sculpture

Unknown

Museum of Ethnography
Stockholm, Sweden

Skulptur/kvinnofigur skuren ur ett stycke trä. Konformad ihålig kropp, påminner om en kjol. Armar som vilar på höfterna, bröst och ansikte med ansiktsdrag skuret i relief. Ansiktet övergår i nacken till att bli en fågel som sträcker en bit ner på ryggen och tjugo centimeter ovanför kvinnofigurens huvud. Fågeln har uppåtsträckt hals och näbb. Figuren är målad i rött, svart och vitt. Typisk mellan Sepik dekor. Användningsområde okänt, men har förmodligen stått i ett Men´s house.

Details

Title: sculpture
Creator: Unknown
Location Created: Sepik river, Papua Nya Guinea
Physical Dimensions: 96 cm, 18,8 cm
External Link: Link to source
Text till utställningen Avian Allies: The pitched gable ends of ceremonial men’s houses (ngeko) in the Iatmul, Sawos and Yuat regions of the Middle Sepik were decorated with prominent carved finials depicting a bird clutching a male or female figure in its talons. Western Iatmul and Sawos ceremonial house finials often depict a male figure with the eagle rising above them. Many central Iatmul and Yuat ceremonial house finials portray a bird clutching a woman in its talons. The bird is most likely a sea eagle (gawi), a successful and effective hunter that was also viewed as a powerful headhunting symbol. Writing on man/bird finial figures from the Sepik in the 1930s, Gregory Bateson noted that the eagle was regarded as a symbol for the fighting force of the village. The eagle/woman finial also alludes to other mythological creation stories. Briefly, a mythological story still told today, tells of two sisters, one of whom was brought by the water spirit/crocodile/human male to a village beneath the river where they married. After they mated she laid two eggs, out of which hatched eagle children. These flew up through the river and settled in a tree from which they attacked and killed all the men, women, and children in the area. They eventually returned to the underwater village and caught their mother, one clasping her head in its talons, the other bearing her by her feet, and they carried her up to their tree where they killed and consumed her, only leaving her skull intact. As such, house finials connect male and female ancestral and mythical beings with an eagle that represents to strength of the village as a unit. This house finial does not bear much evidence of environmental weathering that would be expected of a finial carving exposed to the elements. Considering this and the freshness of the pigment, it is likely it was collected not long after it was made.

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