H x W x D: 19 x 5 x 4.5 cm (7 1/2 x 1 15/16 x 1 3/4 in.)
Type:
Sculpture
Geography:
Liberia
Date:
Mid-late 20th century
Label Text:
Most dolls, in Africa and throughout the world, are used by children--primarily girls--to help them imagine their future roles as adult women, mothers and the primary caregivers in their communities. Though used in play, the forms of many dolls encode important social and aesthetic concepts about appropriate demeanor and the links between physical and moral beauty. Not surprisingly, dolls in different African societies emphasize--in form and decoration--aspects of ideal feminine beauty to include elaborate coiffures, body ornamentation and physical features that underscore the importance of fertility.
This Liberian doll may well be from the Bandi, Dan, Loma, Kissi or Kpelle regions where young girls carry small dolls fashioned out of cane or the midrib of the raffia palm. Sources suggest that the dolls are associated with female rites of passage. Both men and women are said to make these dolls for their daughters. They cut and fashion the doll's body, create the pyro-engraved designs along the back and lower part of the body and design the braided coiffures made from raffia fiber that has been dyed black. Facial features are sometimes indicated, albeit minimally. Field photos document that this type of doll was also made for sale in the marketplace, with some dolls dressed in short raffia fiber skirts.
Description:
Doll in the form of a female figure carved from cane or the midrib of the raffia palm and distinguished by a coiffure of gathered plant fibers plaited into three long braids that trail down the sides and back of the figure. The body is minimally rendered and the face is not indicated although blue and yellow strands of beads affixed to the upper part of the body suggest earrings. A double strand of yellow beads encircles the lower part of the figure, perhaps to suggest waist beads. Pyroengraved linear patterns embellish the back of the figure. The doll's body retains the integrity of the palm midrib from which it was carved, with the back left rounded while the front of the body has been defined with a slightly indented section running the length of the figure.
Provenance:
Allan Pitcher, Washington, D.C., acquired Liberia, mid-1970s to 2001
Exhibition History:
African Mosaic: Selections from the Permanent Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2013–August 12, 2019 (deinstalled July 9, 2019)
African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2010-November 13, 2013
Art of the Personal Object, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September 24, 1991-April 9, 2007
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