Yoruba Ibeji Twin Cubist Doll OLD African Figure Nigeri Thundergod Shell Vest, Age + Wear + Use = SUPERB! Start Price USD 1,295.00 Current Price USD 1,295.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Thursday, July 24, 2008 End Time Thursday, July 31, 2008 Location Santa Fe, NM See more about 'Yoruba Ibeji Twin Cubist Doll OLD African Figure Nigeri' Description   Oyo Yoruba Male Ibeji Twin Figure w/ Thundergod VestAntique African Statue Traditional Tribal Sculpture Nigeria     A Splendid OLD Oyo Yoruba Ere Ibeji Male Twin Statuette, Full Thundergod VestAntique African Tribal Art - Figural Sculpture -Nigeria Collected from the: Oyo Yoruba peoples of northern Yorubaland in Nigeria, West AfricaMaterial: Hardwood, red camwood powder, blue pigment, coarsely woven fiber, blue and red woven cloth, Cowrie shells, skin oilPeriod: Later 19th to earliest 20th centuryDimensions: 10.25" height, 9" width, 4.5" depth with vest; weight is 3.00 poundsCondition: Exceptional. Splendid specimen from a private Parisian collection, significant signs of age, wear and tribal use, all exposed wood presents significant patination. Very minor shell loss from vest back, burnished skin oil patination indicative of extensive handling - exceptional! Please click on the photos below to fully appreciate this important OLD Ibeji! And be sure to see the fascinating AFRICAN SCULPTURES in our eBay store! Click Images to Enlarge Information on Yoruba Ibeji Twins Traditions and UsePlease pardon the length, we thought you might enjoy a full account of this fascinating form. The advent of twins in Yorubaland occasioned love, joy, and religious concern. However, twins, by definition, are premature babies born very small since double weight on the uterus causes parturition before term. Born earlier and weighing less, the twins' likelihood of survival without the aid of modern medicine was not promising. The astonishingly high rate of fraternal twins among the Yoruba (42 in 177 births in one reliable sample) and the relatively higher degree of infant mortality prevalent in twinning combine to suggest one reason for a prodigious quantity of sculptures for departed twins in Yorubaland. Lander first noted the tradition in 1830, writing "Many women with little wooden figures on their heads passed in the course of the morning. Mothers, who having lost a child, carry imitations of them about their persons for an indefinite time as a symbol of morning. None could be induced to part with these affectionate little memorials. (For that would be like losing their child all over again.) Whenever the mother stopped to take refreshment, a small part of their food was invariably presented to the lips of these inanimate memorials. This clear illustration of maternal love and religious conviction presents more convincing motives for the rise of the twin cult than any factors of morbidity per se. High twinning ratios and infant mortality are present throughout much of Africa and yet only in Yoruba and Yoruba-influenced territory is there a tradition of sculpture for the twins. According to ancient Yoruba traditions, the foundation of the twin cult began several centuries ago, when only the poor and the wretched were believed to be the progenitors of twins, and when the twins were put to death at birth. Later, the children of the Oyo Yoruba people in the region of Ajashe began to die mysterious deaths causing the alarmed Oyo parents to consult the oracle. The word of the oracle was clear: cease killing twins at once and honor them to persuade them from killing other children. And it was done. The mothers of twins began to dance about in of worship twins every five days. They received money for their dancing which made once-poor families relatively rich. A present day mother of twins in traditional areas may dance in a public place where she receives money even if she is of means, hence the arrival of twins is associated with a rise in the fortune of the family and there is rejoicing. While there was celebration attached to the birth of twins, there was also an ancient certainty that such children were not human and were possessed of strange of strange powers. It was held, before the ancient prohibition on twin infanticide, that only monkeys and simian-like humans gave birth to twins. Human twinning was despised as sub-human. Twins were believed to be fearless and unpredictable, deriving their spirit from the monkeys, and their parents were considered savages or rustic types. Consequently, an element of animality was believed to lurk behind the birth of twins and this cultural pattern was re-emergent in other Nigerian cultures, such as the Igbo who believed that twins were not human. Following the logic of religious conviction, extraordinary powers enabled twins to overcome tradition and survive. After the ancient prohibition on twin infanticide, when a twin died in Yorubaland, the parents commissioned a sculpture to carve a small generalized replica of the infant with sex and descent group markings related to the deceased. Two wooden images were carved in the event of both twins passing. A third image could be carved when the next child, born immediately following or the birth after that, dies for the child born after twins is believed to be more-or-less supernatural as well - especially among the Anago-Yoruba. Twin images were maintained on domestic altars, often elevated upon a small clay dias. They were often stored in calabashes, carefully wrapped with special cloths, and even laid in bed under a warm coverlet during the chill of the harmattan winds. The images were often painted in traditional colors, indigo blue and camwood red in Oyo Yoruba areas, and dress in miniature versions of adult garments, sumptuously rendered if the parents were rich or especially anxious to appease their spirits. Twin statuettes were ritually washed in a bath of herbs to transform the sculptures into charged forces subject to the 'command' of honor, thereby doing 'as asked' for the benefit of the family. Those who did not honor their dead twins courted tragedy for it was believed that if an image was not carved and revered, the wrath of the slighted twin would trouble the survivor with nightmares and even death or, if both twins died, the mother would have conceptions difficulties, a euphemism for abiding sterility and death, if she failed to remember the deceased appropriately. These are terrifying powers for small children to possess, even if driven by the animality of the monkeys so twins, in spirit form, seem fully empowered deities. The source of their powers was said to derive from the thundergod Shango and twins demanded honor because they descended from the thundergod - per a revelation from the highest ranking priest of the earth at Oyo - the very city of the thundergod - though accounts heard at Ijesha seconded the point; a belief maintained even today. Consequently, it may be appropriate to reconsider twin images as representative of divine force, partially deriving their mastery from the thundergod, rather than as straightforward memorials to the infant dead. Some figures are dressed with subtle allusions to the thundergod, especially in the territory of the Oyo. The richest forms of dress for twin images appear to relate to the cult of the thundergod specifically. The splendid vest of Cowrie shells worn by a twin image strongly resembles the Cowrie-embroidered vest worn by the senior thundergod priest when dancing in full regalia. Yoruba kings alone wore beaded gowns, yet thundergod priests shared that emblem of the highest rank by association with their deity who was the mythic fourth king of the Oyo who reputedly punished the liar and the thief with his lightening. Viewed as a single heritage, the images of twins attest to celebration and a feeling that twins are not quite human with certain God-like powers over life and death. They are cradled like tiny babies yet given the respect due royalty. Extraordinary sculpture, the image of twins falls outside the ordinary realm of life and forms one of the most remarkable provinces in the history of African art. Recommended reading: Africa: The Art of a Continent, Black Gods and Kings and Ibeji: The Cult of Yoruba Twins. Yoruba Tribal HistoryNine to ten million Yoruba live in southwestern Nigeria and Dahomey where their ancient urban system allowed the development of a political organization, military security, and rules of sanitation. Religion and the notion of the divinity of kings helped impose order and maintain it with the aid of discipline. The origins of the Yoruba peoples can be traced back to the end of the first millennium, along with the Ife civilization. From at least the thirteenth century the Yoruba had looked upon Ife as the ile, or home, of the Yoruba people and the Oni (Ife King) was considered the father of all Yoruba obas. The Yoruba city of Owo, one of the largest on the Guinea coast, was established in the ninth century, and flourished during the 15th and 16th centuries primarily because of its location along the well established trade route connecting the cities of Ife and Benin. These early trade routes significantly contributed in bringing the Benin and Ife art to the early Yoruba peoples, and Yoruba art, especially the metal work, was notably influenced by trade with both the Portuguese and the Benin and Ife Kingdoms during the 16th century. One of the most remarkable periods in Yoruba history was that of the Oyo Empire. From approximately 1680 to 1830 the capital city of Oyo-Ile (Old Oyo) and the Alafin (king) were a powerful presence shaping the course of events for almost all of the Yoruba subgroups. The Oyo kingdom (1680-1830) was in the northern part of Yoruba-speaking territories. It was ruled by a king, called Alafin who served as ultimate judge. His power was counterbalanced by a council of seven chiefs, each of whom was head of a non-royal family. From the 17th century, the Oyo expanded their territory, helped largely by their cavalry, which was, in turn, immortalized by carved figures. The two most important cults created by the Oyo centered on the Egungun and Sango societies who are still active today, leading to a generation of masks, headdresses and sculptures. The various Yoruba tribes spread across Nigeria today are composed of several cults, including the Epa, Gelede, Ogboni, and Esu. 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