This Dogon statue is full of wonderfully detailed surprises, from the children carried on the backs of the parents to the male smoking a pipe with his arm around the female to the ancestral figures carved in the rear base of the stool.  The close union of masculine and feminine principles of equal importance is evidenced by the vertical and horizontal symmetry of the two figures, the children carried on each of their backs and the man’s embrace of the woman.  The entire statue is etched in the traditional geometric motif of the Dogon and stands almost three (3) feet tall.