DOGON, Mali
Standing Female Figure 

Wood

The Dogon people are subsistence farmers living in many villages on or near Mali's Bandiagara scarp, where they probably withdrew to avoid Islamic incursions in the 1500s. Clan membership is determined by the male line and leadership in these decentralized villages focuses on Hogons, who are clan leaders or regional chiefs. Hogons also control the use of shrines and sculptures placed upon them.

The Dogon have been intensively studied since the 1930s, and research indicates that belief patterns focus on the creation of earth, nature spirits, humanity and the ancestors, who function as intermediaries between the living and these spirits. Religion is concerned with balance and continuity through human and natural fertility; drought and infertility are major concerns. Prayers for rain and fertility dominate in this arid land. Figures are normally placed on private shrines, and may themselves sometimes function as altars upon which sacrificial material is poured or smeared, producing a thick patina over time.

Figures are normally carved in hardwood by specialist blacksmiths, and over time have diversified into several distinct styles, all of which have thin, erect and elongated forms and a solemn, dignified quality. This figure, in the Tintam style, features elaborate surface decorations representing scarification patterns and slightly more rounded forms than other Dogon carvings. A sculpture of a woman carrying a representation of an earthenware pot may refer to women carrying water or harvested grain, both of which are symbolic of life and continuity. In keeping with the normal use of Dogon shrine figures, the present example has signs of weathering and an oily patina consistent with use.

Provenance:
From the Estate of Liz Claiborne and Arthur Ortenberg

Read more about the Liz Claiborne and Arthur Ortenberg Collection here.

Sotheby's, Important Tribal Art, May 5, 1997 lot 104
Ex-Collection: Anni and Ernst Winizki, Zurich
Gallery Wyss, Basel, 1960

Height: 23 inches