Reliquary Guardian Head

This beautiful head has a compact form, with a highly polished surface. It has an unusual hairstyle. According to Louis Perrois' classification, it is called the "transverse chignon" arrangement . It is assumed that the heads with a chignon, where the hair itself was plaited close to the scalp high on the forehead, represented females, while the more richly decorated hairstyles also plaited are probably masculine, and are more common in the sculpture of the Fang, as expected in a patrilineal society. Also the heads with transverse chignon are thought to be of the Betsi tribe.