African Arts Gallery

Statuette of African art, from the north center of the Bandiagara plateau region, N'duleri, personifying an ancestor. Established in a posture of contemplation, the hands extending from long slender arms resting on the thighs, the thin and angular figure would seem almost immaterial.
Irregular matte patina, cracks and erosions.

These statues, sometimes embodying the nyama of the deceased, are placed on altars of ancestors and take part in various rituals including those of the sowing and harvesting periods. Alongside Islam, Dogon religious rites are organized around four main cults: the Lébé, relating to fertility, under the spiritual authority of the Hogon, the Wagem, ancestor worship under the authority of the patriarch, the Binou invoking the spirit world and led by the priest of the Binou, and the society of masks regarding the funeral.
According to Dogon cosmogony, the first primordial ancestors of Dogon, called Nommo, were the bisexual gods of water. They are said to have been created in heaven by the creator god Amma and descended from heaven to earth in an ark.
The Nommo founded the eight lineages of Dogon and instilled weaving, the art of blacksmithing, and agriculture to their human descendants.
Ref. : "Dogon" H. Leloup, ed. Quai Branly Museum.