Fang seated Female Reliquary Figure

This is a powerful female reliquary figure, she has large pendant oval breasts as a symbol of fecundity. Though the ancestor cult was predominantly a male activity, the reliquary figures, such as this one, were often female. According to Fernandez, “despite its exaltation of maleness, patrilineage is dependent upon women for procreation. As recognition of  their service to the lineage, the craniums of women (called nyiabiang," mothers of medicine “) who made outstanding contributions to the lineage through producing many living children, by hard work, and by force of personality, could be included in the sacred receptacle” (Fernandez 1982:258).