Papua New Guinea

Antique 1900s Asmat Primitive Male Fertility Carved Figure Papua New Guinea 71cm

Antique 1900s Asmat Primitive Male Fertility Carved Figure Papua New Guinea 71cm
Antique 1900s Asmat Primitive Male Fertility Carved Figure Papua New Guinea 71cm
Antique 1900s Asmat Primitive Male Fertility Carved Figure Papua New Guinea 71cm
Antique 1900s Asmat Primitive Male Fertility Carved Figure Papua New Guinea 71cm
Antique 1900s Asmat Primitive Male Fertility Carved Figure Papua New Guinea 71cm
Antique 1900s Asmat Primitive Male Fertility Carved Figure Papua New Guinea 71cm
Antique 1900s Asmat Primitive Male Fertility Carved Figure Papua New Guinea 71cm
Antique 1900s Asmat Primitive Male Fertility Carved Figure Papua New Guinea 71cm

Antique 1900s Asmat Primitive Male Fertility Carved Figure Papua New Guinea 71cm

Asmat Primitive Male Fertility Hand Carved Wood Figure. Region: S/W Papua New Guinea. Height: 71cm / 28 inches. Width: 15cm / 6 inches.

Depth: 9cm / 3.5 inches. This rare style Asmat Male ancestor figure is standing with legs slightly apart, and carved from a single piece of soft wood with traces of Lime, red ochre, charcoal. The figures are always made of soft wood so they can begin to rot as soon as possible after a traditional festival ends - as to suspend their supernatural powers. Located in South Western New Guinea, the Asmat live along the vast system of rivers that flow into the Arafura Sea.

With an estimated population of 70,000, the Asmat are divided into several hundred villages ranging in size from 35 to 2,000 inhabitants. There are reports that the Asmat continued to practice cannibalism into the 1990s, Catholic missionaries condemned headhunting upon setting up a post in the region in the early 1950s, gaining steady success in persuading the Asmat people to abandon human skull worship.

To the Asmat peoples, the human body is equated metaphysically with a tree: the legs and feet are the roots, the torso the trunk, the arms and hands the branches, and the head the fruit. In some origin traditions, humanity was born from wood figures carved by a primordial being named Fumeripits. Fumeripits built the first men's ceremonial house, but he grew lonesome living alone, so he cut down trees and carved them into human figures for company. The lifeless figures did not relieve his loneliness, so he made a drum.

As he drummed, the figures slowly came to life, becoming the first Asmat. Almost all human images in Asmat art depict recent ancestors, whose names they bear. Standing ancestor figures such as this one were created in some areas for ceremonies celebrating the inauguration of a new men's ceremonial house. During the rites, performers re-enacted the origin of humanity, dancing with intentional awkwardness to simulate the movements of the first humans as they were gradually brought to life by Fumeripits's drumming.


Antique 1900s Asmat Primitive Male Fertility Carved Figure Papua New Guinea 71cm