This sculpture is a type of bowl used by the Dogon people. According to Dogon tradition, cups of this type were often sculpted for a hogon at the time of his installation as a chief, priest and leader of a village or section of a village. Sometimes the cup or bowl used by his predecessor was transferred to him ceremonially at this time.
From a functional point of view these cups often serve as storage places for a variety of things including butter and tobacco. They often depict the hogon seated on top of either a horse or a donkey. Oftentimes the animal depicted is difficult to discern stylistically. At a different level of interpretation the seated figure represents not merely a hogon but rather the first Dogon, i.e. Lebe, the first man who died and who introduced death to mankind.
