This is a wooden Asmat ancestor carving which was produced in Papua New Guinea in the latter half of the twentieth century. It is carved from a heavier grade of wood and is carved in the depiction of a female standing with one hand at the hip and one bent across the chest. The figure’s feet are conjoined at the bottom with a wedge meant for plunging the piece into soft mud. The legs and sides of the chest feature carved designs, perhaps a stylistic form of muscle definition. The head is long and finely detailed. It features a jagged hairstyle, short nose, small mouth, shallow brow, and ears. The eyes are pits with two spherical carvings inset into them. The face gives off a sense of sadness or contemplation. The entire piece is unpainted and shows no signs of previous pigments being applied.
In much of Asmat culture, carvings for the dead and recently-deceased are produced for funerary events and festivals. After recent deaths, carvings are produced and placed in front of the deceased’s house in the form of a mock battle while community members carry out headhunting raids to seize an enemy head in exchange for the person that died. Death in Asmat culture is believed to never be accidental; it is the result of either headhunting or sorcery, and creates an imbalance in society which must be remedied by the collection of compensating enemy heads. Once this imbalance is remedied, carvings such as this are discarded in the sago forests so that the spirits which inhabit them may rejuvenate the sago trees.
Colors: Brown
