Papua New Guinea is a land of incredible beauty, with
awesome mountains, plunging gorges and rushing rivers. It is part of
the largest non-continental island in the Pacific and is in the middle
of a long chain of islands which form part of a great arc of mountains
stretching from the Asian mainland through Indonesia and into the
South Pacific. It has more than 600 islands and is south of the
equator, some 150 kilometres north of Australia.
A Man From Highland New Guinea, decorated for festivities, photograph by Dr.
Robert Glasse, c.1960. Reproduction photo.
1a. “Man as Art” photo by Malcolm Kirk
1b. Men’s body art
Dutch explorers name the second largest island
in the world New Guinea, because it reminded them of Guinea in
Africa. They named it Ilha dos Papuas, Island of the Fuzzy-Hairs. In
New Guinea men say that the physical beauty displayed in their
dances is linked with both economic and spiritual factors. The
feathers and other decorations are a form of wealth, and therefore
marks of material success both for the individual wearing them and
for the kinsmen from whom he has borrowed some of the ornaments.
Furthermore, a good appearance is likely to magically help a man
increase his available supply of ornaments, wealth objects, and
women, who are a special form of wealth.
Finally, a beautiful appearance is
impossible without the assistance of ancestral spirits, who help a
man hunt birds for decorative plumage. The ancestors also help make
the plumage look bright, and to assure this aid, the men observe
various religious customs intended to secure ancestral blessings. If
these rituals are carried out properly, the spirits will congregate
in a man’s hair and will help him achieve his desired goals. Many
peoples believe that the head is the center of energy, with special
power ascribed to the hair. The highlands people of New Guinea see a
man’s hair as the focus of his strength. The ghosts of his ancestors
live in his hair, and a luxuriant coiffure is evidence of their
support. To enhance this strength, they augment their own hair with
wigs, combs, and other ornaments.
(1a., 1b.may show other images of men’s body art)
1a. “Man as Art,” photo by Malcolm Kirk)
1b. Huli warriors and a young Asaro mudman during a festival in the
highlands of Papua New Guinea. “Men are the objects of beauty. To
be masculine is to be well made – up” Women, though, court danger
if they are too attractive. “Men are already mortally afraid of
the power of women’s biology”.
Papua New Guinea Body Art *Slideshow of images found from Google search of: body art papua new guinea
- Dance Drum, wood, reptile skin, lime powder; Papuan area, New Guinea.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Reproduction photo.
The complicated ceremonial practices of New
Guinea people require musical accompaniment for both public and
secret rituals. Drums and other percussion instruments, as well as
whistles and flutes are used for this purpose.
Sepik mythology describes the creation of the
world. One legend tells of the crocodile who is said to have given
birth to a bird and a snake, thus forming the channel of the Sepik
Shield, wood and lime powder, Papuan area, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Reproduction photo.
The interiors of the men’s ceremonial houses
were divided by racks filled with trophy skulls of men and animals,
and decorated with oval shield-like boards carved in shallow relief.
The figures depicted appear to be protective and war-making spirits.
Carved Board, Papua, New Guinea (East Sepik Province, Kaminimbit
village.) Collected before 1924. Painted wood, H. 50” W. 13”. Vatican Museum. Reproduction photograph.
This board carved with stone tools and
perforated, at first seems to be a fanciful, random design,
difficult to interpret. It was originally painted ocher and white,
but the color has almost completely disappeared from the front, the
uppermost part of which is culminated by a large face in low relief.
Enormous eyes surrounded by white and dark of the neck is a small
pig and in the spaces between the thin body and the edges of the
slab, four large birds (perhaps) eagles are symmetrically arranged –
two facing up and two down.
The female figure depicted here is probably the
aquatic Kamboragea. However some scholars have recognized the figure
as a depiction of the tree of life. Others have seen it as an
archetypal portrayal of a cannibal, endowed with supernatural
powers, although incorporating natural forms. If this last
interpretation is correct, the board would have been used as a rack
for human trophy skulls.
Skull shrines were kept in the men’s
ceremonial house. Heads are taken on a variety of occasions, such as
initiations or the completion of a new house. Sometimes as many as
fifty or sixty skulls would be heaped up in front of a single
shrine. Each shrine was carved to represent a particular ancestor.
The islands of the Pacific are divided into
three main groups - Melanesia which lies mostly to the south of
the Equator, Micronesia which lies mainly to the north of the
Equator and Polynesia which covers a huge area to the east.
Melanesia is taken from the Greek words melas which
means black and nesos which means island. Melanesia
includes Papua, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu,
New Caledonia and Fiji. The people are very dark skinned with Afro
hair and are thought to have their origins in East Africa
migrating by ways of Indonesia.
Papua New Guinea has 1000 tribes and 700
languages, 1/4 of the world's languages are spoken in Papua New
The crocodile plays a prominent part in many of the myths of
creation of Papua New Guinea. For example, some Kiwaians believe
that their "father" was a crocodile. The myth tells how a being
called Ipila carved a human figure out of wood and brought it to
life by painting the face with sago milk. First the eyes opened,
then the nostrils quivered and the "man" made a noise like a
crocodile. His name was Nugu and he was not satisfied until Ipila
made three more men as companions for him. These men refused to
learn the things Ipila wanted to teach them and after a while two of
them became tired of only eating sago and started to kill animals
for food. Almost at once they turned into half-crocodiles. They then
tried to make some of their own kind but they found that they could
only make men because Ipila secretly altered their work. It is from
these new men that their descendants claim the crocodile as their