Dogon Seated Female Figure

Chin on hand, knees drawn up: the oldest pose of thinking.

It recurs in Dogon art, where smiths made small cast figures of people and animals for personal and ritual use. This seated woman, from Mali, dates to the 20th century and stands only three inches tall, one arm on a knee, hand raised to her chin, her long head turned slightly upward.

Small breasts, round ears and fine incised lines across the body remain legible. The dark gray metal is crusted with sandy earth in the hollows, which gives the tiny figure a strong sense of age.

She has been thinking a long while.