What was the Feng Bieri used for?
What was the Feng Bieri used for?
In the Fang culture of equatorial Africa, figurative sculptures were created for an association called the “Bieri,” who used them as ritual objects to help attain the goodwill of revered ancestors.
What are the Fang Byeri?
Byeri was a Fang association devoted to the veneration of lineage ancestors and founders, leaders, and fertile women who made significant contributions to society during their lifetime.
What is a Fang sculpture?
The Fang are best known for their wooden reliquary figures which are abstract anthropomorphic carvings. There are a few in collections that are still attached to the original relics they were meant to protect.
How Byeri figures embody the spiritual beliefs of the Fang people?
Bieri figures exemplify the qualities the Fang admire in people–tranquillity, vitality, and the ability to hold opposites in balance. These ideals are shown in the balanced forms of the figures.
What were guardian figures used for?
Reliquary guardian figures protect the irreplaceable relics that link the living to the dead. Most of the peoples in the region–the Fang, Kota, Hongwe, Shamaye, Obamba, Tsogo, and Vuvi–placed the figures atop bark boxes or baskets holding the relics. The Mbete placed the relics inside the torso of the figure itself.
What was the function of the Byeri figures made by the Fang people?
Fang reliquary guardian figures are among the ritual objects used by the Bieri, an association devoted to honoring ancestors in order to obtain their goodwill.
What is a Fang mask?
Fang masks, such as those worn by itinerant troubadours and for hunting and punishing sorcerers, are painted white with facial features outlined in black. Typical are large, elongated masks covered with kaolin and featuring a face that was usually heart-shaped with a long, fine nose.
What did the Fang reliquary figure sit on top of?
During its travels, each Fang family brought a bark box containing the skulls of its ancestors. A carved head or figure mounted on top of each reliquary box guarded the sacred contents against the forbidden gaze of women and uninitiated boys.
Where did the Kota originally come from?
The Kota arrived in their current location after completing a series of migrations that started to the northeast, possibly near Sudan. These migrations began in the 18th century and were underway when European contact was first made about 150 years later.
What is a Mbulu Ngulu figure?
mbulu-ngulu, tomb figure of carved wood covered with a sheet of copper or brass, created by the Kota tribe of Gabon, Africa, to protect the dead. Its traditional function, as a guardian figure standing against a wall, had a direct influence upon its form.
What is the primary function of Fang reliquary guardian figures?
Fang reliquary guardian figures are among the ritual objects of bieri , an association devoted to the ritual honoring of ancestors in order to obtain their goodwill and ensure the continuity between the living and the dead.
Where is the Fang mask from?
Gabon
The Fang people are spread over a vast area along the Atlantic coast line of equatorial Africa and can be found in Cameroon Equatorial Guinea and Gabon namely along the bank of the Ogowe river….Cameroon Fang wooden Mask (008)
| Price: | $ 154.00 |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer #: | AFMsk008 |
| Sku: | AFMsk008 |
