Female Guardian Figure of the Baule Culture
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The reliquary female, or guardian figure, is an African artifact that originated in the late nineteenth century in the Ivory Coast of the Baule people. The guardian figure is a wooden statue that possesses the power to please or ward off spirits. Yet beyond its obvious religious significance, the appearance and art of the statue also exhibits aspects of gender relations, children, and awareness of and relation to Western civilization.
In the Baule culture, it is believed that before people are born into this world they have a spouse in the other world, and that these spouses occasionally become angry or jealous and disturb the lives of their living partners. The Baule will create guardian figures to please these spirit-spouses when they feel troubled by them. Each statue is carved to represent the specific and custom appearance of the individual's spiritual spouse based upon images from the spirit world that the human partner experiences in dreams.
They are also to be beautiful in order to attract the spirit spouse. Physical beauty and moral virtue are essential aspects of the Baule culture, and they are especially evident in the "female" guardian figure. Hands held obediently at the sides and a modest stance of the feet gives the figure a respectful attitude that shows good character. Physical perfection is shown in the appearance of a healthy body and a strong neck that is able to bear heavy loads on the head, as well as muscular calves of a hard worker...