African art > Jars, amphoras, pots. > Divination box

Divination box (N° 19252)

Ex-collection of French African art.
Intended for a practice still in use in the southwest of the Baule region, the object consists of a tutelary mediating figure, visibly in meditation, resting on a circular receptacle. The lid is engraved, and a circular frieze decorates the lower part of the receptacle. A mouse, considered as a messenger of the deities of the earth asié , lived in the lower compartment of the object and the successive arrangement of the elements it moved was read as an answer to the question asked to the diviner.
shaded brown patina.

Ref: Mathilde Buratti, "Boxes for mouse divination".
During the 18th century, united under a single banner, the Akan people were, according to legend, guided by Queen Aba Pokou to the gold mining region in the east of the Ivory Coast to settle there. The unity of the Baoulé declined as a result of internal struggles and the gold rush since the arrival of the Europeans and eventually resulted in a multitude of small villages disjointed, led by councils of elders.  

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Originex-collection française
EthnyBaoule
Countrycôte d'ivoire
Material(s)wood, plant fibre
Height cm35
Width20 cm
Weight2.75 Kg
Estimated datingmid-xx°

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