Fon Bocio Wood Male Guardian Figure on Pole, Benin, Mid 20th C.

West Africa, Republic of Benin, Fon or related peoples. A carved wooden bocio in the form of a standing nude male with a boldly rendered phallus. The figure rises from an elongated post that let it be planted in the earth. Sculptures of this type were set at the entrance to a village or house to ward off threats, both physical and spiritual. They acted as watchful sentinels charged with protective power. The name joins two Fon words: bo, a spell or empowered object, and cio, a corpse or cadaver. A bocio is therefore a carved body that stands lifeless until ritual activation gives it purpose. Its sexuality is not decoration. It concentrates vital force and confrontational potency at the threshold, where a guardian is meant to face down intruders rather than charm them. In the Vodun religious culture of southern Benin and neighboring Togo, bocio work alongside other empowered objects (bo) to protect, heal, or redirect harm. Suzanne Preston Blier made the term widely known in the field in African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power (1995). She describes these figures as receptacles whose effectiveness came less from carved refinement than from activation, often through added materials such as cord, cloth, or sacrificial substances. Phallic guardians at village and household thresholds also connect to the wider Fon and Ewe veneration of Legba, the trickster deity of crossroads and entrances, whose shrines traditionally stand at those same boundaries. The carver's emphasis on sexual vigor fits a broader belief that generative energy, aimed outward, can repel danger. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids. Item # 204105

Estimate:$350

View all items fromArtemis Fine ArtsorEthnographic