Culture Southern New Ireland
Title Figure
Date Late 19th–early 20th century
Medium Chalk with traces of pigment
Dimensions Object: 16 5/8 × 4 5/16 × 3 15/16 in. (42.2 × 11 × 10 cm)
Overall (includes mount): 17 5/8 × 4 5/8 × 3 15/16 in. (44.8 × 11.7 × 10 cm)
Credit Line Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 62.67
About this Work
After the conversion of the peoples of southern New Ireland to Christianity, the practice of chalk figures came to a quick end. The last figures to be made are thought to have been created around 1910.
Before the early twentieth century when a man or woman from a prosperous family passed away, a male relative would travel to obtain a chalk figure to commemorate the dead. These figures were sometimes commissioned, but sometimes premade figures were purchased, always with the sex of the figure matching the sex of the deceased.
Once the male relative returned home the figure would be presented to the local leader who was in charge of such images and placed with other figures in a memorial shrine. This shrine, located within an enclosure, was only to be viewed by men, though women often gathered outside to mourn the deceased.
These figures were extremely important, as it was believed that the spirit of the dead might enter and use the chalk figure as a temporary dwelling place. At the end of the funerary celebrations, the figure was destroyed so that the spirit would know to move on to the after-life.
