Turkana Fertility Doll SB.1.83

Turkana Fertility Doll SB.1.83: Attribute of unmarried girls. Turkana. Kenya. No 12. XII.A.28. Original list: “Turkana. Doll. Leather, beads, doum palm nut. Girl” Small vaguely anthropomorphic doll made from a doum palm tree trefoil, adorned with jewelry and then covered with a triangular apron and a skirt leather with white, red and blue glass beads.

The doll also presents necklaces formed of strings superimposed with yellow, red and blue pearls. Her headdress is characterized by fringes of red and white pearls (sometimes blue and yellow). The triangular apron (nyrah) worn in front is an attribute of unmarried girls. See Fedders, Salvadori. 1977: 95 “Little girls may play with these dolls as toys, but as they grow older the fertility aspect of the figures becomes of paramount importance (…). The pod’s similitude to male genitalia emphasizes the role of the doll in promoting fertility . Strands of beads, jingling bells, and other items of ornamentation are added to the seed pod as decoration and to make it more closely resemble a person “. (Eugene C. Burt, Seattle Art Museum. 1985: 9) Category: Doll vernacular ikidet Subject: Doum palm nut. Beads (of glass?). Plant fiber. Leather. Location: Kenya Dimensions in Centimeters: Length: 14 Width: 13 Height: 5 Other dim .: Full code list: W: 5 H: 14 L: 13