Product Description
Dogon Wooden Nommo Couple – Mali
These two ‘Nommo sculpture’ are a lovely example of an old Dogon primordial couple which was found in a village in the Mopti region of Mali.
Made of 100% wood.
Model is W 41 – H 20 and weight 4.7 kg.
Description
These two ‘Nommo sculpture’ are a lovely example of an old Dogon primordial couple which was found in a village in the Mopti region of Mali. The two figures share lucid, graphic, and repeated elongated vertical elements with only infrequent differences. For example, on the male figure, a beard extends the chin while the female figure wears a labret, an ornament in the lip. Additionally, where he has a smooth torso, she has elongated breasts that droop from the suckling of multiple children. With a high crest-crest, round ears, an arrow-like, long nose, slit eyes, with a small, narrow mouth, and a kind of “lip-pecker,” with lower forefinger and chin. The virtually identical forms of the male and female protagonists in this visual commentary accentuate the parity of their subtly distinctive roles.
According to the origin myths of the Dogon, God ‘Amma’ created four pairs, the ‘Nommo’. As a ‘culture-maker’ for people. In the sculptural art of Dogon, these ‘Nommo’ are often portrayed. As a pair of figures, a female and a male, or even a bisexual hermaphrodite, that is man and woman in a single figure. These ‘Nommo figures’ are placed on altars and ritually sacrificed (with millet and others). As one can see also the clear traces of prolonged sacrifice on the Dogon figure presented here. It is a stylistically very beautiful example, with some small and delicate, age-related cracks.
The Dogon place wood figures depicting men and women on many different kinds of altars, most of which are dedicated to ancestors, either
real or mythical. Although figurative sculptures, called dege, are perhaps the most interesting types of Dogon art, varied in form and rich in
imagery, they are also among the least well documented. Few altars have been described in detail or illustrated; those that have been
described do not suggest any consistent pattern linking a particular style of a figure or a specific posture or gesture with any one kind of altar.
There is also little information with which to identify the persons represented by the figures.
The Dogon, an ethnic group, are mainly located in the administrative districts of Bandiagara and Douentza in Mali, West Africa. The precise origins of the Dogon people, like those of many other ancient cultures, are not yet determined. Their civilization emerged, in much the same way as ancient Egypt. Around 1490 AD the Dogon people migrated to the Bandiagara cliffs of central Mali. There are approximately 700 Dogon villages, with an average of 400 inhabitants. The tribe’s folk call themselves ‘Dogon’ or ‘Dogom’, but in the older literature they are most often called ‘Habe’, a Fulbe meaning ‘stranger’. The Dogon have been described as the most studied and least understood tribal group in Africa. Their history, technology, cultural wealth, art and even oral legends are among the most involved in Africa, not least because the policy is in fact essentially artificial, comprising various sub-units that were grouped together on the basis of propinquity under the colonial administration. They are excessively prolific in terms of artistic production, not least because they have mastered all the main materials that are used in traditional African art; figures in stone, iron, bronze/copper and of course wood are all known, in addition to cave/rock painting and adaptation of more modern materials.
Additional information
| Weight | 4.7 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 41 × 20 cm |
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