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Description: | Until recently wooden figures like these were widely used in shrines dedicated to the various deities, such as the divination spirit, idiong and the ancestor spirit ekpo. When someone died, a special shrine was built to temporarily house the spirit before it entered the underworld. The dead person’s belongings such as food vessels were also put into the shrine for them to use in the afterlife. Members of major men’s associations, such as warrior associations, would have an elaborate centre post made for them like the one here. These posts were often carved with images of the dead person, his first wife or his daughter and images of warfare; a skull, a gun or a knife. A few prominent, rich and aged chiefs who had taken the exclusive inam title were commemorated by a carving of a figure wearing the radial feather headdress of this cult.
Idiong figure: male, wooden, 'mutilated'
caption: Frontal view of object no.21.144. | Publisher: | http://www.horniman.ac.uk/ | Rights holder: | Horniman Museum and Gardens | Subjects: | divination figures wood Ibibio | Source: | Horniman Museum | Identifier: | oai:oai.horniman.ac.uk:object-4947 | Go to resource |
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