Large and very old TIV sculpture from Nigeria

Spectacular African sculpture probably from the 19th century or even older
in very hard wood, accidents on the feet
Very old time erosion
Northern Nigeria TIV
height 92cm
Apparent dorsal ridge, pronounced female sex
a hole is drilled at the top of the skull which was surely to fix a headdress made of feathers, braids and raffias
The Tiv are a people of West Africa. They constitute about 2.5% of the total population of Nigeria, and a total number of 2.2 million individuals in the whole of Nigeria and Cameroon. The traditional lands of the Tiv are found in the states of Benue, Taraba and Nassarawa in the eastern part of Nigeria. The Tiv are Christians and animists.
Most Tivs value genealogy. The genealogical descent is made in relation to the father. The common ancestor of all Tivs would be an individual, himself bearing the name of Tiv. The Tiv ancestor, had two sons- Con chongo and Ipusu), who created two Tiv ancestries, MbaChongo for Con Chongo and MbaPusu for Ipusu, in which all the Tivs recognize themselves. The MbaChongo and the MbaPusu then divide into large branches, which themselves are divided into smaller ones. The smallest branch, which is the smallest lineage is called "ipaven". Members of an ipaven tend to live together. A community resulting from an ipaven living together is called "Tar". This form of social organization, called in English "segmentary lineage" ("Segmented lineage"?), is found almost everywhere in the world. However, this has been much studied in traditional African societies (Middleton and Tait 1958). The Tiv are the best-known example from West Africa, thanks to the ethnological work of Laura Bohannan (1952) and Paul and Laura Bohannan (1953). In East Africa the best known example of "segmentary lineage" is that of the Nuer, studied in 1940 by Evans-Pritchard.
The Tivs are considered a Bantu people.
This sculpture was on display at the National Museum in Reykjavik from March 17 to April 29, 2007
and appears in the catalog written by Pierre Amrouche "Ancestral Africa", editions of the National Museums of Iceland
reproduced on page 39 figure 14. (catalog delivered with)
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