Bieri (reliquary) figure, 19th century

Fang (Gabon)
Bieri (reliquary) figure, 19th century
wood
Museum Purchase, Florence C. Quinby Fund, in memory of Henry Cole Quinby, Honorary Degree, 1916
1969.70

This figure was created by the Fang people, a historically itinerant group living in Gabon in central Africa. Figures like these were meant to sit on a reliquaries: bark containers or baskets that held the remains of the deceased. They represent a spirit that would protect the relics and the family that cared for them. Believing that the bones and other articles left by important ancestors possessed the powers of those people had before they died, the living consulted their ancestral relics before any important task or decision. The shining surface of this wooden figure suggests a repeated anointing with palm oil.