Generosity Spoon

Generosity Spoon

Very simply decorated spoon with a long 9 7/8" scoop and thick short neck (2 1/4" H x 1/4" D) topped by a -shaped handle, probably representative of a human head; the front of the handle is decorated with shallowly carved long curved lines with a fill of small diagonal lines on the right and left sides, the back of the handle is carved with a design of seven conical shapes; the design is reminiscent of a coiffure.

Ceremonial spoon or rice scoop. The African spoon is handed down from generation to generation as a honorific emblem of the chief's mother or wife, who controls initiation into the female secret societies. When her son, the heir to the chieftainship, returned home from training in the Poro society school, she would dance in a public ceremony in the presence of the ancestor spirit, symbolized the spoon, using it a the same time to serve rice to the villagers.

08271998

Wood

1998.19

Africa
Liberia
Dan

17in x 3in