Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

A common misconception is that the peoples of the South Pacific were isolated from all those outside their immediate communities until the arrival of European explorers. While many of these communities are remote, trade and relations between communities existed long before the first European traveled through the Pacific Ocean.

This container, shown upside-down so that the totemic animal is clear, contains designs related to the Chambri peoples but was collected among the Iatmul. It was not unusual for lime containers, and other objects to be traded from the Chambri to the Iatmul peoples.

Without better records, it is not possible to fully understand the history of this object. There are a few options that are clear: this object could have been made by the Chambri for their own use but also traded to the Iatmul, it could have been made by Chambri explicitly for trade to the Iatmul, or it may have been created by an Iatmul artist who was inspired by motifs they had seen on other Chambri objects with which they came into contact.