Wooden Door Lock
date: label: Accession Date
content: 14 Jan 2004
label: Collection Date
content: 1970
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Pascal J. Imperato
label: Donor Name
content: Dr. Pascal J. Imperato
notes: label: Notes
content: Lock made with an upright beam and a cross beam, both carved from a light colored wood. The vertical beam has two forged metal nails attaching it to the vertical beam. The locking mechanism has three metal pins, and the key insertion is lateral. The top of the lock is carved to a point, and the horizontal beam has three pairs of vertical lines etched onto the surface, but it is otherwise unadorned. Signs of weathering. Attached to exhibit mount.
label: Notes
content: Complete provenance was given by the collector / donor to appraiser Leonard Kahan (see accession file): "This lock was ordered by Sidiki Sanogo, from the master blacksmith Siriman Fane, in the early 1930s for use in his family compound's vestibule in the village of Boussin. Sidiki and his wife Assiou used this lock, which was then passed on at the their deaths to their son, Mahamoutou Sanogo and his wife, Madieni Sougoule. They continued to use the lock until the mid-1960s when it was discarded. The lock was in disuse when their son passed it on to the donor in 1970."
label: Notes
content: The donor writes: "I showed it to Siriman Fane, who remembered sculpting it, and he said he had fashioned it to represent the large water iguana (kana), a powerful anti-sorcery image...He also said 'the kana eats the sirantoula (gecko)'. This statement has enormous meaning because the Bamana greatly fear the small, gray gecko, believing it to be nefarious, poisonous, and capable of causing leprosy." (Imperato, p. 76)
label: Notes
content: Exhibited in "Legends, Sorcerers, and Enchanted Lizards; Door Locks of the Bamana of Mali" at the African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers, Tenafly, NJ, October 15, 2001 - Aug 15, 2002. Illustrated in the exhibition catalog, p. 76.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 28 Nov 2014
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Koke / Boussin, Markala, Segou, Mali, Africa
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Bamana (Bambara)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2029953
label: USNM Number
content: E431605-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Lock
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 51 cm
label: Width
content: 37 cm
label: Height
content: 9 cm