Figural posts, Metoko or Lengola; D.R.C. Congo
Wood, pigment; H. 51 1/2" / 49"
Very little is known about objects
such as these, used by the Metoko and neighboring
Lengola of the D.R.C. Congo. In fact, the practice
of producing posts for initiations may be far more
widespread in the general region. Carl Schuster,
arguably the foremost interpreter of relational
pattern systems, considered the use of repeated
or stacked truncated cone forms to be a visual metaphor
for the multiplying of generations. The single head
perched atop a form such as we see here may refer
the viewer on a didactic or esoteric level to the
realization that this image represents many ancestors
or predecessors. In the context of initiation this
would be particularly significant in that it would
attach and ground the neophyte to a seemingly endless
line of past initiates or imply that he is in the
presence of an entire lineage stretching back to
"original time." It is no accident then,
as Schuster clearly points out, that the primary
context for this motif occurs on funerary posts
or markers — worldwide. Considering how little
is known about this fine old pair of compelling
objects, though, a funerary function cannot be ruled
out.
