MXA African Art TWIN ERE IBEJI Fetish Totem Passport 09

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MXA African Art TWIN ERE IBEJI Fetish Totem Passport 09

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Sold Date: 08/28/2007
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Ethnic, Folk & Native American Art

SHIPPING IS 8.99 for first item 4.98 for each item tafter, national and international. No further discount is possible . T is no discount on buy it now items.

You are bidding on an item from the collection of Marcel Gibrat (see brief bio below). This is an African wooden statuette.

Estimate : $50-200

Culture/Country : Africa

Period : 20th Century

Size : 7 inch tall

Media/Material : Wood

Condition : good

Description : An old African wooden twin statuette.

Provenance : Marcel Gibrat Collection; Marcel Gibrat Restoration, Arts & Antiquities Studio , New York

Ibeji From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation , search Pair of ibeji, authenticated by the Department of Antiquities of Nigeria

The orisha Ibeji is the protector of twins in Yoruba mythology .

In Yoruba culture, ibeji are also carved wooden figures made to house the soul of a dead twin . These wooden figures, six to ten inches high and carved with the family mask, are tended as if they were alive. The Yoruba people believe that this care and tending keeps the soul in this world and ensures the survival of the other twin.

Contents [hide ] 1 Origins 2 Practice 3 External links 4 References

[ edit ] Origins

While the birth rate of monozygotic twins is relatively constant worldwide, about 4 per 1000 births, that rate for dizygotic twins varies widely. The incidence of dizygotic twin births in much of Africa is significantly greater than in the United States, with the highest incidence among the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria, with a frequency of 45 per 1000 births [1] . [the corresponding rate in the United States is approximately 8 per 1000 births]

This high rate of twin births, and the high infant mortality rate, may have contributed to the emergence of a twin cult, and among the Yoruba a tradition of sculpture for twins originated.

[ edit ] Practice

When twins are born, the parents go to the babalawo [diviner] to find out their wishes. Since in Yoruba tradition, each person is one soul in the long line of ancestral souls, twins are complex, sharing the same soul - but one of the two is the spiritual and one the mortal soul. Since t is no way to determine which has the mortal and which the spiritual, if one twin should die, a carving is commissioned to represent the deceased child. Only the sex and the lineal facial scarifications are specifed and are faithfully recreated in the carved figure.

These figures are loved by the mother, cared for regularly, oiled, fed, and stored on a family altar or the mother's room. They may be ornamented or clothed. Favorite foods of the twins are beans and palm oil , "cooling" foods, fed to twins and ibeji so that they will not cause trouble. From the account by a Yoruba youth, a traditional song about this feature:

T is palm-oil, t are beans.
I am not tfore afraid--oniye.
I am not tfore afraid of giving birth to twins.
T is palm-oil, t are beans.

African art From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation , search Yoruba bronze head sculpture, Ife, Nigeria c. 12th century A.D. Makonde carving c.1974 Velours from Kasai A sculpture in ebony . Another carving in ebony.

African art is one of the universal cultural traditions of art that refers to every artistic artwork that originates from the continent of Africa . This article discusses primarily visual art; for information on African music, see Music of Africa .

Africa is of great variety. The arts of Africa constitute one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of peoples, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual culture.

Despite this diversity, t are some unifying artistic themes when considering the totality of visual culture from the continent of Africa. [1]

Emphasis on the human figure: The human figure is the primary subject matter for most African art. In historical per...