Abstract
Clay Heads from Ashanti. Capt. R. P. Wild describes and figures in Man for January two heads of baked clay from Fomena, Ashanti, which were obtained by Mr. E. A. Burner, of the Political Service, from Nana Kobina Fori, the Omanhene of Adansi, whose capital, town is Fomena. Kobina Fori, whose age is estimated at somewhere in the neighbourhood of eighty years, states that although these heads are not now made, he remembers them being made by an old woman when he was a boy. According to his evidence, they were placed on the graves of chiefs, elders, councillors and queen mothers, that is, the most prominent members of the Adansi tribe. At certain times offerings were made to the spirits which were supposed to have taken up their abode in the heads. For this purpose a baked clay ladle was required. The heads are well fired and are made of a fairly fine clay. They are hollow and almost life size. From the absence of the beard and the smaller head it is probable that one of the two heads represents a woman. The features of both heads are rather refined in comparison with the usual cast of countenance in the Ashanti race. This supports the statement that they are meant to represent chiefs, elders, etc., as the ruling classes of the Ashanti show distinct signs of refinement. The side view shows the typical long face of the Ashanti, but with an unnatural flattening of the back from the nape of the neck upward, giving an almost vertical profile. This may be due to artistic license. The conventional representation of the hair is interesting, it being rendered by whorls, cylinders and hollow balls. Kobina Fori stated that human hair (perhaps the hair of the deceased) was inserted in the holes in the cylinders and balls. The faces had been coated with red clay after firing, red being the mourning colour of the Ashanti. Facial markings, it is suggested, may be intended to counterfeit the cicatrices of an Akim slave as a disguise against evil spirits.
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Research Items. Nature 133, 219–220 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133219a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133219a0