About this artwork
Created to store medicinal mixtures, this type of gourd is owned by a ritual healer and facilitates communication between the spiritual and physical worlds. Activated by prayer and music, it assists a patient’s transformation from a state of conflict or misfortune to one of well-being. Figurative stoppers often represent a spirit being that temporarily inhabits the container. As participants in coastal and inland trade networks, cultural groups throughout Tanzania imported European glass beads and routinely used white ones as eyes in their sculptures.
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Status
- On View, Gallery 137
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Department
- Arts of Africa
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Culture
- Hehe
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Title
- Medicine Container
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Place
- Tanzania (Object made in)
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Date
- Made 1900–1999
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Medium
- Gourd, wood, and glass beads
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Dimensions
- 30.5 × 11.4 cm (12 × 4 1/2 in.)
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Credit Line
- Purchased with funds provided by Jane Stroud Wright in honor of Douglas Dawson
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Reference Number
- 2017.255