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Mother-and-Child Figure (pfemba), mid–late 1800s
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Yombe people
Wood
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 2003.35
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Mother-and-child figure
This mother-and-child figure was probably part of a cult concerned with the treatment of infertility. Both her jewelry and her seated pose indicate that the woman occupied a high rank in her community.
Her miter-shaped hairstyle, chiseled teeth, and raised body scars—considered to be marks of beauty and perfection—signal that the woman incarnates the founding ancestor of a descendent group.
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Male Figure,
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