Documented paths

Fang reliquaries: byeri figures and heads

The catalogue records nlo byeri heads and eyema byeri figures, as well as an ensemble named Byeri on a reliquary. Six references offer a route between these designations and their photographs. This selection is restricted to records attributed to the Fang; neighbouring peoples are not automatically included.

In RLC-59, Arrimadas distinguishes the figure from the container it guards. That distinction provides a useful way to approach the photographs: the object pictured today and the historical ensemble described are not necessarily identical. Each entry preserves the complete account and the reference needed to follow that difference.

Eyema byeri on a reliquary · RLC-59 — Eyema byeri on a reliquaryRLC-59

Documented context

The Met connects Fang byeri with continuity between generations and describes heads or figures placed above bark containers holding ancestral relics. This explains an ensemble; it does not establish that a particular figure here retains remains or prove its provenance.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Eyema byeri, Okak-Fang

Reading the catalogue

Original historical document in Spanish

El llamado culto del Byeri o rito Melan es una ceremonia familiar que inicia a los neófitos en el culto de los antepasados tras unas ceremonias de purificación.

Jesús Arrimadas Saavedra · original catalogue · RLC-59

This quotation retains the archive’s wording. Editorial context and comparative sources do not certify the objects’ attribution, age or provenance.