2-728-535 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Female Figurine, late 1800s-early 1900s. Whether female or male, Beembe figurines generally have greatly detailed anatomical and decorative features—especially hairstyles and abdominal scarification marks—as well as a shiny, lustrous patina. The characteristic scars that were in vogue among Beembe men and women until the 1950s communicated their ideas about local beauty and ethnic belonging. Used to protect its owner’s well-being, such a Beembe figurine was charged with an ancestor’s spirit or life force through a mixture of resin and mostly human-derived ingredients taken from the corpse of the person it possibly portrays; the substance was inserted into a small cavity near the sculpture’s rectum. The staring eyes, made with shards of white porcelain, allude to the figurine’s ability to access the realm of the dead.