IDNO

P.71644.GIJ

Description

An alose or t spirit standing on the ground with its priest and its ritual iron belled staff. The figure is a large wooden carving consisting of an angular shaped face with a curved crest at the top, slit eyes, delicate nose, mouth and small ears. The front of the face is painted dark and the back is white. The neck is coiled in rings with two protrusions - a necklace perhaps? The torso is elongated, with vertical markings painted white above two small breasts, a protruding umbilicus, and arms to the side with stylised fingers and white painted bracelets. The legs are square-ish and there are white ankle rings around the ankles. The figure has a piece of plaid cloth tied around its waist. Next to the figure is an iron belled staff with strands of cloth attached to the top. The priest is sitting on a small round stool; he is wearing a cloth around his waist. In the background are trees and shrubbery,

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; South Eastern Nigeria; Onitsha province; Nri Awka; Amobia village

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Orsa

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.71644.GIJ was presumed to come from box 4 now numbered C301/.

Publication: Same image published on John McCall’s G.I. Jones website with the following information: [Source: www.siu.edu/~anthro/mccall/jones/, AF ]
1. Index to Igbo music, shrines, architecture and other cultural artifacts
2. Alusi or Arunsi (shrines)
3. Alusi with its priest and its ritual iron belled staff, Orsu, West Isuama Igbo (14th image).

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).

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 26/11/2007]