M0014164: Ancestral effigies, Kafiristan

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Two ancestral effigies from Kafiristan (now Nuristan Province, Afghanistan). Models of the life-sized figures which are placed outside box graves on hillsides one year after death. Offerings of food, bows and arrows are made to them, and public disasters are attributed to the mishandling of them. The equestrian figures represent males and the seated figures represent females. The items were purchased at auction by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in 1932 and accessioned in 1936 (accession numbers R3601/1936 and R3605/1936). They are not held by Wellcome Collection.

M0014164: Ancestral effigies, Kafiristan

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