An Akuaba fertility puppet, Ghana, standing on her two feet, legs slightly bent, prominent buttocks, a protruding stomach, pointed breasts, the bent arms with hands turned towards the sky, a ringed neck, a large disk shaped head with a small mouth on the bottom, thin nose, crescent shaped eyebrows, almond shaped eyes, both cheeks have a different symbols on them. Certificate of provenance. "Disk-headed akuaba figures remain one of the most recognizable forms in African art. Akua ba are used in a variety of contexts; primarily, however, they are consecrated by priests and carried by women who hope to conceive a child. The flat, disklike head is a strongly exaggerated convention of the Akan ideal of beauty: a high, oval forehead, slightly flattened in actual practice by gentle modeling of an infant's soft cranial bones. The flattened shape of the sculpture also serves a practical purpose, since women carry the figures against their backs wrapped in their skirt, evoking the manner that infants are carried. The rings on the figure's neck are a standard convention for rolls of fat, a sign of beauty, health, and prosperity in Akan culture. The delicate mouth of the figure is small and set low on the face. The small scars just discernible below the eyes of this figure refer to a local medical practice as protection against convulsions. Most akua ba have abstracted horizontal arms and a cylindrical torso with simple indications of the breasts and navel; the torso ends in a base as opposed to human legs." Source MET Museum, NY.