The Use of Animals in Birth Protection Rituals and Possible Uses of Stone Figurines from the Central Sahel

Abstract

This article will use fresh ethnographic testimony from the Sahel concerning the role of animals as spiritual protectors during births to advance an hypothesis that figurines in several groups of stone sculptures from the southcentral Sahara or the adjacent Sahel may have been used in historic, protohistoric, and even, in the case of one group (IV), prehistoric times as birthing amulets. It will also try to answer questions about the true origins of the deracinated artifacts, which have been sold with vague or even misleading proveniences by dealers in Europe and Africa (Cotter 2012). The purpose of this effort is to give researchers, institutions, and governments a better idea of where illicit excavations might be taking place, so they can refine their efforts to find the sculptures’ sources. Unless this is done with considerable urgency, the sites where the figurines are coming from will almost certainly be thoroughly pillaged, robbing both the sculptures and everything associated with them of their proper place in African history.