page_title: Luba art
section_title: Bow stands
hierarchical_section_title: Luba art / Bow stands
caption_attribution_description: English: Standing female figure arms bent hands resting between breasts. Scarification on abdomen and elaborate headdress. There is a three pronged projection carved with patterns at top of head. Condition: Chipped and cracked. English: The great mythical hero of Luba kingship, Mbidi Kiluwe, was a famous hunter whose most cherished possession was his bow. Bow stands therefore symbolize chiefly authority and are associated with elaborate rituals and restrictions. They are never displayed in public and are guarded by a female dignitary who provides prayers and sacrifices. The female figure on this bow stand holds her hands to her chest, a gesture that refers both to the Luba idea that women guard the secrets of royalty within their breasts and to that of devotion to the spirit world.
context_page_description: Luba art refers to the visual and material culture of the Luba people. Most objects were created by people living along the Lualaba River and around the lakes of the Upemba Depression, or among related peoples to the east in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  The exact date of the founding of the Luba Kingdom is uncertain. According to oral tradition, the cultural hero Kalala Ilunga conquered the lands of adjacent chiefs along the Lualaba River. He and his successors were venerated as living divinities capable of great power. During the eighteenth century the Luba empire expanded eastward and southward until it reached the basins of the Sankuru and Lomami rivers. Luba art consequently varies regionally and has also influenced the art of neighboring peoples including the Hemba and the Boyo. Most of the Luba art in Western collections was originally produced in association with royal or chiefly courts and was meant to validate the power of leaders. Luba art forms tend to be "delicately modeled and curvilinear, expressing serenity and introspection."
context_section_description: Wooden or iron bow stands may have begun as practical objects, but they are also potent reminders of Mbidi Kiluwe, the culture hero who was a masterful hunter and blacksmith. Like other Luba regalia, bow stands were deployed in secret rituals and rarely publicly displayed. They were guarded in a special building by female dignitaries who provided prayers and sacrifices to them. Otherwise they were kept beside the bed of the ruler to inform his dreams and protect him from mystical and human adversaries. Iron bow stands make anthropomorphic references through hourglass-shaped torsos reminiscent of lukasa memory boards. Wooden bow stands are often adorned with full female figures referring to founders of royal lineages or Bevidye. Finally the metal shaft of bow stands convey the king's strength, and when planted in the ground, they testify to his origins and power.
caption: Bow stand, from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum
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