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1. Figures for a Trance Diviner: Couple
Baule, Côte d'Ivoire
Wood, pigment, beads, iron; male: H. 55.4 cm (21 7/8 in.); female: H. 52.5 cm (20 5/8 in.)
19th–20th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1969
1978.412.390,391

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1. Figures for a Trance Diviner: Couple

rom a Baule perspective, human experience evolves out of and remains inextricably tied to the ancestral world (blolo)—referred to as "the village of truth"—which controls and determines the fate of the living.1 Blolo affects the quality of harvests or the availability of game as well as the physical well-being and fertility of members of the community. The underlying causes and solutions to collective and individual difficulties that arise are relayed by diviners. This information is revealed to them by the omniscient gods and ancestors within blolo through various methods, such as dreams, dances performed while in trance, and several divinatory instruments (including one activated by mice; see cat. no. 17).

Baule diviners (komien) are individuals that have been selected by spirits of the earth (asye usu) as mediums through whom important insights may be conveyed while in a trance state. Any individual may be selected to fulfill this role as seer. While an initial experience of this kind is invariably manifested as a dramatic possession, professional success requires an extended apprenticeship that can last years. One must learn the system of augurs, invocations, dances, and chants and develop the skill necessary to control the state of awareness through which the spirits communicate. On becoming initiated, an individual formalizes an agreement with the gods by honoring them through sacrifices and observing a special code of behavior. Successful komien may ultimately achieve renown and financial compensation,2 but they have no political authority in their own right.

Critical to a komien's professional practice is ownership, either through inheritance or purchase, of artifacts required by the spirits.3 Asye usu are associated with untamed wilderness–also referred to as "the bush"–and various elements of the landscape. They are conceived of as grotesque beings whose demeanor is erratic and unpredictable.4 Diviners commission figurative works as a means of attracting their attention and bringing them out of the bush and into the village. The sculpture is described as the asye usu's "stool," because the spirit uses it as a resting point.5 Such works represent idealized male or female figures in their prime, which the asye usu consider desirable forms to inhabit.6 Often an individual work will subsequently be provided with a companion of the opposite sex, further enhancing its appeal and efficacy. Details such as posture, cicatrization markings, bodily ornaments, and coiffure may be suggested to the diviner by the asye usu.7 The more elaborate the ornamental and decorative features of an individual work, the more time was invested in its execution by a sculptor, and the greater the expense to its owner. Bodily adornments are especially significant, because they confer on the wild and unruly asye usu culturally desirable attributes of civilization.

The elegant and refined couple shown here is especially successful in capturing such an ideal. Their figures are slender, with long torsos and muscular legs that are slightly flexed. Both reflect the same tranquil meditative attitude of contemplation, with their eyes closed and hands resting on their abdomens. They are symmetrical and fluid in design, and their facial features are described with precision and great attention to detail. The recessed eye sockets are accentuated with a layer of white kaolin, reflecting the practice of diviners, who apply kaolin to their own eyes and lips to enable them to see and hear the spirits while in trance.8 This state is induced through exposure to sculptural representations of this kind and songs accompanied by striking an iron gong with an elegantly carved striker (see cat. no. 25).

The female figure is slightly smaller, with finely carved breasts that extend downward. Her torso is adorned with three small, raised points across the chest and a vertical column of points topped by several diagonal stripes. Her hair is arranged in an elaborate coiffure of sagittal tresses—patterned bands pulled back in parallel rows. She wears delicate strands of seed beads around her neck and hips, and metal bands and strands of beads around her ankles. The male figure's slightly larger scale is accentuated by the manner in which his hair has been dressed in two conical masses projecting from his forehead and crown. His facial features diverge from those of his female companion through the long vertical extension of his beard. Bodily adornments include beaded strands around his neck, hips, and ankles. Both figures' feet rest on circular bases and are covered with an incrustation of sacrificial matter. From time to time, sacrificial offerings of blood are sprinkled on the feet (but almost never applied to the face, in order that the work's aesthetic refinement not be marred).9

These elaborate figurative sculptures were originally designed to serve as a diviner's primary asset. The level of their artistry directly affects their owner's ability to prophesize by seducing nature spirits and inducing them to divulge insights into the human condition. When used by Baule diviners, such works not only flatter the asye usu but add to the theatrical spectacle of a public pronouncement of a divinatory revelation. They are housed in a shrine in the diviner's sleeping chamber, and are prominently displayed during the enactment of ritual performances in order to impress the community at large. Their aesthetic quality dazzles potential clients with the caliber and sophistication of the instruments associated with a particular specialist, and advertises the diviner's success as an intermediary with the spirit world. The enthusiasm of an audience's response in turn reinforces the asye usu's desire to assist people. Consequently, diviners prosper by commissioning superlative figures as divinatory instruments, and this allows them the means to acquire additional works of even greater accomplishment from established artists. Ownership of extraordinary objects thus directly affects a diviner's professional standing and enhances public perception of his or her talent.10

1. Guerry 1975, pp. 138–44.

2. Ibid., p. 159; Baule 1997, pp. 224, 225, 227.

3. Baule 1997, p. 230.

4. Guerry 1975, p. 151; Baule 1997, pp. 224, 232.

5. Baule 1997, p. 332.

6. Ibid., p. 230.

7. Ibid., p. 231.

8. Ibid., p. 234.

9. Ibid., p. 232.

10. Ibid.