Very Old, Very Primitive Hand-card Figure with Marvelous Face white bird alternately

alternately

along with the right edge of the photo

Smaller 3" across and  5/16" thick

Blue green paint under the gold and cream

making it in many senses all about its materiality

Very Old, Very Primitive Hand-card Figure with Marvelous Face white bird alternatelyI don't know the origins of this one, but clearly it is quite old, the wood worn very smooth, and with some remnants of a sort of bittersweet paint visible on both the head and the body. The carving of the lower body suggests it might once have slide inside of something else, or perhaps was wrapped in cloth perhaps a fertility fetish figure of sorts. Whatever the case, to my eye it doesn't get much better than that very primitively carved face. And