IDNO

P.71432.GIJ

Description

An Alose (tutelary deity) house with the Alose figure leaning inside. The “house” is made of mud with wooden poles, rafters, purlins, and a thatched roof. Inside the house is the Alose figure, She is quite stylised and standing upright. Her head has a curved crescent on the top, her hair is incised with swirling patterns, the eyes are painted white, square nose, and small mouth. There are painted designs (uli?) on her cheeks. The neck is coiled and adorned with a necklace made of leopard’s teeth. Her torso is fairly square with two pointed breasts and a protruding umbilicus. Her wrists are painted white and her hands are flush against her sides with incised markings indicating her fingers. She has a cloth tied around the waist. In front of the Alose are two wooden carved Ikenga figures. A water pot is outside in left of the phtograph. There is vegetation and trees in the background.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; South East Nigeria; western Isuama

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Orsu

Named Person

Photographer

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Collector / Expedition

Date

circa 1930 - 1939

Collection Name

Jones collection

Source

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.71400.GIJ to P.71498.GIJ were kept in box 5, now numbered C302/.
P.71424 to P.71438 were found wrapped in paper, now numbered C302/6/.

Publication: Similar image, but different photograph of the Alose figure published in Jones, 1989, plate 31, p. 39. The caption under the photograph reads, “ Village tutelary deity, Orsu tribe. Isuama Ibo, standing in front of her shrine with her two Ikenga and a water pot used in rituals associated with her. Note her necklace made of leopard’s teeth.”

Context: Jones writes that “ cult figures of tutelary deities were made principally among the Northern and Isuama Ibo.”(Jones, 1989, p. 37).

Context: Jones also writes about the carved wooden Aluse figures, he notes that, “A statue was associated for the most part with a religious or magical cult. The statue represented, stood for, a deity or spirit and it did not really matter what the object looked like provided the symbolism was accepted by the participants it the ritual”. (Jones, 1989, p.54)

Context: In relation to the Alusi figures, Cole and Aniakor write that, “the dead are conceived as part of the everyday world, and just as clearly, their presence can hold a positive or negative valence for the living; exactly the same is true of the tutelary deities, alusi. These forces, however, are neither personal (chi or ancestors) nor universal (Chineke, Chukwu). Rather, they are in part specific, usually tangible phenomena such as: Earth, the Niger or Imo river, Eke, Afo, Orie/Oye, or Nkwo market, an extraordinary tree, a binding oath at a particular shrine, or the canyon of erosion in Agulu. The preeminence of Ala/Ani does not eclipse the vitality of these other deities, especially those associated with water, or of Amadioha, god of thunder and lightening and, by extension, rain. These anthropomorphic male and female deities have priests and often elaborate cult apparatus, symbolic works of art, and finely decorated compounds. Each has general and specific powers, and although their priesthoods may be held by certain lineages, the more commanding of these cults have constituencies cutting across lines of kinship and stressing communal worship. Such tutelary deities are close to people, fast-acting (for good or ill), and often capricious, thus requiring frequent attention and sacrifice. ...(Cole and Aniakor, 1984, p.16).

Context: Jones also writes about the carved wooden Aluse figures, he notes that, “A statue was associated for the most part with a religious or magical cult. The statue represented, stood for, a deity or spirit and it did not really matter what the object looked like provided the symbolism was accepted by the participants it the ritual”. (Jones, 1984, p.54)

Bibliographical Reference: Cole, H. & C. Aniakor, 1984. Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos (Museum of Cultural History, University of California)Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press); Jones, G.I. 1989, Ibo Art (Shire)

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 12/11/2007]