Basket "Nsek Pl. Misek"
date: label: Accession Date
content: 6 Aug 1892
name: label: Collector
content: Rev. Adolphus C. Good
label: Donor Name
content: Rev. Adolphus C. Good
notes: label: Notes
content: Listed on page 64 in "The Exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915", in section "Arts of the African Tribes (Bantu)".
label: Notes
content: From Card: "Bark. For carrying all kinds of goods. "Two bark buckets or boxes used for carrying all kinds of goods, india rubber, etc., and for storing all kinds of valuable (?) when at home. Trade trunks and boxes and a change in the character of the goods to be carried and stored have led the Fang to give up almost entirely the making and use of these useful articles. In carrying them the strap hung on one shoulder and the bucket hung..."" From Reverse: " "... under the arm on the same side." Cleaned, see Restoration record 3-1-65 (A), (B). 164870 X Loaned to Renwick 5/6/82. Returned 1983 Barrel and Lid (nsegh byeri) ca. 1900 Fang people; Gabon and Equatorial Guinea bark; wood, split rattan height: 19 (48.2) NMNH 164870 a,b The Fang placed skulls of deceased family members, with additional magical materials, in ordinary bark barrels, thus transforming these containers into objects with sacred qualities. Family leaders then kept barrels holding these important ancestral relics in secluded quarters. During times of crisis families brought the barrels together in the cult place, a clearing in the forest. There, to the sound of drums, they showed the contents to those about to be initiated into the family cult. At the same time they performed rites to increase the power of the relics and their guardian figures."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 14 Jan 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 3
place: label: Place
content: Gabon, Africa
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Fang
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 025654
label: USNM Number
content: E164870-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Basket
physicalDescription: label: Height
content: 48 cm