Dwelling Place for the Spirit

Among the Akan and Fante, a kind of ceramic object called Nsodea are commonly found in burials. Fashioned to be a large, idealized representation of the deceased, an "Nsodea" consists of a representation of an individual head mounted on a hollow cylinder that can be pushed into the earth. The beauty of a high forehead and the hairstyle is emphasized in this ancestral portrait. These idealized portrait heads, when placed in the sacred forest where the abusua kuruwa also resides, were believed to hold some of the spirit of the deceased.

ODYSSEY HOME NEAR EAST Egypt GREECE ROME

© Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University,
Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester and Dallas Museum of Art
For more information please contact odyssey@emory.edu.
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