Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Like other peoples of the Papuan Gulf, traditional Kerewa spiritual practices involved the display of the skulls of enemies as a way of honoring spirits believed responsible for maintaining the prosperity of a community. Until the early twentieth century, skulls were displayed in a communal men’s house, where each clan had both a sleeping area for its members as well as a clan shrine. At least one agiba formed each shrine’s focus; skulls, mostly of enemies, but also possibly those of some important ancestors, were hung by rattan loops to the hook-like projections that rise from the bottom of the rack.

This example is characteristic in form, consisting of an anthropomorphic figure with a large head and arms that surround a small body, with the hooks between them. As is typical of the art of the Papuan Gulf, color and patterning dominate the surface, rather than three-dimensional sculptural effects.