Diviners' basket, Chokwe; D.R.C. Congo/Angola
Basketry, hide, wood, animal and vegetal parts,
metal, stones; D. 10 1/2"
In Chokwe Ngombo divination,
a basket filled with a variety of symbolic objects
is shaken and the contents read as they successively
touch the upper edges, which are designated red
or white and have to do with positive or negative
influences. The individual miniature objects include
wooden images of people, animals, and implements
as well as vegetable and mineral items and parts
of various animals. It is unusual to find a basket
that is intact in a traditional sense; many baskets
either bear too many objects, having been put together
from a number of assemblages to make them more saleable
or are filled primarily with carved wooden objects,
having had most of their non-figural contents removed.
