Effigy

Object/Artifact

Purdue University Galleries

Name/Title

Effigy

Entry/Object ID

1998.11.30.02

Description

Burial effigy

Acquisition

Accession

1998.11

Source or Donor

Albert R. Spalding, Virginia Spalding

Acquisition Method

Gift

Credit Line

Gift of Albert R. and Virginia Spalding

Ethnography

Cultural Region

Region

Northern Waigal Valley

Country

Afghanistan

Culture/Tribe

Nurastani

Notes

Nuristan’s Northern Waigal Valley

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Secondary Object Term

Effigy

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Sculpture, Funerary

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Funerary Objects

Nomenclature Class

Ceremonial Objects

Nomenclature Category

Category 08: Communication Objects

Dimensions

Height

12 in

Width

6-1/2 in

Material

Wood, Paint

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Cultural/Historical Context

Label

"Nuristani burial effigies are placed at the head and feet of the deceased on the lid of their coffin. These wooden effigies often characterize past ancestors, and are decorated with numerous hard edged lines carved into the surface. At times animal are incorporated into the form. These carved ornaments were used as a reminder that the spirits of an individual's past had complete control over his/her future in bodily and spritual existence. Nuristanis is an Indo-European speaking tribal group in the Hindu Kush mountains of northeastern Afghanistan, who fled the eastward spread of Islam in the 19th century. They were defeated in 1896 by the forces of Amir Abdur Rahman Khan and forced to accept Islam. "