Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main: 13600

Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main: 13600
Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main: 13600

 

Object description
This information was provided by the German museum where the object is currently located or where it was located prior to restitution.

Object Name Altar stick
Description End anthropomorphic head, below band with cowry body. Then checkerboard hatched fields, slot for rattle body. Bottom 4-fold double conical set off. Purchase price 75.- "The one .. surmounted by a human head, represents generalized ancestors and is for a commoner's paternal ancestral altar (Text zu pl. 58) The rattle staff is both a means of communication with the spirit world, achieved when the staff is struck upon the ground, and a staff of authority, to be wielded only by the properly designated person. In this way it is related to a variety of royal staffs of authority. ... Ideally, these cult staffs are obtained from the urban carvers' guild, igbesanmwan, who are supposed to have a monopoly on their production, but in actuality local village age-grade members often produce them when needed for their own cults. Most village cult shrines consist of these rattle staffs, pots with magical ingredients and pieces of kaolin chalk. (56f) The commoner's paternal ancestral altar is a rectangular platform. Resting upon the wall are wooden staffs uhurhe, with a human head carved on top of each of them. If any predecessor of the present senior son had a title or was a well-known priest, his ceremonial sword, ada, might be found among the staffs. At least one rectangular bell is placed towards the fron, where it can be easily rung to announce the commencement of a service. At the very fron the presence of a celt or "thunderstone" siginifies the sudden and dreadful power of Ogiuwu, the god of death." (60) LIT Ben Amos: The Art of Benin. London 1980, p. 56ff
Type Rite/Cult
Materials Wood, Cowry case
Size, Dimensions Length: 1235 cm
Dating of Object

Museum / Collection / Acquisition
This information was provided by the German museum where the object is currently located or where it was located prior to restitution.

Museum Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Museum Inv.-No 13600
Collector William Ockelford Oldman; Dealer
Acquisition date approx. 1910
Circumstances of acquisition - 02.1897: British 'Punitive Expedition'
- 1900: William Downing Webster (No. 9784);
offered in Illustrated Catalogue 24 for £sd 2.10.0
- […]: William Ockelford Oldman
- […]: Städtisches Völkermuseum, Frankfurt;
Purchase from William Ockelford Oldman
   
Notes

Current ownership status and location

Status
Date of last status change
Current ownership
Holding institution
Current location

Categorization for the search functions
This information was included by the German Contact Point for Collections from Colonial Contexts and is intended to make the object easier to find in the database.

Object Type staff
Materials wood
Tags

Dataset

ID 1227
last Change 2022-02-03 11:42:17
License Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main