Doll representing ancestor

For generations, Papuans living in New Guinea lived in small and isolated villages, consisting of several or dozens of huts built on stilts and thatched with palm leaves or kunai grass. Against the background of modest residential buildings, the so-called Spirit Houses, Melanesian temples and at the same time indigenous ‘town halls’, where the initiated men spent most of their time, stood out for their size and richness of decoration. Here they celebrated rituals, discussed essential community issues, passed judgements, made ritual objects or simply had a pleasant time relaxing, talking and smoking pipes. Cult objects used during rituals and objects endowed with extraordinary mana power were kept inside the temples. Uninitiated people, including women and children, were not allowed to touch them or even be among them. The cult objects were made only by men - the guardians of the cult, who were able to control their power. Papuans believe that people are also endowed with mana. It is all knowledge and power concentrated in the human head during life released at the moment of death. These beliefs are reflected in Papuan art. The images of ancestors usually have disproportionately large heads to the rest of the body, which often seems frail and is depicted very schematically. The presented doll depicting an ancestor was made exclusively from plant fibres, which makes it unique, rarely seen in museum collections. Indeed, the primary material of the New Guinea craftsmen was bone and polychrome or blackened wood.

Katarzyna Findlik-Gawron