remain
with their mother and clan, thus assuring a
healthy life. Should conception result from
sacrifices made to the spirits, the mother will
continue to nurture the doll just as she does her
real child. Once a figure fulfills its purpose, it
may be kept as an heirloom or given to the child
that it helped bring into the world. The unique
sculptural form of the Mossi doll encompasses
both the symbols of youth and womanhood,
ushering a small girl in to womanhood and a
young woman into motherhood.
- (PF.5822)
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