In the ritual arts of the Fon of present-day Benin and in the wider religious formations often grouped under the term Vodun (frequently rendered “Voodoo” in diasporic and popular contexts), assemblage sculptures composed of heterogeneous materials—animal bones, textiles, cords, metal fixtures such as padlocks, and carved wooden elements—operate as active ritual agents rather than as inert representations. Commonly described in the literature as bocio (from Fon, often glossed as “empowered figure”), these objects condense forces through the deliberate accumulation, binding, and sealing of substances considered potent within a given cosmological framework. The presence of a carved human head in such an assemblage situates the work within a spectrum of figures that materialize personhood, intention, and relationality, while the addition of bone and other organic remains indexes a traffic between visible and invisible domains. Incl stand. Animal bone in Fon/Vodun practice is neither a neutral remnant nor a purely symbolic token. It is understood as a residue of vitality, a material that has participated in life processes and thus retains a capacity to anchor or conduct force (ase, in related Yoruba religion terminology, though lexical equivalences vary). When incorporated into a ritual sculpture, bone can function as a conduit to specific domains—ancestral, chthonic, or linked to particular deities (vodun)—depending on the species, the circumstances of acquisition, and the ritual expertise of the officiant. The accentuation of bones within the assemblage, whether through their placement, exposure, or binding, often signals an intensification of efficacy: bones may be positioned to “speak,” to pierce, or to guard, their hardness and durability contrasting with the more mutable qualities of cloth and cord. This contrast is not merely formal; it encodes a logic of containment and activation in which rigid elements stabilize and focus energies that are otherwise volatile. Textiles and strings—sometimes layered, knotted, or wound tightly around the figure—perform acts of binding that are both literal and performative. Wrapping is a means of enclosing charged substances (bo, medicines) within the body of the object, protecting them from dissipation while also marking the figure as sealed and operative. Knots can index specific invocations or constraints, each tie corresponding to a spoken formula or an intention fixed in material form. The padlock, a striking modern addition in many such sculptures, extends this logic of closure into a register of mechanical security. Its presence is not anachronistic but evidences the adaptive capacity of Vodun practice to incorporate industrial materials into established ritual grammars. Locked elements may signify the containment of dangerous forces, the fixing of a contract, or the prevention of unauthorized access—by humans or by spirits—to the contents and capacities of the figure. The carved human head anchors the assemblage in a recognizable anthropomorphic schema, yet it should not be read as portraiture in a Western sense. Rather, it provides a locus for address and a surface upon which signs of activation—pigments, encrustations, attachments—can accumulate. Eyes, mouths, and cranial forms are often emphasized as points of exchange, where offerings are received and commands are issued. In some instances, the head mediates between the internalized substances (the bo concealed within wrappings or cavities) and the external world, articulating the figure’s agency in social and ritual contexts. Scholarly accounts have long wrestled with the terminology applied to such objects. The colonial-era designation “fetish,” derived from the Portuguese feitiço, historically carried pejorative connotations that obscured indigenous epistemologies. Contemporary scholarship tends to retain the term critically, if at all, preferring emic categories such as bocio or more neutral descriptors like “power figure.” Nonetheless, the older vocabulary persists in museum catalogues and art historical discourse, necessitating a careful parsing of its implications. Within a Fon/Vodun framework, the efficacy of these sculptures is not attributed to irrational belief but to a coherent system of material-semiotic operations in which substances, forms, and actions are calibrated to produce effects in the world. The accent of bones within these assemblages thus participates in a broader poetics of aggregation and intensification. Bones, fabrics, cords, metal locks, and carved wood are not arbitrarily combined; they are selected and arranged through ritual knowledge that understands how different materials attract, hold, and direct forces. The resulting object is processual, often accruing additional layers over time as it is fed, repaired, or reactivated. Its surface may appear dense, even opaque, to an արտաքին viewer, yet for practitioners it remains legible as a record of interventions and a map of capacities. Placed within museum contexts, such a sculpture invites a double reading. On one hand, it can be approached formally, as an assemblage that juxtaposes textures—smooth wood, brittle bone, soft cloth, cold metal—and orchestrates them into a compelling visual structure. On the other, and more critically, it must be understood as an active participant in a living religious system, whose meanings are not exhausted by display. The padlock does not merely signify closure; it enacts it. The knots do not simply decorate; they bind. The bones do not allude abstractly to death; they mobilize the residues of life. To attend to these dimensions is to recognize the sculpture not as a static artifact but as a node within ongoing practices of making, binding, and activating the forces that constitute the social and spiritual worlds of Fon/Vodun communities. References Blier, Suzanne Preston. African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. Davis, Wade. The Serpent and the Rainbow. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985. Drewal, Henry John. Sacred Waters: Arts for Mami Wata and Other Divinities in Africa and the Diaspora. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. Farris Thompson, Robert. Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy. New York: Vintage Books, 1984. Maupoil, Bernard. La Géomancie à l’ancienne Côte des Esclaves. Paris: Institut d’Ethnologie, 1943. Rush, Dana. “Efficacy and the Object: Yoruba and Fon Power Figures.” African Arts 33, no. 2 (2000): 36–49. CAB45212