Ancestral Figure
1800–1899
- Medium
- painted wood with fiber and tapa cloth
- Dimensions
- Overall: 105.4 x 12.2 x 12.8 cm (41 1/2 x 4 13/16 x 5 1/16 in.)
- Genre
- Sculpture
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Styles
Tags
Melanesia, Papua New Guinea, Sepik River region, 19th century
About
In the Sepik River region, village social and ceremonial life centers on the men's house. Ritual objects such as slit gongs, orators' stools, and flutes are stored there; the most sacred objects are kept hidden from women and children. Carved wooden figures, which probably represent ancestors, were preserved in the men's houses.