IDNO

P.71646.GIJ

Description

A photograph depicting three wooden carvings of spirits associated with Alose, with adults and children standing behind. The carving on the left is a side view of a free standing sculpture with a crested headdress, long neck, bent arms, and legs. The second carving depicts a frontal view with a crested headdress, humanistic face, with arms placed down to the sides. The third sculpture is slightly larger and shows a frontal view with a “humanistic’ face, a rectangular base on the top, long torso which is incised with designs, a protruding umbilicus, waistbands, and squat legs. In the background is a pregnant woman with a wrapper tied around her waist, several children and a man. Leaning against the building are white razor like (serrated edge) of ? In addition, t ere are mud and thatch buildings and trees.

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Nri Akwa

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.71646.GIJ to P.71650.GIJ were wrapped in paper, now numbered C301/15/ and were 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 Several of the same group of Alusi figures (19th 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]