Photographs © Tim Hamill
YORUBA
House of the Head 2 (Fragment)
10" high
$1000
Although vetted as old and authentic, this fragment of a House of the Head shrine is missing its lower half and top ornament.
Throughout Yorubaland, a person venerates his or her ori-inu ("inner head"), a personal spirit that guides an individual's destiny. ..The symbol of the inner head is a small conical object, which is in turn secreted in a larger container with a conical lid called ile-ore, literally, "house of the head." The ile-ori which serves as a shrine to the ori-inu, is made from leather and cloth and covered with expensive cowrie shells and sometimes beads. Both the cowrie ornamentation and the conical shape are significant. Because of the association of cowries with currency and wealth, the cowrie-decorated ile-ori shrine honors the ori-inu and elevates the prestige of the owner.
--from African Shapes of the Sacred: Yoruba Religious
Art by Carol Ann Lorenz, Senior Curator,
Longyear Museum of Anthropology, Colgate University.
RETURN TO YORUBA HOUSE OF THE HEAD SHRINES PAGE
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