Object Details
- Label Text
- Most dolls, in Africa and throughout the world, are used by children--primarily girls--to help them imagine their future roles as adult women, mothers and the primary caregivers in their communities. Though used in play, the forms of many dolls encode important social and aesthetic concepts about appropriate demeanor and the links between physical and moral beauty. Some play a role in initiation and marriage rites or are connected with female fertility.
- A 1997 article by Elisabeth Cameron in the journal African Arts includes both a field and an object photograph of a very similar doll that is attributed to the Mwila, an Ambo subgroup from Angola. According to Cameron, an Ambo mother will pass the family doll down to her daughter at marriage, when it is named by the husband and carried by the wife in her belt, “tightly pressed against her stomach to hasten conception”--a practice that Carlos Estermann documented among the Kwamatwi of Angola in a 1976 publication. Writing in 1966, Karl Hechter-Schulz noted that for Ambo and neighboring groups, dolls are family heirlooms inherited by the eldest daughter, and that it is on her engagement that the “fiancé names the doll as if it is a child.”
- As the Mwila doll demonstrates, dolls in different African societies emphasize--in form and decoration--aspects of ideal feminine beauty to include elaborate coiffures, body ornamentation and physical features that underscore the importance of fertility. In most cases, dolls are made for adolescent girls either by their mothers or by the girls themselves. In some regions, they are associated with female rites of passage, and as with the discussion above, dolls among Ambo and related groups function in the adult contexts of marriage and the desire for family and continuity.
- Description
- Cylindrical abstract female figure; the substrate is wood covered with twisted fiber wrapping. A coiled basketry base is covered with a black and white print cotton textile at the front and a red, white and black textile at the back. The textile at back has green and white beads attached. The figure is embellished with long tresses of twisted fiber hair adorned with a triangular-shaped head ornament of green and red beads and two iron tacks at the front hairline. Two protrusions--possibly eyes or breasts--are formed with some type of resin or other plant-derived material.
- Provenance
- Merton D. Simpson, acquired at Sotheby's, lot no. 249, 1989 to 2013
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Ambo artist
- Date
- Mid-20th century
- Credit Line
- Gift of Merton D. Simpson
- Medium
- Wood, plant fiber, cotton textile, glass beads, iron tacks, resin
- Dimensions
- Mounted: 32.4 x 19.1 x 19.1 cm (12 3/4 x 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.)
- Type
- Sculpture
