1985.49.108

Collection type

Object

Description

Two human figures of wood, linked by an iron chain through their legs. Recorded as used in the practice of obeah.

Long description

Amulet. Two human figures of wood, linked by an iron chain through their legs. One figure has a cowrie shell and two pieces of ?bone or animal tooth fixed to the front of the body with mud or resin. The other figure has two faces and a small wooden ball and a faceted glass bead around the neck, attached with metal wire bound with a piece of textile. Both figures have glass eyes. They are connected by an iron chain, from which two padlocks and a small key are hanging. The smaller of the padlocks had two star-shapes and the words 'Hand made' stamped onto it. [El.B 20/11/2009]

Geographical reference

Jamaica

Latin America and the Caribbean > Caribbean > Jamaica

Person

Field collector Robert Straker Turton

PRM source Wellcome Institute

PRM source Wellcome Historical Medical Museum

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1914

Date collected

By 1914

Acquisition information

Transferred: 1985

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Material Iron Metal, Material Glass, Material Cowrie Shell, Material Bone, Material Tooth, Process Carved, Process Bound, Process Glued, Process Machine-made

Dimensions

Height: max 70 mm larger padlock, Length: max 270 mm total, Height: max 46 mm total, Width: max 190 mm total, Height: max 155 mm one-faced figure, Height: max 164 mm two-faced figure, Height: max 42 mm smaller padlock

Object numbers

Accession number: 1985.49.108 Other numbers: R 15215 1936 759

Research and responses

This object was researched by Dr Jane Webster between October-December 2023 as part of her Visiting Research Fellowship at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. Dr Webster was exploring objects in the Pitt Rivers Museum collection which relate to the Transatlantic slave trade. Writing about this object, Dr Webster highlights that "the PRM curates several objects employed in the belief systems of enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Caribbean. Amongst these is an object used in Obeah, an African-based religion practiced in Jamaica. It was donated to the Museum in 1914 by a Dr R.S. Turton: almost certainly the district medical officer of that name who worked for the Jamaica Medical Service from 1894-1914. It comprises two carved, wooden, anthropomorphic figures, connected at the legs by an iron chain, from which two padlocks and a tiny key are suspended. The smaller of the two figures is double-faced and is likely intended to represent an Obeah practitioner, a spiritual healer and diviner considered to have the gift of second sight, and thus to be a ‘four-eyed’ or ‘two-headed’ person. This is a rare and important object: one that reminds us that Transatlantic slavery will never be ‘history’. Its legacies are with us today in so many ways, and not least in the belief systems that were brought to the Caribbean by enslaved Africans and are still practiced today". See RDF for a copy of Dr Webster's article written for the PRM Members' Magazine in which she discusses this work further.

Associated publications

Reference: Finding the Forgotten: Locating Transatlantic Slavery in The Pitt Rivers Museum Collection, Main author: Jane Webster, 2025, Page: 123-125, Page illustrated: 124, Catalogue number: Figure 9

Search terms: Religion, Figure, Lock, Amulet, Padlock, Key