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Abstract

This essay explores the visual articulation of protection, family care, nurturing, and freedom through the lens of two cloth ancestral figures from early 1920s Edgefield, South Carolina. The doll-like reliquaries, made by healer Ellen Weaver, embody materials from the graves of relatives and engage practices rooted in African American rootworking and conjure traditions. The figures are distinct in that they are small doll forms made to travel with their owners. Created after the accidental death of Ellen’s 2-year-old granddaughter, Rose, the dolls have moved with her sister Lillie Mae from Edgefield to Greens Cut, Georgia, to Queens, New York, and Cleveland, Ohio, where they reside with Lillie Mae’s granddaughter Nancy Stroman. Nearly eighty-five years old, the figures reveal Ellen’s deep commitment in her ability to artistically manipulate supernatural powers and harness the power of the family’s ancestral spirits to protect, heal, and inspire her descendants.

Keywords

African American material culture African American religion African diaspora material culture dolls family memory reliquaries South Carolina

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