Ancestor Figure with Frogs, Dogon. Mali

Ancestor Figure with Frogs, Dogon. Mali
African Tribal Art: Dogon People, Mali: Nommo Figure with Frogs, 19th/20th Century. Carved wood. The highly unusual form of this sculpture appears to reference Dogon creation myths, where the original Nommo ancestors required a wet environment.

From Wikipedia: ...In the latter part of the 1940s, French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen (who had been working with the Dogon since 1931) wrote that they were the recipients of additional, secret mythologies, concerning the Nommo. The Dogon reportedly related to Griaule and Dieterlen a belief that the Nommos were inhabitants of a world circling the star Sirius (see the main article on the Dogon for a discussion of their astronomical knowledge). The Nommos descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder. After arriving, the Nommos created a reservoir of water and subsequently dived into the water. The Dogon legends state that the Nommos required a watery environment in which to live.