<div class="description">
A master female potter among the Asante created this clay sculpture to commemorate the departed.  While not a naturalistic portrait, this figure depicts features associated with the dead person such as coiffure or facial marks.  The rolls of flesh on the neck are a widespread artistic convention for beauty, prosperity, and well-being.  After placing the memorial in a sacred forest clearing, family members invoked the spirit of the departed and asked it to accept the sculpture and facilitate communications with ancestors.</div>
1800s <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1800-00-00T00:00:00Z/8</div>
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