Diné (Navajo) Wood Carvings Doll Figurines [SOLD]

The Diné believe that an illness is caused when a person has behaved in a manner prohibited by supernatural sanctions and that such human mistakes must be ceremonially corrected if illness is to be cured.  There are elaborate 9-day ceremonies to do such but there are also smaller ceremonies that may or may not be carried out during the more elaborate one.

Carved wooden ceremonial figurines are often used in the smaller ceremonials.  They have been erroneously named “dolls” but that is an all-encompassing title.  Such “dolls” are carved from wood using a pocket knife.  Their details are rudimentary but sufficient to determine they are human figurines.  Some, as in the case of this pair, have simple faces with inset eyes of jet or other material.  This pair is covered with a watery paint that has dried and crackled.  The hair is painted black on both figurines.

Turquoise, jet, coral or other stones may be inserted into the figurine at specific body parts such as heart, kidneys, feet, etc.  The smaller figurine of this pair has three stones inserted—one at the heart and two on the back at perhaps the lungs and kidneys, and one black stone in each eye. There are no body inserts on the larger figurine except for black stones in each eye socket.

These Navajo wooden figurines are tangible evidence of a particular type of common, widespread, inexpensive and brief curing ritual used for children and adults with the purpose of correcting and nullifying human error in behavior that has caused a person to become ill.  The dolls are visible items with which the patient can visualize himself being cured by the medicine man conducting the ceremony.  Their function is to exorcise the sickness from the patient, thus removing the power of the sickness that has possessed the patient.

Condition:  very good condition.  No damage to wooden figures

Provenance:  from a gentleman in California

Recommended Reading:  Navajo Figurines Called Dolls by Kelly, Land, and Walters