Female Fertility Figure Sculpture

$42.00 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This small resin reproduction depicts an akua ba figure, one of the most recognizable forms in African art. Consecrated by priests, such figures are carried by women who hope to conceive a child. The flat, disk-like head is an exaggerated convention of the Akan ideal of beauty, while the sculpture's flattened shape allows it to be carried against a woman's back, wrapped in her skirt. The rings on the figure's neck signify beauty, health, and prosperity in Akan culture. After influencing pregnancy, akua ba are…