{"id":1957,"date":"2017-05-19T18:58:56","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T23:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/?p=1957"},"modified":"2026-07-13T12:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:58:07","slug":"boli-ritual-object-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/boli-ritual-object-79\/","title":{"rendered":"Bamana Boli Ritual Object \u2013 Meaningful Materials (79)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bamana Boli Ritual Object \u2013 Meaningful Materials (79)\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B771Ya0_hR4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_1959\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1959\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/bamana-boli-ritual-object-meaningful-materials-79\/ep79-boli-1961-1177\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1959\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1959\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/ep79-boli-1961.1177.jpg\" alt=\"Ritual Object (Boli), Bamana, Mali, Mid-19th\/early 20th century, Art Institute of Chicago, 1961.1177\" width=\"800\" height=\"636\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/ep79-boli-1961.1177.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/ep79-boli-1961.1177-300x239.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/ep79-boli-1961.1177-768x611.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1959\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ritual Object (Boli), Bamana, Mali, Mid-19th\/early 20th century, Art Institute of Chicago, 1961.1177<\/figcaption><\/figure>How do artists&#8217; choices of materials assign identity and meaning to works of art? How does meaning assign material? In this excerpt from one of my museum tours, I explore the meaningful materials in a Boli Ritual Object of the Bamana people in Mali, Africa. This recording comes complete with all the juicy, unscripted, live-action museum gallery accents including background chatter and beeping proximity alarms.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.artic.edu\/aic\/collections\/artwork\/154023\">Permanent collection label:<\/a><br \/>\nBamana sculpture often functions as a mediating force between the spirit and human realms. Ritual objects, such as this amorphously shaped boli, are commissioned and cared for by age-grade associations. A boli has a wood core wrapped with cotton cloth, into which spiritually charged packets are bound. Sacrificial materials, including animal blood and grains, are applied to its surface, giving it a crusty exterior. These sacrifices symbolize the layering of secret knowledge, imbuing the boli with nyama (life force). A boli is stored with other sacred objects in a shrine house and may only be seen by members of the association to which it belongs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[515],"tags":[36,530,528,527,526,531,517,529,521],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1957"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1957"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2024,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1957\/revisions\/2024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientartpodcast.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}