Fang Reliquary Guardian Figure (Eyema-o-Byeri) songdynasty Families honor them with prayers

Families honor them with prayers and offerings of millet beer (lwanga) and cattle dung

Miniature models such as this one were often placed in tombs as symbolic offerings

The leg bone of a criminal or a person who died a violent death is preferred

Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals

While its precise meaning is uncertain

Fang Reliquary Guardian Figure (Eyema-o-Byeri) songdynasty Families honor them with prayersFang people, early 20th century, Cameroon or Northern Gabon, Central Africa Magnificent old male ancestor figure, eyema o byeri (also biyema biyeri or nlo byeri), carved from a single piece of hardwood and originally mounted atop a cylindrical bark reliquary. Shown in a lightly flexed stance, the figure subtly shifts its weight to the proper right, a remnant of its earlier conception as a seated formevident in the abbreviated, powerful thighs