Diviner's Belt
Baule
1900–1975
- Medium
- Leather, fur, gourd, shell, and wood
- Dimensions
- 24.2 × 90.2 × 12.7 cm (9 1/2 × 35 1/2 × 5 in.)
- Genre
- leather
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
leatherFurshell (animal material)woodshellwood (plant material)bauleafrican Artarts of AfricaCoastal West Africagourdritual objectscostume
About
This belt may have belonged to a diviner whose skills derived from a close relationship with a wilderness spirit. Special training allows diviners to work in concert with such spirits to reveal the sources of human illness and trouble. Wilderness spirits often ask the people they possess to have unique objects like this elaborate belt, or weapons [see 1999.380], made for them, to be displayed during a diviner’s public trance performances.
