EFFICACIOUS IMAGESAs odd or superstitious as it may appear to a scientific, secularview of nature, many religious images and objects arecapable of great efficacy and able to protect against evil or misfortune, promoteprosperity, heal illness, prompt fecundity, communicate favorably with the dead,or secure divine blessing. In fact, it may even be that such purposes constitute thegreatest occasion for images in religious life. The reasons for attributing this kindof power to images or sculptures are as diverse as the psychological and sociologicalmodels for explaining their appeal. To those engagedin the visual practices of efficacious images, the reasonis probably straightforward: properly crafted and consecrated,images are connected by virtue of tradition,ritual, and likeness to the realities to which they refer.They direct devotion, petition, and desire toward theirintended end. And when that end is not achieved, it is notdue to the failure of the image as a metaphysical device,but to the inappropriate ritual preparation of the imageor the petitioner, or to the intervention of another will,human or divine. Even failure affirms the cultural systemof efficacy—in the same way that a failed bridge does notmove people in an industrial society to scrap bridge-making,but to reapply the principles of engineering and themethods of construction to create a more reliable bridge.The horrific appearance of the Hindu goddess Kālīin the sculptural relief shown here (a) does not generatefear or revulsion toward the goddess among the faithfulwho bring their petitions and children before the image.Her fearsome countenance and brutal disembowelingof a figure actually suggest her vicious treatment of theevil afflicting those brought to her for healing, who will(a) A family views a sculpture of Kālī, a Hindu goddess, KaaloBhairab, Kathmandu, Nepal. [©Macduff Everton/Corbis]

f f i c a c i o u simages

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v o l u m e n i n eENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITIONEFFICACIOUS IMAGESENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION(b) LEFT. Gable figure used to thwart malicious spirits andprotect inhabitants of the house, c. eighteenth century, carvedwood, shell, human teeth, traces of red pigment, New Zealand.[Masco Collection; photograph by Dirk Baker] (c) BELOW. Venus ofWillendorf, a hand-held female fertility figure, c. 28,000–25,000

bce, carved limestone. Willendorf, Austria. [©Archivo Iconografico,S.A./Corbis]receive from her the strength she expends against theviolated figure of evil upon which she stands. Likewise,the angry intensity of a wooden figure placed on thegable of a home in New Zealand (b) was not meantto deter family or friends from entering the home, butmalicious spirits. Images charged with such tasks do soby communicating their intention and function to theirhuman users in a routine of efficacy in which intentionperforms an important role. The medium of their efficacyis thought and feeling. Their very presence affirmsthe cultural logic of an entire way of life as the objectsare viewed daily by their users and their neighbors.Images are used for a great variety of purposes.Neolithic peoples in northern Europe probably usedhand-held fertility figures like the so-called Venus ofWillendorf (c) to enhance fecundity or secure safe child-EFFICACIOUS IMAGESENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION(d) RIGHT. Ushebti statue of Tshahorpata, chief of theconjurors of the goddess Sekhmet, faience, c. fourth century bce.[©Erich Lessing/Art Resource, N.Y.] (e) BELOW. Jewish hamsa amulets,used as shields against evil, nineteenth andtwentieth centuries, silver, enamel, silver onbrass. [©The Jewish Museum, N.Y./Art Resource, N.Y.]birth. Ancient Egyptians had themselves buried withsmall ceramic or wooden figures called shawabtis (d),which in the afterlife provided necessary service withfood production and preparation. They were incisedwith magical formulae and hieroglyphics that identifiedtheir purpose and ownership. Some Jews and Muslimsuse the emblematic figure of a hand—called hamsa inHebrew (e) and Arabic for “five,” often with scripturaltexts inscribed on them—to shield them from the perniciousgaze of the evil eye. The origin of the hamsa pre-EFFICACIOUS IMAGESENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITIONdates both Judaism and Islam. In Hawai’i, figures wereerected in male lodges for the purpose of protection (f ).Other images operate primarily as the means ofdirecting petitions to divine forces or ancestors. Forexample, throughout India and among Hindus aroundthe world, Gan.eśa (g) is a favorite resource for overcomingobstacles associated with any aspect of life. In a like manner,practitioners of Santería create altars to the orishas, ordeities whom they worship, such as the one shown here(h). Roman Catholics direct their petitions to Saint Jude.Buddhists in Thailand and elsewhere apply gold leaf tosculptures of the Buddha (i) as acts of personal devotionand prayer that can solicit a portion of the Buddha’s merit.Thai Buddhists hope that such a favorable karmic act willgenerate a beneficial consequence in this life or higher(f ) LEFT. Carved aumakua image, a Hawaiian deity of personalprotection, found in 1917, wood, Maui. [Masco Collection;photograph by Dirk Baker] (g) BELOW. Dancing Gan.eśa, Hinduremover of obstacles, tenth century, carved stone. [©PhiladelphiaMuseum of Art/Corbis]EFFICACIOUS IMAGES

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION(h) ABOVE. Santería altar in Havana, Cuba. [©Robert van derHilst/Corbis] (i) LEFT. Buddhists apply gold leaf to statues of theBuddha, Bangkok, Thailand. [©Nik Wheeler/Corbis]EFFICACIOUS IMAGESENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITIONrebirth in the next. Tibetan Buddhists make use of prayerwheels (j), which generate prayers at a multiplied rate asthey are spun by the faithful. In addition to these uses,images serve as devices for directing influence (maliciousor benevolent) toward another. A Congolese charm orspirit container (k), for example, is a receptacle investedwith items belonging to a petitioner or those of a targetedparty and charged with the task of exerting influence.Images are often made and used to assist with burial,memorial, and grief. Nineteenth-century American parentsoften had postmortem photographs made of theirchildren. One of these is paired here with a photograph(j) ABOVE. Buddhist pilgrims in Lhasa, Tibet, spin prayerwheels, which generate prayers at a multiplied rate. [©GalenRowell/Corbis] (k) LEFT. A nineteenth-century African Bakongosculpture of a male figure, made from wood, glass, fiber, nails,and bone. The figure includes a spirit container (nkisí) used toinstruct or admonish spirits. [©Burstein Collection/Corbis]EFFICACIOUS IMAGESENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION(l) ABOVE. Paired photographs of a young girl who lived in theUnited States during the nineteenth century. The photographon the left was taken shortly after her death. [Courtesy of Jay Ruby,Center for Visual Communication] (m) RIGHT. A Murua maskfrom New Ireland in Papua New Guinea, made from carvedwood, sea sponge, and snail opercula. Such mortuary maskswere used to remove traces of deceased relatives from the home.[Masco Collection; photograph by Dirk Baker]of the child taken during life (l). The image on the left isthe deceased, whose horizontal position in death has beenchanged to appear vertical, as if the child has not died, butposes peacefully asleep. Such imagery may have deniedthe death for grieving parents, or may have mitigated itto a peaceful slumber. If such images bring to mind thecarefully prepared image of the corpse and in some vitallytherapeutic manner replace the dead body and lost personwith a memory image, traditional inhabitants of the Melanesianisland of New Ireland used elaborate mortuarymasks (m) to remove the spiritual traces of the deceasedfrom his or her household. Dancers wearing such masksEFFICACIOUS IMAGESENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION(n) A carved wood figurehead, used in initiation ceremoniesby the Avelam people from East Sepik province in Papua NewGuinea. [Masco Collection; photograph by Dirk Baker]appeared at the home of the deceased in order to cleanseit of taboos by attracting any aspect of the dead away fromthe home to the site where the body had been cremated.Perhaps the most common use of imagery is amongrites of passage, when members of a society undergocrucial transpositions from one status or age to another.Images often serve to commemorate the event or to assistin the metaphysics of change. In the case of Papuanpeoples, ancestors must be engaged to bless and guide thepassage, to confer the new status, and to legitimate thechange by bringing the initiate into the presence of

the extended clan, represented by the totemic figures oftenincluded with such figures as the one reproduced here (n).BIBLIOGRAPHYCox, J. Halley, with William H. Davenport. Hawaiian Sculpture.Rev. ed. Honolulu, 1988.Fazzini, Richard A., James F. Romano, and Madeleine E. Cody.Art For Eternity: Masterworks from Ancient Egypt. Brooklyn,N.Y., 1999.Huyler, Stephen P. Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion. NewHaven, 1999.Pal, Pratapaditya. Desire and Devotion: Art from India, Nepal, andTibet in the John and Berthe Ford Collection. Baltimore, Md.,2001.Wardwell, Allen. Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection.Seattle and Detroit, 1994.David Morgan ()