The Power of Ritual Objects

The exhibit "The Power of Ritual Objects" was designed and created by the following students in the Museum Exhibition Class Spring 2022

Student Preparers

Morgan Markley, Jordan Larzalere, and Suzannah Guthrie

Museum Staff

Instructor and Museum Director: Rachelle Meinecke

Museum Staff: Gracie Tolley, Ria Morgan, and Angie

Life

The concepts of life, fertility and birth are significant for many cultures. The figures displayed represent the value of women, the gift of birth, and the importance of life. Many of these artifacts originated from Africa, but ties to motherhood and sibling bonds are present globally.

Female figure with large, flat disk-shaped head. Figure is adorned with 4 multi colored necklaces

Akua Ba Fertility Figure

Ghana 

Wood 

Wooden children were cared for by Akan women in Ghana who hoped to become pregnant. According to Akan myth, a women named Akua was told by a diviner to care for a wooden child as if it were her own. After caring for the child figurine as she was told, Akua became pregnant, thus creating the tradition. 

Transferred from the Ulrich Museum of Art 

2008.02.383 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology 

Female figure with crested coiffure, and black and red beads. Figure has evidence of offerings.

Era Ibeji

West Africa 

Wood 

The Yoruba people of Nigeria consider twins to possess special powers. They are believed to be one soul. If a twin died in infancy, the family will have a wooden figure carved to represent the dead twin. These carvings are called ere ibeji. 

Transferred from the Ulrich Museum of Art 

2008.02.035 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology 

 Figure is standing tall with a narrow face and bright blue hair. The figure is adorned with beaded necklaces and bracelets made of teeth.

Era Ibeji

West Africa 

Wood 

A family will look after the ere ibeji figure as if it were alive. This includes feeding, clothing, carrying around, and performing rituals to ensure the twins’ shared soul is in balance. 

Transferred from the Ulrich Museum of Art 

2008.02.378 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology 

 Mother is seated and wearing gold earrings, a beaded belt and sandals, with her hair in braids. A child is laying across her lap while breast feeding.

Mother Feeding Child  

Ghana 

Wood 

This figure shows a mother seated and nursing the child on her lap- acknowledging the nurturing power of women. The ties between a mother and her children were especially valued among the matrilineal Akan. 

Transferred from the Ulrich Museum of Art 

2008.02.382 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology 

 A female is standing with hands together and feet apart. She is nude, and her body is covered in scarifications.

Female Figure

Ivory Coast 

Wood 

Within Senufo culture, the female form is held above all others in terms of beauty and aesthetics. Female Senufo figures may embody the primordial mother; her secret name is "one who gives birth" or "one who bears offspring.” 

Transferred from the Ulrich Museum of Art 

2008.02.065 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology 

 Carved female figure stands atop a globe while a snake wraps around the figure.

Female Figure

West Africa 

Wood 

The Senufo people consist of diverse subgroups spanning the Ivory Coast. Senufo carvers are known for their wood sculptures, masks, and figurines. These figures are often ornamented by body scarification, elaborate coiffures, and jewelry to represent the idealized female beauty. 

Transferred from the Wichita Art Museum 

2000.04.023 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology 

Hunt

Ritualistic objects and weapons associated with the hunt are found in numerous cultures on every continent. The objects displayed here range from hunting tools and weapons used for ritual purposes and hunting animals, to weaponry used in human head-hunting ritual and practice.

Cotton pullover short sleeved shirt with fringed bottom. Marine snail shells line the V-neck, a monkey skull in the middle, leather/hide pockets dangling off the shirt and shirt has been very well used consisting of sweat stains and dirt

Shirt, Hunter Fetish 

West Africa 

Cotton, marine snail shells, monkey skull, leather/hide 

Ceremonial shirt from the African Somba group, also known as the Ditamari, who practice body scarification rituals, are skilled warriors and build distinctive house’s called Tata Sombra.   

Donated by Dr. Arthur Rohn

1989.01.039 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology  

Object Description: Cotton pullover short sleeved shirt with fringed bottom. Marine snail shells line the V-neck, a monkey skull in the middle, leather/hide pockets dangling off the shirt and shirt has been very well used consisting of sweat stains and dirt

 Metal axe head, front part is sharpened and back part is flat. Handle is a mixture of vegetal fibers and wood. Bottom of handle has a red and green beaded-like-bracelet looped through the end

Head-Hunting Axe 

Philippines/Asia 

Metal axe head, vegetal fibers, wood, red and green beads. 

Headhunting was historically a practice used by certain indigenous tribes as a ritual or ceremonial practice often involving severing the head or other body parts of rival tribal members. Headhunting did not always result in the act of cannibalism and was often a source of achievement in hunting, proof of manhood or a show of prestige.  

Donated by Rev. Leonard A. & Mrs. Dale Sr.

2015.06.029 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology  

 Pottery with red and black design of 3 deer and 3 rosettes on a cream back drop with a break in the upper banding lines

Olla

Southwest USA/North America 

Clay pottery, red and black on cream 

Heartline deer motif, traditionally made by Zuni Pueblo women. Relatively large vessel used for collecting, carrying and storing water. The heartline symbol is represented as the life force of the animal 

Donated by John A. (Jack) Morgan

2002.04.061 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology  

 Bamboo knife made with crochet cord with seed beads, red seeds, feathers covering on one end.

Knife 

Amanamkai-Awok-Jeu/Indonesia, Becembub/Oceania  

Bamboo knife, wood, crochet cord with seed beads, red seeds, feathers 

Ceremonial knife, possibly used for human sacrifice or headhunting ritual.  

Donated by Barry & Paula Downing

2001.10.0216 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology  

Spear made of light-colored wood with metal spear butt at bottom, below the spearhead is wrapped with red plants fibers and bands of braided plant material

Spear head made of metal

Spear 

Philippines/Asia  

Wood and metal spear, braided plant fiber, red plant fiber, braided plant material. 

“Sibat” is the general Filipino term for spear. Spear hunting was versatile, being used in war and in hunting small and big game throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas, among other areas of human inhabitants.  

Donated by Rev. Leonard A. & Mrs. Dale Sr.

2015.06.17 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology  

Knife with a wide blade and has several bands of braided plant fiber. Wooden knife sheath with carved decorations, band of braided plant fiber and an attached fiber rope

Knife and Sheath 

Philippines/Asia 

Knife with several bands of braided plant fiber. Wooden Sheath, carved decoration, band of braided plant fiber and fiber rope.  

Most likely used for a variety of tasks such as skinning animals,  

Donated by Rev. Leonard A. & Mrs. Dale Sr.

2015.06.042a & b Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology  

Mind

Indigenous cultures across what is now the United States made use of mind-altering substances during rituals. These ritual objects represent three Native American cultures: the Iroquois culture of the northeast, the Indigenous Peoples of the Great Plains, and the Ancestral Puebloans of the southwest. The False Face society of the Iroquois was an organization of medicinal practitioners that used tobacco and other smokes in healing rituals, and placed great importance on dreams. Tobacco smoke was also used by Great Plains cultures in a wide variety of ceremonies and rituals, but in particular, it is used in vision quests, a ritual where individuals seek a vision or visitation with the spirits though fasting, isolation, and tobacco use. The Ancestral Puebloans and other cultures used black drink, a highly caffeinated tea made from the holly plant, in rituals of purification.

 Long, narrow leather pipe bag decorated with multi-coloured beads and fringe on bottom.

Pipe Bag

Great Plains

Leather

Pipe bags were traditionally made with great care by women for men. They were considered a symbol of prestige as well as an object of fashion. This bag would contain the pipe stem, pipe bowl, and tobacco.

Donated by John L. Kiser

2004.02.002 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology

 

Cylindrical pipe carved from stone, tapering at one end, boxy on the other, and cylindrical bowl protruding from center.

Pipe Bowl

Great Plains

Stone

Pipe smoking of tobacco is an important feature of many rituals in indigenous cultures of the Great Plains. Smoking tobacco was used as a symbol of a binding agreement between groups, or to reach out to spirits and the supernatural in rituals like vision quests.

Donated by Charles M. Jackman

2002.08.009 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology

 Ceramic handled mug with striped and checkerboard pattern painted in black on surface.

Mug

Ancestral Puebloan

1150-1300 CE

Clay

The Ancestral Puebloans are a prehistoric culture that lived in the American southwest. As there are few oral histories of Ancestral Puebloan culture, anthropologists must extrapolate details of their culture from the objects left behind like pottery or their famous cliff dwelling structures.

Transferred from the Ulrich Museum of Art

1994.08.034 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology

Ceramic handled mug with diamond pattern and perpendicular lines painted in reddish black on the surface.

Mug

Ancestral Puebloan

1150-1300 CE

Clay

Mugs such as these were used in the consumption of black drink, a heavily caffeinated beverage made from cocoa and the Yaupon holly plant. Black drink is six times more caffeinated than coffee and was used in purification rituals.

Transferred from the Ulrich Museum of Art

1994.08.035 Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology

 

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