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Ambete Reliquary Figure
Tribe: Ambete
Country: Gabon
Material: Wood, Pigment
Size: 29.5" Tall
Status: Priviate Collection - Virginia, USA
Ambete statues are thought to have a connection with the ancestor’s cult – they were either used as reliquaries or placed alongside ancestor bones in a basket. Heads and busts were probably positioned on poles and placed in front of the chief’s house. They may have had an apotropaic and emblematic purpose. Instead, statues are provided with a dorsal, rectangular cavity, or the body itself may be in the shape of a reliquary chest. In this case, generally the head alone is sculpted in the round, the arms and lower extremities only roughly carved out. |
