SB.1.10
Fertility Doll [Doll]
Doll. Turkana. Kenya. No 108. Original list: X.A.17. Turkana. Doll. Leather, beads, wood, copper, iron, vegetable fiber. Girl "Anthropomorphic androgynous figure with four eyes, in light wood, monoxyle, covered with a loincloth and adorned with jewels. The figure stands upright and has two massive feet, rounded buttocks, a thin, slender trunk, short arms, as well as a long thick neck ending in a small head generously garnished with leather fringes sometimes adorned with pearls or aluminum. The doll's eyes are signified by the inlay of four small pearls of white and blue glasses, partly upper face. Her nipples are signified by two small protrusions cut in the torso. Her knees are marked by two notches in the wood. The doll is covered with a loincloth in skin (or gut?) with rows of blue, white pearls , red and yellow. Its size is surrounded by a string of metallic copper alloy beads as well as a leather band sewn with small green, red and blue beads. An iron chain around two fetishes (bone?) her left ankle with a brass chain and thicker coiled aluminum cable. Her arms are adorned with metallic bracelets with pearls and copper wires. Note a darker patina on the neck, feet and shoulders; probably resulting from the application of an ocher-colored native coating (to be checked). This type of dolls handled as toys by girls also had a fetish function and a beneficial influence on fertility (Fedders & Salvadori. 1977: 56-57).
Category: Doll
vernacular Ekoku
Material: Wood. Leather. Glass beads. Copper. Iron. Vegetable fiber. [Leather. Glass beads. Wood. Copper. Iron. Vegetable fiber]
Location: Kenya
Size in Centimeters
Length: 38
Width: 10
Height: 7
Other dimensions: Original list: W: 6 H: 39 L: 8