This is a wooden Asmat sago platter carved from the wood of a sago tree in Papua New Guinea. It features a symmetrical pattern of a sago tree on its front curved surface. The design is carved half an inch into the piece. The fronds are painted red and the backdrop is painted white. The sides of the piece are carved in an elaborate swirling pattern, the grooves of which are painted white. These swirls run around the entire band of the piece’s exterior surface. The handle of the platter is carved in the shape of a male face. It features an elongated nose, wide mouth, sunken eyes, and prominent brow. Across the cheeks are each two trenches resembling scars or facepaint. The head was likely originally painted all white, but the pigments have since faded. The bottom surface of the platter is very roughly carved. It features no smooth surface area and is completely unpainted.
The pattern of the sago tree represents the value which Asmat peoples place on the sago tree, both for food and for building materials. The sago features prominently in many Asmat myths, including how the Great Woodcarver Fumeripits created humanity out of the wood of sago trees. Pieces such as this were used for serving and eating sago at meals, in addition to human brains and Capricorn beetles. When missionaries began banning the practice of headhunting in the late twentieth century, many Asmat societies saw an increase in popularity of the Capricorn beetle as a ceremonial food. It is commonly thought that this is due in part to the resemblance of the beetle’s larval form to human brains.
The white pigments used in painting this piece and others like it is called mbi, and is created through a process in which mussel shells are burnt into ash and mixed with clay. The red pigment is known as wasah, which is made out of red clay and mud found upstream and at riverheads. The red coloration is associated with the myth of Ofomin, a featureless man who resembled the trunk of a sago tree. Ofomin was murdered by his wife and the man who desired her; his blood ran into the ground and mixed with the water to form red clay.
Colors: Red, White, Brown
