FEATURE FIG. 18 (right): Female fi gure. Mumuye, Nigeria. Wood, metal. H: 127 cm. Private collection, courtesy Bernard de Grunne. Photo: © Roger Asselberghs, courtesy Bernard de Grunne, Brussels. FIG. 19 (far right): Figure. Mumuye, Nigeria. Wood. H: 91.5 cm. Private collection, courtesy Johann Levy. Photo: © Dominique and Edwin Cohas. 138 ferent names given to wood carvings—such as jagana, lagana, and janari—and “the formal attributes of the sculptures with which they were associated.” According to Maesen’s fi eld notes, statues also appeared at “fertility festivals” and were used as supernatural weapons during combat. The festivals were called Ushavuko or Gana and occurred on an annual or biennial basis, depending on the location. Used with the aim of increasing both crops and game, the statues were mostly identifi ed as female and called sukwava, which was also the name of a type of vertical mask used for healing purposes among the Tavo subgroup (Strybol 1997: 240n12). According to Strybol (2013: 148), however, the sukp(w)a fi gure and sukwava mask should not be confused, and contrary to what his team member Maesen claims, the term sukwava was never used for fi gures. Among the many other functions recorded by Maesen, fi gures were also assigned to protect one’s hamlet, received oaths both from witnesses and the accused during a court case, and served as toys for girls (Herreman 1985: 11). Maesen mentions a female fi gure called lapa that was owned and used by a healer in the village of Kugong. It was smeared with medicine called jema or jama (the sap of a cactus plant called geng), which enabled the fi gure to speak and reveal the causes of the illness as well as dictate possible remedies or fi nes (Maesen 1985: 12). Strybol (2013: 148) points out that the term lapa was specifi c to the eastern Mumuye region, and he explains that the rubbing of the fi gure’s surface would cause the transferal of the patient’s illness or complaint (see also Strybol 1985: 49n52). The “bewildering constellation of functions” (Rubin 1981: 158) of Mumuye fi gures requires more research but can defi nitely be better understood if the sculptural art we currently associate with the Mumuye label is placed within a broader historical and cultural framework. Not only should the longstanding rapport between the Mumuye and their Jukun and Chamba neighbors account for some of the variety, the internal relationships between the various Mumuye subgroups cannot be underestimated in explaining the complex situation of formal and functional variation. As Marla Berns (1985: 89) writes, the “isolation and autonomy of dis-
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